Scott Morrison’s $320 billion tax cut plan is paying early dividends with the Coalition narrowing Labor’s lead to just 52 per cent.

As the Prime Minister prepares to call a May 18 election next weekend, Newspoll has found the budget has lifted the Coalition’s stocks to within striking distance at 52:48 on a two-party preferred basis.

Labor was in front 54 to 46 per cent in the last poll, a lead that was cut after the April 2 budget.

According to The Australian, voters also hailed Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s budget as the best in a decade, with Scott Morrison also improving his personal approval rating as Prime Minister to 46 per cent.

It is extremely rare for federal budgets to deliver an opinion poll bounce outside the margin of error, although it did occur in 1999 and 2009.

Meanwhile, the IPSOS poll published on Sunday in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age finds that Mr Morrison is on track to lose a dozens seats and suffer a 3 per cent swing against the government.

It finds a two-party preferred vote of 53:47, which marks a turnaround since February when hopes were raised of a political revival after the government’s shaved Labor’s lead to just 51:49.

According to that poll, however, Mr Morrison remains the preferred Prime Minister compared to Bill Shorten, leading by 46 to 35 per cent.

As budget bounces go 2 per cent for Morrison Government is modest, it was double that in 2000 & 2009. Last 2 per cent bounce was in 2010. But then Rudd-Gillard leadership change and election followed. pic.twitter.com/Z91XEIS0oa

— Samantha Maiden (@samanthamaiden) April 7, 2019

PM DEFENDS ELECTION DELAY

Speaking on Sunday, the Prime Minister firmly rejected Labor’s claim that he was “playing games” with the election date after he failed to call a May 11 polling day at the weekend.

“There have always been three dates, the 11th, the 18th and 25th and I made no secret about that,” Mr Morrison said.

“I noticed Bill Shorten’s frustration yesterday, but you know, that impatience is born of arrogance. He believes that he should’ve just had this election already and he believes he’s already won it. I think he’s assuming of the Australian people their support.

“Bill can be as frustrated and anxious and grumpy as he likes. But you know, we’re running to the plan that we’ve set as a government and we’re looking forward to the weeks ahead. It won’t be before too long that obviously we’ll go to the polls.”

PM DEFENDS $600,000-A-DAY TAXPAYER ADS SPEND

Mr Morrison also defended the government’s decision to delay the election and continue expenditure on taxpayer-funded ads.

Labor says the cost is running at $600,000 a day.

“I’m also not going to take lectures from the Labor Party that completely defied every single convention that has been known to Australian elections, when they ran taxpayer-funded ads during the 2013 caretaker period,” Mr Morrison said.

“So Labor, honestly they can lecture nobody about anything, Labor are about lies and higher taxes.”

TREASURER DEFENDS OPEN AND SHUT PLAN FOR CHRISTMAS ISLAND

Earlier, Mr Frydenberg defended the decision to re-open the mothballed Christmas Island detention centre last year before promptly announcing in the May budget that it would close.

The opening and shutting of the detention centre will cost taxpayers $185 million.

“You could see it on the other way,” he told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.

“Which is the so-called emergency that everybody else was talking about hadn’t eventuated because what we’ve done by reopening Christmas Island is send a deterrent to people who would try to game the system.”

Later on Sunday Mr Morrison said the resurrected facility, which has not taken in a single refugee since reopening six weeks ago, was doing its job as a “deterrent”.

BILL SHORTEN’S PLAN TO “END THE WEEKEND”

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has accused Bill Shorten of plotting to “end the weekend” with his target that 50 per cent of new vehicles will be electric by 2030.

“Bill Shorten wants to end the weekend when it comes to his policy on electric vehicles where you’ve got Australians who love being out there in their four-wheel drives,” Mr Morrison said.

“He wants to say see you later to the SUV when it comes to the choices of Australians.”

However, Mr Shorten’s plan secured the endorsement of the former-prime minister’s wife, Lucy Turnbull AO over the weekend.

After Mr Shorten was mocked for suggesting electric cars could be recharged in “eight minutes”, Mrs Turnbull offered a cheeky observation on Twitter that it was “very exciting” to learn the world’s fastest charger for electric vehicles was on track to meet the target.

On Sunday she doubled down, noting it was “so exciting that there is an Australian technology company leading the super-fast battery charging space”.

Innovation is mostly a process of continuous improvement with EVs as well as everything else — EVs important for better air quality especially in western Sydney: Fastest Electric Car Chargers Are Waiting for Batteries to Catch Up 👇👇 https://t.co/dmat7DBr3O

— Lucy Turnbull AO (@LucyTurnbull_AO) April 7, 2019