The Turnbull-led government has scored its strongest Newspoll result in two years.

Of the two major parties, the Coalition was most preferred on 52 per cent to Labor’s 48, an increase of two points for the government in a fortnight, The Australian reported on Tuesday.

• Powerful earthquake rocks South Asia
• Morrison’s false start on returning mums to work

Malcolm Turnbull also extended his massive lead over Bill Shorten as preferred prime minister, closing in on the highs of Kevin Rudd, John Howard and Bob Hawke.

Mr Turnbull was preferred by 63 per cent of respondents compared to 17 per cent for Mr Shorten. This was a 24-point plunge for the Labor leader, making it his worst-ever Newspoll result.

The highest preferred PM scores ever recorded by Newspoll were 73 per cent for Rudd, 67 for Howard and 62 for Hawke.

The Coalition’s primary vote was 45 per cent, an increase of six points since Turnbull replaced Abbott last month. Labor trailed 10 points behind on 35 per cent.

The poll of 1606 voters had a margin of error of 3 per cent.

—with agencies