Only half the Coalition's voters believe it is the best to handle climate change, as the Morrison government struggles to manage a damaging split over the Adani mine and shift the focus back to Labor's energy policies.
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As the government ramps up pressure on the opposition over the environment and electric cars, it has also asked bureaucrats to model the economic impact of Labor's climate change agenda and plans to run hard against the proposals once the analysis is done.
But an Ipsos poll taken last week - after Labor released its climate policy on Monday - shows voters have firmed in their view that Labor is better than the Coalition on climate change, with 42 per cent saying the opposition had the superior policy of the two major parties.
Only 25 per cent felt the Coalition's climate policy was preferable - a decrease of 12 percentage points from when the question was asked in 2012. A substantial 34 per cent said they did not know - an increase of 11 points.
Among Coalition supporters, 51 per cent said the Coalition had the best policy on climate change, while 33 per cent said they didn't know and 16 per cent said Labor was preferable.
Climate and the environment have returned to the fore as Prime Minister Scott Morrison prepares to call an election, with Labor wheeling out its energy policy and the government exposed to internal divisions over the final ministerial approvals for the Adani coal mine.
Queensland Liberal National MPs and candidates are agitating for Environment Minister Melissa Price to rubber stamp the process quickly while they work to defend vulnerable Coalition seats up north, but Liberals in capital cities are urging a delay to avoid the issue blowing up just as the campaign begins.
Cabinet sources indicated they did not want to "elevate" Adani in the national mindset, nor risk any decision being challenged in the courts because it had been rushed.
The plan awaiting approval from the minister relates to groundwater management, and has already been ticked off by the environment department.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg - the former environment minister whose Melbourne seat of Kooyong is vulnerable to challengers campaigning on climate change - gave no indication as to whether there would be a decision before the government went into caretaker mode.
"We're going through a statutory process by the minister responsible," he told the ABC's Insiders program on Sunday. A spokesman for Ms Price said: "There is a process in place and we are following that process."
In the knife-edge Townsville seat of Herbert, LNP candidate Phillip Thompson said it was a "no-brainer" that voters in the electorate wanted the mine to start "as soon as possible".
He said he would not get into a debate with Liberal MPs from Victoria or elsewhere "but I can firmly tell you ... I will fight tooth and nail for the project to get up and running".
The Coalition also ramped its attack on Labor's plans for electric cars to account for 50 per cent of new vehicle sales by 2030, including Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's claim that the cars can be charged in eight to 10 minutes.
Mr Morrison dubbed it a "birthday cake moment" for Mr Shorten - a reference to former Liberal leader John Hewson's confusion over the cost effect of the GST on a birthday cake.
In fact, engineers have unveiled technologies which can fully charge modern electric cars in just 15 minutes - or provide enough power within three minutes to travel 100 kilometres.
Mr Shorten said the government was running "another scare campaign" and referred to an opinion piece Mr Frydenberg wrote last year in which the now-treasurer spruiked electric vehicles and their "economic dividend" for consumers.
The Ipsos phone poll of 1200 voters found Labor supporters were much more likely to back their party's climate policy than Coalition supporters: 72 per cent of Labor voters said their party had the best policy, while 5 per cent backed the Coalition and 23 per cent didn't know.
