Economic contractions in recent months, controversial tax proposals and a rebuff from the Australian High Court on her government's immigration policy proved damaging on the popularity of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, whose support from the public steadily dwindled according to a latest newspaper poll.

As reported by The Australian on Tuesday, Ms Gillard faces the spectre of an electoral defeat as the publication's Newspoll showed that as many as 59 percent of voters would support the conservative Coalition led by Liberal Party chief Tony Abbott.

Ms Gillard's Labour Party only garnered 41 percent approval and the Prime Minister herself was cut down by Australian voters, who the survey said would go for Abbot on the strength of the Opposition Leader's 43 percent approval rating as against the Labour leader's 34 percent.

The numbers indicated that as Abbott gained four percent on his approval rating, Ms Gillard shed the same amount of support and even within her party, Australians appear to gravitate towards the man she deposed last year, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who won 57 percent approval as the next political leader of the nation.

Ms Gillard's numbers were dismally languishing at 24 percent, only a notch higher on her satisfaction rating that Newspoll said plunged by six points to 23 percent, with her net approval rating now only at -45 percent following a dissatisfaction rate of 68 percent.

On the other hand, the Prime Minister's nearest rival outside the Labour Party, Abbott, now enjoys satisfaction figures of 39 percent though his net approval stood only at -13 percent, with a significant 52 percent of Australians still unable to trust his brand of leadership.

The sliding indicators, however, seemed unsettling to Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan, who also acts as Ms Gillard's number two.

In an interview with ABC Radio, Swan expressed confidence that the Prime Minister will not be distracted by the survey as he insisted that "she is up for the job because she understands the importance of these very significant reforms in the national interest of this country."

"She is a leader that's got the party's support 100 percent," Swan declared, who also described her boss 'as tough as nail' who will recover from the short-term setbacks that her government is facing.

Also, Finance Minister Penny Wong called the survey results as natural reaction on recent national events that temporarily offset the Prime Minister's stature but she asserted that "what we have in Prime Minister Gillard is a person who is both decent and tough."

The Newspoll result was published as speculations were ripe on the possibility that Mr Rudd would make a return on the post he had to give up last year, a likelihood that political watchers said would be strongly supported by his present poll numbers and a track record that speaks well on his political and fiscal skills.