Morrison?s approval dives over vaccine rollout, grants and Brittany Higgins fallout, poll suggests

Voter approval of Scott Morrison has dived 19 points in a year as voters marked down the prime minister for vaccine bungles, sustained controversy over the allocation of taxpayer funded grants, and the extended furore over parliament's #MeToo reckoning.

A year of Guardian Essential data reveals the high-water mark of Morrison's voter approval was in February, when 65% of survey respondents said they approved of his performance, and 28% said they disapproved.

But in the final poll of 2021, only 46% of respondents say they approve of the prime minister's performance, while 44% disapprove. The last survey of the year has 1,095 respondents.

With the federal election now in sight, Morrison remains comfortably ahead of the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, on Guardian Essential's better prime minister measure.

In the new poll, 42% of respondents say they prefer Morrison to Albanese, 31% say they prefer the Labor leader, and 27% of respondents don't know who they prefer.

But Morrison's standing on the better prime minister metric is now 10 points lower than it was at the start of 2021. Back in February, Morrison led Albanese as "better prime minister" by 52% to 24%.

While the prime minister has lost standing with the public, approval and disapproval of the opposition leader has been steady throughout 2021.