CANBERRA, Australia - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he needs to work hard to retain power at elections this year after an opinion poll on Monday showed his Labor Party trailing the conservative opposition for the first time in more than four years.

The collapse in support follows a number of policy backflips by Rudd including the shelving of plans to charge major polluters for the amount of carbon gas they emit and the cancellation of a bungled program to provide free ceiling insulation following four deaths and scores of house fires.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott's coalition had 53 percent of voters' support while Labor had 47 percent, the Nielsen poll published in The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper found.