Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's popularity and the public's concerns with WorkChoices handed Labor last year's election, according to a new study.
The latest Trends in Australian Political Opinion, which tracks voter sentiment since the 1980s, was issued yesterday.
Co-author and ANU political science professor Ian McAllister said ''Kevin 07'' was so popular there was little the Coalition could have done to hold power and the oft-speculated hand-over from John Howard to Peter Costello could have made Labor's win even greater.
''Kevin Rudd was by far the most popular leader in the election, even surpassing Bob Hawke in 1987. Peter Costello was the least popular of the major party figures, well behind Bob Brown. The survey suggests that all things being equal, replacing Howard with Costello before the election would not have saved the Liberals from defeat,'' he said.
Mr Rudd was the most popular major party leader since this poll began in 1987. His ranking of 6.31 was just ahead of Mr Hawke's 6.2 in 1987 and Kim Beazley's 6.1 in 1998. Mr Howard came in at 5.1, well behind his highs of 5.7 in 2004 and 1996.
The results show WorkChoices, and the union campaign against it, particularly helped elect Labor, while the Coalition's suggestions unions would dominate Labor did little to hurt it.
Australians' fears that unions have too much power have been steadily dropping for the past 30 years to the point only 37per cent felt that was the case. Conversely, 69per cent thought big business had too much power.
There was a sharp increase in interest in industrial relations, which went from the least important economic issue (2per cent) to the most important (16per cent).
Labor went from being well behind on the issue (the Coalition was preferred party 37per cent to 27per cent in 2004) to a long way in front, with 52per cent approving its policies compared with 32per cent for the Coalition.
Labor also markedly extended its leads on education (from a 44-35per cent lead to a 58-21per cent lead), health (44-37per cent to 48-25per cent), and the environment (35-28per cent to 56-19per cent), and narrowed the Coalition's lead on taxation, defence and terrorism.
Although policy issues remained voters' main consideration in deciding who to support, fewer than one in three thought there was a ''good deal of difference between the parties''.
The results also showed more people made up their mind who they were supporting before the campaign. Only 23per cent made the decision after the election was called down from 32per cent at the previous election and 55per cent said they chose who to support ''a long time ago'', up from 47per cent.
Labor was helped by the electorate continuing its shift from slightly to the right towards the centre, after a brief move back to the right in 2004.
It was also boosted by the majority of preferences flowing back to Labor, which recorded the largest disparity since 1996 with 47per cent of minor party votes ending up with its candidates in the House of Representatives and 45per cent in the Senate.
The Coalition received 34 and 32per cent respectively, with the rest of respondents unsure where their votes ended up.
The trend towards favouring more spending on social services as opposed to tax cuts continued. Almost half preferred the money to be spent, compared with about one in three who wanted it back. They were about even on 37 and 36per cent respectively in 2004.