They certainly should be of concern for Tasmania’s federal Liberals, who suffered the loss of all three sitting MHRs at the election last year. An even further margin will only further damage their chances of winning back those seats in three years’ time.

Monday’s poll results showed Bill Shorten’s Labor leading the Coalition 37 to 34 per cent in primary votes.

On a two-party preferred basis, Labor’s lead is even stronger, 55 to 45.

And, the number of people dissatisfied with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s performance has jumped from 54 per cent to 59 per cent.

The biggest winner, according to the Newspoll results, was Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party, which now enjoys parity with the Greens at a national level with 10 per cent support.

Mr Turnbull was quick to point the finger solely at his former boss Tony Abbott, who came out last week quite openly in the media against his leader in an extraordinary attack.

The PM described Mr Abbott’s comments as a “calculated” and “deliberate”.

The rift that exists between Mr Turnbull and Mr Abbott is rather gaping and sore.

However, for Mr Turnbull to blame Mr Abbott for the Coalition’s poor showing in the latest opinion poll serves as a great disservice to the general public.

He’s obviously content to brush aside a number of damaging issues that the public are now voicing their opinion against.

The ongoing political entitlement row severely damaged the government’s reputation.

There were cuts to family benefits and new rules around pensions, which included cuts for hundreds of thousands of Australians.

Just a week ago, the Fair Work Commission cut Sunday penalty rates for millions of workers. To say that wasn’t well received would be a gross understatement.

And then there was Centrelink debt issue – which continues to fester as thousands of low income earners are forced to pay back claims of overpaid entitlements.

All of these issues have compounded upon a government that should be looking to the voting public rather than being concerned about petty internal squabbles and political posturing.