Reuters Poll Trend: 55.8-44.2

The latest Reuters Poll Trend weighted average of Newspoll, Morgan and ACNielsen results has federal Labor with a two-party lead of 55.8-44.2, presumably being weighed down a little by recent results from before the weekend.

UPDATE: Roy Morgan has joined in on the action with a small sample (546) phone poll including questions on leadership approval, which Morgan doesn’t normally do. It finds Malcolm Turnbull’s approval rating down to 25 per cent from 43 per cent in May, with his disapproval up a breathtaking 33.5 per cent to 62.5 per cent. Kevin Rudd’s approval rating on 63 per cent, up from 57.5 per cent in May, with his disapproval rating down from 33.5 per cent to 29 per cent. Labor holds leads of 56-44 on two-party preferred and 46 per cent to 39 per cent on the primary vote, which is actually quite mild by Morgan standards. Newspoll has also published its quarterly geographic and demographic breakdowns of recent polling by state, age, sex, and capitals/non-capitals.

Apart from that:

• Robert Taylor of The West Australian reports that Labor preselections for some highly winnable Liberal-held seats in Perth appear to be ”stitched up”. In the only two seats in the country which the Coalition gained from Labor in 2007, Cowan and Swan, those respectively named are Wanneroo mayor Jon Kelly and Slater & Gordon lawyer Tim Hammond. Kelly is interesting, as he ran as an independent against state Labor MP Margaret Quirk in Girrawheen at the 2005 election after a split in the Right faction. In Stirling, where decorated Iraq war veteran Peter Tinley failed to unseat current Shadow Workplace Relations Minister Michael Keenan in 2007, the nod is apparently set to be given to Karen Brown, former deputy editor of The West Australian and current chief-of-staff to Eric Ripper. Brown famously failed to win the new notionally Labor seat of Mount Lawley at the state election last September after suffering an 8 per cent swing, which many blamed on Alan Carpenter’s insistence that local member Bob Kucera make way for Brown. Peter Tinley is said to be holding out for a safe seat or a Senate position, and the unlikelihood of either suggests he will not be a starter at the next election. In Hasluck, which Sharryn Jackson recovered for Labor in 2007 after a term in the wilderness, Liberals are said by Taylor to be “working behind the scenes” to secure the endorsement of Mike Dean, who last week stepped down from his high-profile position as president of the Police Union.

• The ABC reports that Kathryn Hay will seek Labor preselection for Bass at next year’s state election. Hay is a former Miss Tasmania who became Tasmania’s first Aboriginal MP when elected at the age of 27 in 2002. After surprising everybody by dropping out at the 2006 election, Hay ran as an independent against Ivan Dean in the upper house seat of Windermere in May, and did very well to finish within 5 per cent of victory on the final count. With incumbent Jim Cox retiring, Michelle O’Byrne a sure bet for re-election, and Labor looking certain to win a second seat but very unlikely to pick up a third, the battle for the second seat is looking like a tussle between Hay, Beaconsfield mine disaster survivor Brant Webb, CFMEU forests division secretary Scott McLean (who famously came out in support of John Howard at the 2004 federal election) and Winnaleah school principal Brian Wightman, with only the latter looking an obvious also-ran.

Rick Wallace of The Australian reports that George Seitz, western Melbourne Labor Right potentate and state Keilor MP, proposes to publish a “warts and all” account of his career in politics. Seitz is being forced out after nearly three decades in parliament due to a Victorian Ombudsman’s report which probed into the involvement of various state MPs in goings-on at Brimbank City Council. The aforementioned Wallace article is worth reading for a broader overview of the episode’s far-reaching impact on the Victorian ALP.

Andrew Landeryou at VexNews reports that the closure of nominations has brought no challenges to sitting federal Liberal MPs in Victoria – including Kevin Andrews in Menzies, who was believed to be under threat from former Peter Reith staffer Ian Hanke.

Nick in comments informs us that according to a Channel Nine news report, Labor polling has it trailing the Coalition 57-43 on NSW state voting intention.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

2,238 comments on “Reuters Poll Trend: 55.8-44.2”

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  1. This is pretty grim for the Libs; no matter which poll you prefer it is worse than the last election, which means more seats adn Senate numbers would be lost. Now is the time for the government to push through all relevant legislation in the Senate. They wouldn’t dare risk a DD trigger on these figures.

    I realise that Antony Green and Pos have pointed out any DD trigger would be months away. Even so, is there any estimate or state by state breakdown of where the Senate numbers would change if a DD were triggered between now and christmas?

  2. Glen @ 1611 wrote

    Why should i apologise? You should know us tories never apologise.

    Probably why they’re in power only in WA. As the saying goes, it takes “a big wo/man” to apologise. Failing to apologise always diminishes one in the eyes of those with the decency and guts to do it.

    Interestingly, it takes MalT’s long-time friend Bob Ellis to come up with a handy list of things for which Howard’s Tories should have apologised and didn’t; just in case we’d forgotten some (I’d completely forgotten about Doug Moran), and a few insights into a younger MalT, in case we wanted them. He’s probably blown it

    They wouldn’t be Liberals, I guess, if they thought connectedly. But it’s worth noting how unconnectedly they think.

    They think, for instance, that Wayne Swan should resign his seat for telling the House that John Grant got ‘no special treatment’…

    ….But Philip Ruddock should not resign his seat for telling the House that boat people were ‘terrorists in disguise’. And Kevin Andrews should not resign his seat for telling the House that ‘worrying evidence’ remained that proved Mohamed Haneef should not get his passport back. And Alexander Downer should not have resigned his seat for calling David Hicks ‘a trained killer’ when he has caused less harm in his life thus far than the average Kings Cross bouncer.

    And Peter Reith should not have resigned his seat for saying repeatedly he had clear evidence that children were flung overboard when he knew he hadn’t. And Mark Vaile should not have resigned his seat for telling the House he ‘had no idea’ that two hundred and ninety-eight million dollars went to Saddam Hussein. (Nobody, curiously, has yet resigned over that. Perhaps nobody did it.)

    And John Howard should not have resigned for channelling hundreds of millions to his friend Doug Moran, or trying to, and tens of millions to his brother Stan Howard, and hundreds of million to the Liberal donor Chris Corrigan.

    No, none of these things should have happened but Wayne Swan, who channelled no money at all to his car dealer John Grant, not a penny, not a brass razoo, should resign …

    ….Liberals aren’t good at thinking connectedly, we know that. What is really surprising is that Malcolm Turnbull isn’t either …

    … followed by an interesting list and anecdotes.

    None of this would have been raked up again had the Liberals had enough sense to recall the Howard Government’s cronyism (many would say corruption) and add 1 (demands Rudd & Swann resign over a 2min phonecall, which was all John Grant got) and 1 (the Howard Government’s cronyism and deception) to get The ALP will use televised QT to rake up our own past sins repeatedly if we’re dumb enough to go on a fishing expedition in the hope there’s more to a fake email than a 2min phone call

    Expect to hear a lot of these in Parliamentary QT, all you Tories, unless you and your leaders have the sense to forget Utegate ever happened; but I doubt that, being as unconnected as BobE indicates, they do.

  3. While I don’t wish to trigger too much debate about ALP/Lib reporting bias, I feel that this is evidence of a different bias (pro-Israel) on the ABC news website:

    Amnesty International issued a report stating that Israel used excessive force in civilian areas in the invasion of Gaza, including the use of civilians as human shields:

    SMH: Amnesty Accuses Israel over Gaza
    http://www.smh.com.au/world/amnesty-accuses-israel-over-gaza-20090702-d6jl.html

    Evidently this story isn’t important enough to make the world news at The Australian.

    The ABC headline was “Israel and Hamas deny war crimes”:
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/03/2615563.htm?section=justin

    Yet the story by ABC correspondant Anne Barker doesn’t document any denial of war crimes by Hamas. It puts together an AI report with analysis of Israeli use of human shields with separate descriptions of rocket attacks against Israeli settlements as war crimes. So it sounds like a “he said/she said” story about a report blaming both sides, when the AI report squarely blamed Israeli tactics in the fighting. The casualty toll was 1400 Palestinian vs 13 Israeli, which is hardly indicative of both sides being equally at fault. (Unless you think 100 Palestinian lives are worth one Israeli, which is, well, racism.)

  4. If I have one beef with Kevin Rudd, it has to be his “pussy footing” around China. I really dont know where he stands on the strategy relationships with China. He has given mixed messages all around, ranging from:

    * chummy chummy with the Chinese President during APEC in Mandarin
    * open criticizing China’s human rights records in Beijing, in Mandarin
    * supposedly secret meetings with the Chinese
    * snubbing the Chinese UK Ambassador in a BBC interview
    * being accused of being the chief Ambassador for Chinese interests
    * to “all the way with USA” mantra
    * basically trying to be all things to all people in the China issue

    PJK is right again of course, in term of our strategic position and politics with Asian countries. It’s a pity that we dont have a govt system that can have people like PJK in the Govt executive. PJK should be our FM, Smithy is a big disappointment.

    [Now the great surplus states like China sit at the head table, as do the large demographically young states like India and Brazil. Finally, the world is being remade. From the time of Japan’s accelerating reconstruction in the 1960s and following Deng Xiaoping’s economic revolution in China from the late 1970s, we have been speaking of world power shifting from the West to the East. It has now arrived……….

    So this great state with its profound sense of self and the wherewithal to make a better life for its citizens has eased itself into a major role in world affairs, a role, which I believe, will be an altogether positive one for the world at large. China’s advent will cause adjustments. It will change the relative position of the United States, most particularly, in an economic sense. The greatest strategic powers have invariably been the greatest economic powers…….

    We must always be outgoing. We must be alert, dextrous and positive: never defensive. For these reasons, I found myself at odds with some of the Government’s 2009 Defence White Paper. Recognising that China will be the strongest Asian military power, it discusses “the remote but plausible potential of confrontation” between us and a major power adversary, not suggesting who that power might be.]

    http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/rise-of-china-no-cause-for-alarm-20090702-d6eo.html?page=-1

  5. There has been much talk about the lack of DD triggers at present, but could the government use the bill re electoral reform that bit the dust back in March? The Libs might be tempted to block it again as it does threaten their funding base (eg reducing declarable donation amounts etc). The government should put this up again in August, as it would be a good result either way – it’s actually a pretty good piece of legislation (and so would be good to see pass into law), but if it gets voted down the government has a DD trigger.

    Any thoughts?

  6. Just regarding Imre:

    [While Rudd was attacking News Limited newspapers yesterday about their coverage of the OzCar affair and wastage in the government’s $14.7 billion Building the Education Revolution program…]

    The culmination of a typical OO bootstrapper. “Wastage” is established. They feel they don’t need to argue it, or call it “reports of wastage” or “alleged wastage” anymore.

    How it must have vexed them to give up their one-banner campaign without any help from other papers, or even much from the Coalition as the Utegate business took off. hey were just about to give Rudd the ol’ one-two and the fake email came along, pushing the rest off the front pages. We haven’t seen one article on “wastage” since, but in their minds it is a proven fact.

    Actually, in his speech the other day, Hartigan admitted the bootstrapper was “a campaign” and said that this was why Rudd and Gillard picked on News. It wasn’t in revenge for Utegate, it was a reaction to their “campaign” against “wastage” in the Schools program.

    Nice to know these tired eyes can still see a phoney News beat-up when they try it on.

  7. [I realise that Antony Green and Pos have pointed out any DD trigger would be months away. Even so, is there any estimate or state by state breakdown of where the Senate numbers would change if a DD were triggered between now and christmas?]

    There won’t be an election before Christmas. The earlier one could be called would be around November 18 and given the minimum time required for ‘the campaign’ it’d put it much too close to Christmas. The Government would likely get stung if they interrupted peoples’ holiday/Christmas plans for their own political benefit.

  8. [There has been much talk about the lack of DD triggers at present, but could the government use the bill re electoral reform that bit the dust back in March?]

    I’m pretty sure it was a bill introduced in the Senate. DD triggers require introduction (both times) in the House of Representatives.

  9. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25716139-5014047,00.html

    Christian Kerr chips in with his own brand of forensic fairness. Albeit headlined with a 40pt non-sequitur: “Would this man to buy a used car?”

    How can this joke of a news organisation purport to produce a journal of record, given its naked anti-Rudd bias? How can it hope to be taken seriously in its endless pushing for higher standards of literacy when it makes such gross errors in big, bold typefaces?

  10. Re “grass”, other recreational drugs & anti-drug policies …

    I’ve not used grass because, waay back in the early 60s, at a Luau (?sp) in very smokey Surfers Paradise Pub, it was as if an evil gremlin whacked me across the eyes & nose with a baseball bat; thereafter, my sinuses were a better pot detector than sniffer dogs. That’s early 60s, as in “I then decamped to the Chevron where the Allen Brothers were playing!” Grass wasn’t illegal, probably because it grew wild through then-thick Q bushland. But by the mid 60s, it was illegal, and the first anti-drug (other than nicotine & alcohol) campaigns started. Damned if I could see the sense (other than to save the allergic ones’ reactions) in banning something anyone could grow, tho only if it wasn’t growing wild – which it was in the creek near the local SHS!

    Let me repeat: Anti-(illegal) drug campaigns started in the mid 60s – more than 40 years ago.

    LSD was still legal at the time & prescribed; until The Beatles too it up as did their fans. I remember the year of the first anti-LSD campaign (school lectures), because I was there only in 1967. Again, over 40 years ago The first anti-heroin (school) lectures were about the same time as the first Moon-landing (1969), and Country Party MLAs tried to roll Joh BP … again 40 years ago! By then, I was married, a parent, and my prob with pot & cost of antihistamines needed to go to pop concerts, even restaurants killed any desire to try others. But, brought up on the principle “Mind your own business!” I saw no reason, other than addiction’s horrors, why users couldn’t go to hell in their own hand-baskets, if they so desired.

    More education cried Joh’s mob, the “Christians” and the CM more public campaigns; harsher penalties… as they’ve been crying ever more stridently since, and getting them – for 40 long, loong, looong years and still they’re demanding more of the same.

    What has all the money spent on education & public awareness, all the harsher penalties, the CM etc screaming for action (currently about E in their usual holiday The Drug Surge campaign, actually achieved?

    Far more pervasive use of far wider variety of purchased & home-grown, home-made recreational drugs! And a situation in which most crime, from murder to mother-bashing, are drug-related.

    Several European cities I’ve recently visited have decided to treat drug-addiction as an illness, not a crime, and administer the drug (free in their medical systems) under supervision. The results?

    There’s no money in drugs. The dealers leave town. The crime rate plummets – over 90% in Zürich – as do insurance premiums and sales of security equipment and the cost of ed, ad etc campaigns. People leave their windows open when weather permits. Bikes again line streets there & in Dutch/ some Scandinavian cities. Kids play outdoors, go to school, town, discos etc without their parents having the horrors about drugs.

    Spot the campaign that does work!

  11. Potential DD triggers (down the line):

    Horse Disease Response Levy Bill 2008 (and related bills)
    National Fuelwatch (Empowering Consumers) Bill 2008 (and related bills)
    Safe Work Australia Bill 2008

    Plus, if it were to be now laid aside in the HoR:
    Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment (Emergency Response Consolidation) Bill 2008

    As you can see from this there’s very little currently there to suggest there will be a DD anytime soon. The Libs will cave on Safe Work and Fuelwatch is a dead duck.

  12. Qzymandius, all very funny but another thing that has been going on for years is that the Courier Mail lead story becomes the major talking point for Madonna King becomes the first question from the leader of the Opposition in Question time in the Queensland Parliament.

    Even the worst Courier Mail beatup is given a good run for the whole day whether worthy of such scrutiny or not. Still despite all this Labor continues to win state elections so the News Ltd/ABC strategy is not as effective as many imagine it would be. It has just become a shadow aspect of Queensland life the population has accepted and they vote against the Courier Mail line at the ballot box.

  13. I’m still trying to figure out why the coalition continues to do so well in WA, right from the last election up till now.

  14. When News Ltd sees rabbles of Oppositions with weak leaders such as Queensland and the Federal Liberals openly display then the temptation is to try to fill the vacuum created by this lack of leadership.Back up their own importance by bringing out a Galaxy poll, not on a regular basis but whenever it suits the News Ltd political agenda and it is easy to believe their strategy is genuine and successful.

    The bit they forget is that when people go to vote, News Ltd does not appear on the ballot paper, just the name of the hopeless rabble which the voters are quite willing to reject.

  15. [When News Ltd sees rabbles of Oppositions with weak leaders such as Queensland and the Federal Liberals openly display]

    The QLD opposition is actually one of the better ones. NSW, Vic, SA, and WA clearly have more rabbles of oppositions.

  16. [Back up their own importance by bringing out a Galaxy poll, not on a regular basis but whenever it suits the News Ltd political agenda and it is easy to believe their strategy is genuine and successful.]

    Are you trying to suggest the most recent Galaxy poll should be ignored?

  17. Bob all I can say is that you have been reading too much News Ltd trash and not enough Queensland hansard since the last election the Queensland Opposition is in a worse state than anywhere else in the country with Springborg towering over Langbroek. Do you really expect us to believe the Nationals will allow a weak Liberal breathing space to be Opposition Leader in his own right? It isn’t happening.

  18. After reading that “piece” by Imre Salusinszky in today’s OZ, I sat here for 10 or 15 minutes just shaking my head at the level of rubbish and misinformation that is streaming out of this publication now.

    I “never” thought I could day this, but The article from Shannahan is a standout in balance and objectivity in comparison with most of the other gerbage emanating from this supposedly, Australia’s premier newspaper.

    How anyone could write something like this with a straight face is beyond me. Do these people take us for “fools” or do they just think we have such a faulty memory of events, that we could just accept something like this a being an accurate detailing of current and recent events?

    [Wells believes Rudd has received a softer ride than Howard from the media – although he adds this could easily shift with longevity. One point he does make is that if a fake email had surfaced in 1997, suggesting Howard had sought special favours for a mate, the reaction would have been “hysterical” and would have survived the unmasking of the lie.

    “If you relate it to children overboard, that was hysterical,” Wells said.

    But it is likely there are deeper cultural reasons why a lie against Rudd evaporated in nanoseconds, whereas a lie against Howard was guaranteed to linger in the political ether indefinitely.

    Journalists, after all, have limited scope to shape the historical narrative, compared with the vast ballast of the intelligentsia in universities, non-government organisations and the arts. ]

    http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25725994-5013871,00.html

    It is well beyond time that the MSM in Australia was held accountable. Go, get em Ruddy!

  19. Saw Kev’s little bit about the Murdoch press this a.m. and all said with slight smile on his face. He said there had been no apology or retraction re the fake email reporting from the 3 editors. Also mentioned that Julia G’s comment was not in retaliation as suggested by that mob.

    He ain’t scared of them and they won’t be getting away with anything from now on.

    Fantastic.

    Trioli and a journo this a.m. were ridiculing Kev’s words about taking the ute to ‘Deni’. Their hero, John Howard, would never have said anything like that or tried to appear on popular media, they said. How dare Rudd do it.

    ABC Breakfast is so funny that we watch the political bits now and then for a laugh. We’re never disappointed.

  20. Ozymandias @4 wrote

    Comedy gold from Imre Saluszinski in the OO.

    Ah, yes, the dramatic irony of:

    Rudd’s triumph has been to water down a ruthless political will with a warm-and-cuddly persona that has been sold to the public on media platforms that were regarded as beneath his predecessor, John Howard.

    Members of Team Howard, including the former prime minister, have been shaking their heads at Rudd’s extraordinary exertions of spin and the tolerance of the Canberra press gallery towards the exercise.

    Rove is “beneath” Little Johnny’s Johnnycash for comment shock jocks? Oh spare me! What parallel universe is Imre Saluszinski in? Has I.S. not eyeballed Possum’s graphs? Does he not realise that the Libs have lost GenY, even Gen X and almost half of GenBlue (& never did have the Boomers)? Does he not realise that, to win government, Libs have to attract Rove-watching bloggers, twitters, You Tubers, My Spacere etc GenY, GenX … even ancient GenBluers like me?

    Or, in fact, is he, like most NewsLtd opinionists, just utterly shi#ty that those generations form their opinions from and, more importantly on the new media & younger presenters like Rove and FM (soon to be digital) radio?

    Hark to the message between the lines; more subtle than his boss’s Press Club rant – tho it might not circle the globe via the dreaded New Media. Hear this!

    Storm those radio stations, Laddies! Smash those evil computers, those blackberries & iPhones! Destroy those Intertubes! Humankind will always need newspapers. Do it for Rupert, I say

    We NewsLtd journos & our TV mates were the ones who provided Little Johnny with the spinning wheels, the yarn, and marketed the products of his spinning to our mutual advantage. And this Rudd destroyed all that; destroyed the greatest spinner of all! Now, just because we slammed him, spun webs of misinformation about him, created stupendous beat-ups, spread rumours – tried everything in our power to destroy him before the election – he has the hide to criticise us – even spurn us – for these new machines.

    He’s evil! A ruthless politician. All spin and no substance – so unlike innocent, honest, eternally straightforward Johnny, who’d never lie, never sacrifice truth, justice and the Australian belief in a fair go to alljust to hold on to power!

    Take the R out of Rudd, I say; smash his machines and their masters! Replace R with L and all will be alright in the NewsLtd Universe! With Rupert as our leader and dear Ned Ludd as out icon, we will prevail …

    >em>In your dreams, I.S.

  21. Kevin Rudd should just say “I’ll leave the media to examine itself and my personality all they want. If anyone has any questions of real national significance I’ll be happy to answer them”.

  22. [I’m still trying to figure out why the coalition continues to do so well in WA, right from the last election up till now.]

    The WA electorate has had years and years of Coalition propaganda rammed down their necks by a partisan, conservative, anti-Labor press in the guise of the Western Australian.

    Now that its presentation, opinion and reporting are more moderate, then I think you will find that that will gradually turn around to a more balanced level more reflective of reality!

  23. LTEP, I have doubts about every Galaxy Poll outside of an official election campaign in Queensland because of the adhoc nature of their release by News Ltd. It is either produced and published on a regular basis or a joke for mine.

  24. [Bob all I can say is that you have been reading too much News Ltd trash and not enough Queensland hansard]

    If you have to go to hansard to find disunity, you’ve just proven the point that the QLD opposition are one of the better ones.

  25. [LTEP, I have doubts about every Galaxy Poll outside of an official election campaign in Queensland because of the adhoc nature of their release by News Ltd.]

    I see. Sounds an awful lot like our conservative friends prior to the 2007 election.

  26. News are a joke, and have been for some time. The last month has simply brought their shameful bias further into the light.

  27. [If you have to go to hansard to find disunity, you’ve just proven the point that the QLD opposition are one of the better ones.]

    One of the most extraordinary comments ever posted on Poll Bludger. Do you think the editor of the Courier Mail and Madonna King might be better sources for Queensland Political information?

  28. News ltd. have probably lost a lot of people like me. I used to buy at least 2 papers every day up until 24/11/07.

    I know what line they are going to take and mostly what the agenda will be. Why bother wasting money when I can tour around the web getting a wider perspective on everything. Anything worth noting is always mentioned on PB anyway.

    I had been thinking about buying weekend papers again but Hartigan convinced me that I don’t need them.

    He was so abnormally jumpy in the Press Club speech and, true to form and just like the Libs, he turned to denigration. He is hurting that the bloggers are well informed and don’t need his papers. I’m still saving money – you beaut.

  29. News Ltd papers are a joke UNLESS… your in-laws are devotees of all thing Liberal. It warms the cockles of their hearts and keeps their joie de vivre up and running. It helps them maintain their rage against the unbelievable “stupidity” of the electorate (especially the part they consider “my ilk”) for having had the temerity to have elected “the other mob” to the office which anyone can see has “Reserved for the Gentry” and “No Riff-Raff” written all over it!

  30. Steve – Do you think Madonna King should acknowledge on her program that her husband is the editor of CM if she mentions a story from that paper.

    Steve Price the same with his wife working for Hockey.

    It is a bit similar to cash for comment and I think the audience should be made aware of the connections.

  31. probably not worth spending too much more time discussing the OO and the other biased rages. Fascinating to see though that despite being continually caught with egg on their faces, rather than appear contrite and more balanced, they become more shrill and hysterical.

    I’m glad that AT LAST Rudd is alerting the voters to the shenanigans and I hope he keeps going until he gets an apology over the fake email coverage

  32. [One of the most extraordinary comments ever posted on Poll Bludger. Do you think the editor of the Courier Mail and Madonna King might be better sources for Queensland Political information?]

    Do you think they’re the only news outlets?

  33. In Federal politics there is a world of difference between reading the whole evidence presented to the Senate Economics Committee and the News Ltd reports of what happened that Friday afternoon.

  34. [The bit they forget is that when people go to vote, News Ltd does not appear on the ballot paper, just the name of the hopeless rabble which the voters are quite willing to reject.]

    The Courier Mail started to go down hill after Mitchell was appointed by Murdoch to run it. I have two very fat folders of clippings from that time which form part of my media file which I put together during my Uni studies. The biggest barrow he pushed was IR and he continually wrote Editorials containing blatant misinformation and pushing the Coalition line of resurrecting the push from the 1890’s of individual employment contracts which fed ultimately into Howard’s “Workchoices” Legislation.

    There was no coincidence that this line coincided with Mitchell’s shift to The Australian and the campaign it ran on behalf of Howard on Workchoices. Murdoch did very well out of Howard’s advertising campaign to sell Workchoices and Mitchell ensured he provided as much “free” support for it as he could.

    Unfortunately for Murdoch, (and Howard) the lucrative revenue tap has now been well and truly turned off and they are trying desperately to damage the Rudd Government to try and get their favoured benefactors back in power.

    Which leads to Steve’s quote which I find, is very apt and accurate as reflected in the QLD and Federal election results and the continual good polling for Rudd and Labor.

    [The bit they forget is that when people go to vote, News Ltd does not appear on the ballot paper, just the name of the hopeless rabble which the voters are quite willing to reject.]

  35. As far as not knowing the famous email was a fake goes. Doug Cameron was telling them at the time Erica was extracting words from Grech that opposition senators “were making things up”.

  36. [He is hurting that the bloggers are well informed and don’t need his papers]

    At least he’ll still have his recipe section to keep him warm at night

  37. [I just read Bernard Keane’s bits on twitter while he was watching Hartigan. They are very funny.]

    Loved this one: “thank god there’s only a few minutes to go in the tripe”

  38. Dario

    I couldn’t understand the recipe section bit. There are great sites for recipes like epicurious. I can’t imagine anyone downloading a recipe from a tabloid.

    That’s their main problem. Their journalists aren’t experts at anything and are almost always thick as abrick. If you want politics, you go to a political blog of your persuasion. If you like dogs, there are expert blogs on that. The people running them actually know about the subject, as do the posters there. Whether it’s art, science, politics, hobbies or ANYTHING, a tabloid is not the place to go.

  39. Plus the one about how many journos have been sacked. Funny how Fairfax sacked employees have been blown up in news ltd. papers but not a word about their own.

    Bernard was just trying to keep them honest.

  40. [I couldn’t understand the recipe section bit. There are great sites for recipes like epicurious. I can’t imagine anyone downloading a recipe from a tabloid.]

    Yeah, it’s got me flummoxed. But if Hartigan reckons it’s his saviour then News is in a lot more trouble than we thought.

  41. You’re right, Dio. Plus their recipes push ingredients from the advertisers which is, of course, their right to do but there are far better recipe sites to check out.

    Cook and the Chef is a brilliant site. That little bloke does some really good Asian stuff and Maggie does it for the traditionalists.

  42. Hartigan claimed “deadline pressure” as one of the reasons, in fact the main reason, Rudd’s denails were not printed in those infamous Saturday editions of News rags.

    This only detracts from his argument that their “brilliant” journalists have it over bloggers every time. Newspapers are so slow.

    Of course this allows them to claim “pressure of deadline” when they leave a wrong story in the papers basket at Sunday supermarket checkouts. Something palpably false, a war headline stands there, catching everyone’s eye (and occasionally being purchased) screaming “Rudd Gone!” or similar, well after the real story has been established.

    I remember suring the Scores business, Milne had said Rudd was chucked out of the nightclub for “drunken misbehavior”. This story was changed before 10am on the Sunday in question, with the misbehavior bit completely excised… yet it remained there as a wailing headline all day for the punters to read.

  43. There is always an article somewhere which will fit with your own political bias and I am sure one which is against it. So why not read a newspaper as some of the background reading can be food for thought, whether you agree with it or not. To watch television news across several station could lead one to think they were discussing totally diferent news stories. Polls if they ask biased question can give misinformation so can we believe and the only result that counts is an election which hopully will get rid of Family first. 1% of the nation stally the rest of it.

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