ANTHONY Albanese and Peter Dutton are struggling to attract a majority of voters to back them as the preferred leader of the respective parties, according to Newspoll.

The latest survey for The Australian showed only 28 percent of voters nominated Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton as their preferred leaders of their respective Labor and coalition parties, ahead of five other chosen candidates.

For Labor, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek was backed by thirteen percent of voters while former leader Bill Shorten was the third pick among voters with ten percent support averaged across all demographics.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers enjoyed only eight percent support.

For the coalition, opposition Indigenous affairs spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was the next most favoured behind Mr Dutton on fourteen percent followed by deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley at six percent.

The poll showed the coalition’s primary vote lifted two points to 38 percent while Labor’s also rose a point to 33 percent during a difficult fortnight for the government, which included the defection of Senator Fatima Payman to the crossbenches over her support of a Palestinian state.

Support for the Greens remained unchanged at thirteen percent while backing for those in the “others” category – minority parties and ­independents – dipped two points to ten percent.

The survey showed One Nation was down one point to six percent.

On a two-party-preferred basis, Labor continues to lead the coalition by 51 percent to 49 percent – unchanged from the previous poll.

The Newspoll was conducted ­between July 15 and July 19 and interviewed 1258 voters throughout Australia.