PM shrugs off poll as AWU pledges support Prime Minister Julia Gillard has shrugged off signs more voters are abandoning the Labor government, even though one of her key supporters has warned it's a wake-up call. Ms Gillard instead tried to return the focus to a $1 billion federal government plan to boost jobs and industry announced at the weekend. The three-part proposal involves legislating so local suppliers get the chance to secure work on major projects, while also encouraging the establishment of innovation precincts. Welcomed by unions and some of the business groups the government consulted, the plan was overshadowed by an opinion poll showing Opposition Leader Tony Abbott had drawn ahead of Ms Gillard as preferred prime minister. "It's a wake-up call ... you can't gild the lily," cabinet minister and Gillard supporter Simon Crean said of the poll. Mr Crean's colleagues Craig Emerson and Stephen Conroy called on jittery Labor MPs to stop criticising the government, saying the Australian people wanted policies, not internal diversions. Ms Gillard repeatedly declined to comment on the Nielsen poll, which also showed the coalition had stretched its two-party lead over Labor by 10 points to 55 per cent with just seven months to go until the September 14 election. "I just let that wash through and I focus on what I need to do as prime minister," she told Seven Network. The prime minister received a boost from the Australian Workers' Union (AWU), when national secretary Paul Howes pledged the support of the nation's biggest blue-collar labour organisation. "We back the prime minister 110 per cent and she will always have our support," Mr Howes told reporters at the union's national conference on the Gold Coast. He had earlier told delegates Ms Gillard was "street tough" and would stand up to billionaires. "We support her because we want someone leading this nation who's prepared to make the tough calls, the hard decisions, to cop the flack," he said. The union's backing is crucial to her survival against any push by Kevin Rudd supporters to reinstate the former Leader, whose lowest ebb in the opinion polls before he was dumped in 2010 has been surpassed by Ms Gillard. Ms Gillard's support in caucus depends on the right wing, led by ministers like Bill Shorten and Senator Conroy and influenced by the AWU. As the prime minister did the rounds on Monday to promote the government's industry and innovation plan, a leading business lobby group said it appeared to have been designed with unions in mind. Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) chief economist Greg Evans also took issue with the fact that the plan will be paid for by cuts to research and development (R&D) tax incentives for big business. "It's not surprising in the lead-up to an election that perhaps this policy has ... had more input from the union movement than the business sector," he told reporters in Canberra. Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey said the plan created uncertainty for business. "You can't regulate your way to prosperity, and Labor doesn't understand that," he told reporters on the NSW central coast.