How to influence the opinion polls, a user’s guide:

1. get on the nose with the Australian electorate

2. create a sense of profound leadership uncertainty through your own pig-headed insistence in your own infallibility

3. refuse to be moved, even when loyal lieutenants suggest you might like to look at moving on

4. insist that your very presence is an electoral asset, even when polling suggests that you are the problem

5. throw the situation back in the face of your party, make them put up or shut up.

Then stand back and watch as the polls that got you into this deathly pickle take another dive toward the floor. Brilliant really.