The Albanese government must work harder to highlight its achievements after a poll showing it trailing the Coalition for the first time since the 2022 election, Workplace Minister Murray Watt says.

The latest Newspoll published on Monday in The Australian showed the Coalition ahead of Labor 51-49 on a two-party preferred basis.

Although the result remains within the poll’s margin of error, it is the first time the opposition has hit the lead in Newspoll since the 2022 federal election.

Despite the shift in the two-party preferred result, primary votes remain the same, with the Coalition on 38 per cent and Labor on 31 per cent.

On the results, the Coalition would still not win enough seats for form government.

Rather, a minority Labor government is the more likely outcome.

Polling analyst Kevin Bonham said Labor is in better shape than many other first-term governments months out from polling day.

“Governments usually lose polls faster than this. Kevin Rudd and Anthony Albanese are the two longest lasting governments [before they lost a Newspoll],” he said.

“The poll is very similar to some of the previous Newspolls, and it’s a probably a matter of rounding that the government has slipped to the point where they lost this one.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese remains preferred prime minister over Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, with the incumbent ahead 45 to 37 per cent.

Watt said the government wasn’t worried by the latest Newspoll, but conceded Labor had work to do in the months before the looming election.

“We need to work that little bit harder to explain what we are doing to assist people with those cost-of-living pressures and the risk that we face if Peter Dutton and the Coalition win the next election,” he told ABC radio on Monday.

“All incumbent governments across the world, and across Australia, are finding it difficult at the moment because people are finding it tough and they’re looking to their governments for action.”

The Newspoll result came as Australia marked a year since the failed Indigenous Voice referendum.

Watt said the government made the right decision to push on with the referendum, despite polling pointing to its defeat.

“This was a proposal about enshrining rights of First Nations people in our constitution and we didn’t think it was appropriate to ignore their wishes, either at the beginning of the campaign or as the campaign went on,” he said.

“This is going to be a pretty painful day for First Nations Australians. There were a lot of hopes invested in the Voice to Parliament proposal.”

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce said the latest Newspoll was indicative of growing negative sentiment about the Albanese government.

“The biggest issue is trend. The trend’s been down all the way along,” he told Seven’s Sunrise program.

“Mr Albanese is giving this a red-hot go to be a one-term government. He really has just lost his connection with the people.”

Albanese’s personal approval rating fell three points to 40 per cent, while 54 per cent disapprove.

Dutton’s approval was up one point to 38 per cent, while his disapproval levels stayed at 52 per cent.

Albanese remained the more popular prime minister in the poll, but Joyce said that wasn’t a concern.

“The prime minister will always lead the leader of the opposition. It’s because he has the mantle, the prime minister has the biggest microphone and it will always be there,” he said.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek insisted there was no reason for concern within the government.

“We’re not focused on the polls because what we’re focused on is cost of living for ordinary Australians,” she told Sunrise.

“What I would say is, as an election approaches, people remember what it was like to have a Liberal government.”

-with AAP