Whyalla was a broken down old steel town facing an uncertain future before billionaire industrialist Sanjeev Gupta unveiled his grand plans for investment.
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison is hoping for a Sanjeev Gupta-type situation of his own as he looks over the final Newspoll for 2018.
It has the coalition trailing Labor on a two-party preferred basis while Labor leader Bill Shorten has narrowed the gap as preferred leader.
For the third consecutive poll Labor leads the Liberal-National coalition 55-to-45 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.
"I'll take Whyalla as my inspiration," Mr Morrison told reporters in South Australia on Monday.
"I've got a keen interest in comebacks, I've got a keen interest in the turn-around story we're seeing here in South Australia."
Mr Shorten gained two points to 36 per cent as preferred prime minister while Mr Morrison dropped two points to 44 per cent, according to the poll published in The Australian on Monday.
"I don't comment about the polls, but I think you should ask Mr Morrison and his Liberal team what they think about them," Mr Shorten told reporters.
The Labor leader used his speech at the same event in Whyalla to talk about how a future Labor government will protect jobs and manage the economy through "co-operation not conflict".
"We dig it up here, we manufacture it here, and we keep the profits and jobs where they belong at home," Mr Shorten told the crowd.
But Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton believes the coalition can turn it around.
"People have a real hesitation about Bill Shorten. They think there is something dodgy in his background and that is the case," Mr Dutton told Sky News.
"I think people will start to second guess whether or not they want Bill Shorten as prime minister of this country and I do believe that we can come back in the 2019 election in May."
In a thinly veiled swipe at Malcolm Turnbull, Mr Dutton backed Mr Morrison to mount a stronger campaign than his predecessor.
"I think he will campaign in a way far more superior than we saw at the last election in 2016," Mr Dutton said.
The coalition's primary vote is up one to 35 per cent, with Labor's primary also up a point to 41 per cent.
One Nation ended the year with a primary vote of seven per cent - one point down on the previous Newspoll.
The Greens remained unchanged on nine per cent.
Australian Associated Press
