A Fairfax poll has the ALP and Coalition all level at 50 per cent on 2PP. I’m not getting too carried away but it is definitely another sign of a trend away from the ALP:

An exclusive Sun-Herald/Taverner poll shows Labor is now level-pegging with the Coalition.

On a two-party preferred basis, both sides have 50 per cent of the vote – a drop of almost 3 percentage points on Labor’s election-winning 52.7 per cent in 2007.

I might get carried away if Newspoll comes back with a similar result. Rudd is still ahead of Abbott by 13 points on preferred PM, so there is still some work to do. Imagine if the ALP loses with Rudd’s popularity. I can’t see anyone within the ALP at this point with the power to emulate Rudd’s appeal. So Rudd will be safe for a while, probably even if the ALP loses the next election.