Australia’s ruling Labor Party makes lemonade out of poor showing in the polls

It's not often that a government found to be trailing its opposition in an opinion poll celebrates the results.

But Australia's Labor Party — which would easily lose government if an election were held tomorrow — is evidently making lemonade from lemons with the latest Newspoll.

The oft-quoted poll shows Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her minority government at their highest standing in six months.

It also shows Gillard's personal approval rating rising slightly to 36 percent, ahead of the conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott, whose approval rating has dropped to a two-year low at 33 percent.

And Gillard remains the preferred prime minister, 43 points to 36, according to Australia's ABC News.

However, the opposition coalition of center right parties — led by Abbott's Liberal Party — maintains a big lead over Labor on a two-party preferred basis, 54 percent to 46 percent.

Meaning that if all the votes cast at tomorrow's imaginary election were added up, and preferences from losing candidates distributed, the coalition would romp home.

Despite this (presumably) sobering fact, Labor has been upbeat about their prospects, with Defense Minister, Labor's Stephen Smith, reportedly warning commentators not to write off a government with two years left in its terms.   

"I would rather be us than them," Smith put it, succinctly.