Weekend surveys from Newspoll reported that voters continue to leave the Australian Labor Party as votes dropped to below 30 per cent. There was also a one point decrease with votes for the Coalition but the party still leads the poll with 48 per cent of the votes. The Coalition was still ahead of the Labor party by 57 to 43 per cent.

As for Tony Abbott versus Julia Gillard, Mr. Abbott is 45 per cent preferred prime minister over Ms. Gillard's 43 per cent.

The poll's margin of error was 3 per cent.

The recent survey was again taken against PM Gillard. Consequently, hearsays claimed that senior MPs and other political personalities were already withdrawing their support from PM Gillard. Kevin Rudd continued to emerge in the picture as rumors on possible changed in leadership became stronger.

In an interview with ABC News, Trade Minister Craig Emerson, said that if the leadership issues continued to echo in the coming weeks, the Australian Labor Party is left with no chance for winning the coming elections.

"Mr. Rudd has said there are no circumstances in which he would return to the leadership. He should stick to his word on that. This matter should have settled a long time ago, so let's get on, unite. We cannot possibly be competitive in a federl election as we move towards a federal election if we are not united" Mr. Emerson said.

Climate Change Minister Greg Combet was singing the same tune. In an interview with RN Breakfast, Mr. Combet said, "we certainly can't have this go on... it is just got to be resolved. We can't have this kind of speculation continuing on through the election. Kevin Rudd has to decide if he is a candidate or not and do something about it."

As for some major MPs, sources say that as much as they do not actively encourage Mr. Rudd to run for the election, they believe that the Australian Labor Party will be hopeless in the hands of Ms. Gillard.

The leadership issue within the Labor party had set its members divided.

Labor MPs had collectively accused MP Greg Combet of maintaining a double façade. Meaning, Mr. Combet will support Mr. Rudd if in any case he will run but at present he continued to announce publicly that his support stayed with Ms. Gillard.

In an interview with Sunday Mail, one Labor MP said that "What Combet wants is a leadership change on the cheap as fence sitter. The problem with Greg Combet's double dealing is he is actually being more disreputable than Bill Shorten. The Combet Startegy is to try and force Rudd into a challenge so he can play the cleanskin."

As if these were not all enough for PM Gillard, on weekend, The Age editorial, blatantly called on the Prime Minister to resign from her post.

According to The Age, Ms. Gillard should step down for the interests of her party, the nation and for democracy.

"The Ages' overriding concern is that under Ms. Gillard's leadership, the Labor Party's message about its future policies and vision for Australia is not getting through to the electorate. Our fear is that if there is no chance in Labor leadership before the September 14 election, voters will be denied a proper contest of ideas and policies - and that would be a travesty for the democratic process."