Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has sought to downplay recent polls showing Labor enjoying an extended post-election honeymoon.

A Resolve Strategic poll published in Nine newspapers on Tuesday shows Labor has lifted its primary vote to 42 per cent, from about 33 per cent ahead of the May 21 election.

Anthony Albanese is leading Opposition Leader Peter Dutton on the preferred prime minister stakes by 55 per cent to 17 per cent.

“It’s not uncommon for a new government to enjoy a honeymoon period where voters are hopeful for change under the new management,” Resolve director Jim Reed told Nine newspapers.

“But the size of Labor’s vote gain is more than that. This is a relieved electorate affirming they collectively made the right choice.”

Mr Marles said that while the poll was welcome news, the government was more concerned with other issues.

“We are very focused on the task of government,” he told the Seven network on Tuesday.

“We’ve been asked polling questions a lot, and before the last election we said we were focused on the election, and now we are very much focused on governing,” he said.

“Polls take care of themselves.”

The poll of 2011 voters was conducted from Wednesday to Sunday, when the furore over revelations former prime minister Scott Morrison had himself secretly sworn-in to five ministerial portfolios was hitting the headlines.

Coalition MP and former resources minister Keith Pitt, who labelled the recent controversy surrounding Mr Morrison as a “smokescreen”, said while the poll looked bad for the opposition there was plenty of time before the next election.

“There’s always polls, there’s one every two weeks … I certainly wouldn’t want an election right now,” he told Sky News.

“But when we get to the next one in almost three years’ time, there will be a significant change, and we will be able to see the impact of Labor’s decisions on cost of living – that is the issue at the moment.”

Labor minister Bill Shorten said the poll showed the positivity expressed towards the party at the election was continuing.

“Yeah, it is good. The goodwill continues,” he told Nine’s Today Show.

Television networks were on Tuesday morning airing social media footage of Mr Albanese sculling a beer and being cheered by the audience at a concert at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre on Monday night.

“I get a sense of relief where we go in Australia, so I think you saw an outpouring of that last night,” Mr Shorten said after being shown the clip.

– AAP