Prime Minister Julia Gillard insisted on Tuesday that her acceptance speech was not prepared two weeks before she assumed the post vacated by Kevin Rudd, belying an earlier interview that suggested otherwise.

ABC has reported on a show aired Monday night that Gillard's staff had drafted her victory speech even before she mounted a challenge against the then-Prime Minister Rudd, who was subsequently removed in June 2010 due to his plunging popularity.

Gillard, however, came out on Tuesday clarifying the ABC revelation, which suggested that Rudd's ouster at that time was all but settled two weeks before the Labor leadership decided to move for a leadership ballot.

The prime minister told ABC that she did not instruct her staff to write a draft of her speech.

"I can't specifically say to you when I came to know about the speech, it could have been on the Wednesday night, it could have been before," Gillard said, adding that there was no need for the speech to be prepared in advance.

"I decided to challenge Kevin Rudd and to ask him for a ballot in the Labor Party on the day I asked him for that ballot," she stressed.

The issue broke as Gillard found herself lagging anew behind Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in the latest Newspoll survey The Australian published on Tuesday.

Voters, according to Newspoll, preferred Abbott over Gillard by 40 to 37 percent.

Also in the two-party preferred basis, the Liberal National Party widened its lead over the Australian Labor Party, with Abbott's party now 10 pace ahead of Gillard's at 55 percent.

Labor languished at 45 percent but its primary improved by two points to 32 percent while the Coalition inched up from 45 percent to 46 percent.

A Bloomberg report noted that the odds are stacked against Gillard, currently trapped in the same situation that prodded Labor to junk Rudd almost two years ago when his allure with voters was eroded by his campaign to levy a 40 percent tax on mining firms.

Gillard, however, has dismissed suggestions that the leadership speculations have been taking its toll on her governance, which was highlighted by an earlier poll that showed voters started losing their confidence on the way she handles the economy.

She told ABC that her primary focus is the economy, which is the main reason she agreed to appear on ABC's Four Corners Monday night.

"I was approached by Four Corners for an interview on what was described as the government's progress since 2007 ... and in those circumstances of course I said yes, my job is to answer questions and explain what the government is doing," Gillard said.

Despite the dwindling support for Ms Gillard, as shown by recent poll numbers, Labor strategist Bruce Hawker remains optimistic that the Prime Minister will be able to regain strength if she could win over the public on her economic programs.

"I hope they can turn it around and if they concentrate on the economy and the appalling failure of the opposition to do anything or give any comfort on the economy then they can start to make in roads," Hawker told The Australian.