Australians rank Howard best PM, Abbott worst in national poll

Ousted Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been judged the worst Australian leader of the modern era in a nationwide poll, while his mentor, John Howard, has been chosen as the best.

Almost six months after he was thrown out of Australia's top job following an inner-party revolt, Abbott's tenure as prime minister has not been remembered fondly by the Australian voters.

The survey, the Essential Research poll, asked 1,017 respondents to select who they thought was the best Australian prime minister since 1972.

Only 2 percent chose Abbott (PM from 2013-2015), while Howard (1996-2007)-- the last Liberal Party PM to serve before Abbott -- was firmly entrenched at the other end of the spectrum, scoring 34 percent of the vote.

Australia's second-longest serving prime minister Howard oversaw building of the economy, implementation of Australia's tough gun-control laws and bolstered relations with the United States through his support of the war on terror.

Howard was 21 percent ahead of his nearest rival, former Labor PM Bob Hawke (1983-91), who took out 13 percent of the total vote.

Polarizing political figurehead Gough Whitlam (1972-75), infamous for being the only Australian prime minister in history to be booted out of office by the governor general in his first term, collected 10 percent.

Of the other past prime ministers of the last 44 years, Paul Keating (1991-96) and Kevin Rudd (2007-10) were rated best by 6 percent of people, while Australia's first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard (2010-2013) won 5 percent of support.

Current PM Malcolm Turnbull (3 percent) finished second last, but outscored Abbott even though he has only been in office for six months.