The Australian reports the first Newspoll of the year has Labor’s two-party lead down from 56-44 to 54-46. Kevin Rudd’s approval rating is down three points to 57 per cent, his second lowest rating since the election. Labor are down three points on the primary vote to 40 per cent, which has gone to the Greens (up one to 12 per cent) and other (up two to 10 per cent) – the Coalition is steady on 38 per cent. Kevin Rudd’s approval rating is down six points to 52 per cent, disapproval is up two to 34 per cent and uncommitted is up four to 14 per cent. Also featured are Tony Abbott’s first personal ratings from Newspoll: at 40 per cent his approval rating is similar to Turnbull’s pre-Utegate, while his 35 per cent disapproval is slightly lower. Rudd’s lead as preferred prime minister is 57-25, down from 60-23 on Abbott’s debut in the final Newspoll last year and exactly where it was in the last poll before Utegate.
This chart shows the number of times Labor has recorded particular two-party results in the 48 Newspolls conducted since the 2007 election, which places the latest poll among Labor’s five weakest results:
Today has also seen the first Essential Research survey of the new season which has Labor’s lead at 56-44, down from 57-43 on December 21 and at the lower end of Essential’s usual range. Kevin Rudd’s approval rating of 55 per cent is the lowest yet recorded by Essential, although his 33 per cent disapproval is two points lower than the November 30 survey. Tony Abbott’s ratings have improved slightly on his December 14 debut, his approval up three to 37 per cent and disapproval up one to 36 per cent. Further questions find respondents optimistic about economic prospects, though less so than late last year (note the stunning turnaround on this measure from early to late last year).
Note of caution: Possum has observed that “when you look over the history of polls that happen in the Christmas/New Year period going back forever, you find them being more ‘all over the place’ than you tend to find at any other period (with the possible exception of Easter)”. Not sure how late into January this applies.
Also:
• Karen Brown, chief-of-staff to WA Opposition Leader Eric Ripper and unsuccessful state election candidate for Mount Lawley, has scotched suggestions she will run for the marginal Liberal federal seat of Cowan. The West Australian has reported party state executive member Alex Banzic, who is “understood to work for Melbourne-based EG property group as an investment manager”, is the only nominee so far, although it last week reported staffer Sam Roe as a possible entrant.
• The Northern Star reports Tweed councillor Joan van Lieshout has won the local ballot for Liberal preselection in the north coast New South Wales federal seat of Richmond, although there remains the formality of endorsement by the state executive. The Liberals have never held the seat, and have not contested it since 1996, although its increasingly urban character is such that they would be as likely to win it as the Nationals if it returned to the conservative fold. Labor’s Justine Elliot has held the seat since defeating Nationals member Larry Anthony in 2004. The Nationals candidate will be Pottsville pharmacist Tania Murdock.
• The Esperance Express names Ian Bishop, former adviser to state government ministers Kim Chance and John Bowler (the latter now an independent aligned with the Nationals), as Labor’s candidate to run against Wilson Tuckey in O’Connor.
• The ABC reports Queanbeyan councillor John Barilaro and New South Wales Farmers Association executive councillor Mark Horan have nominated for Nationals preselection in the state seat of Monaro, which Labor’s Steve Whan retained in 2007 by a margin of 6.3 per cent.
Steve K
I have a horrible feeling that your post will get equivalent attention to what they will give Morgan tomorrow.
BK
I expect that’s right but it’s good to let them know that people are on to them
[General Motors executive says solar flares are responsible for climate change, not car emissions or CO2. ]
http://brisbanetimes.drive.com.au/motor-news/global-warming-dont-blame-the-car-20100121-mmry.html
With such thinking, the future of the American automobile industry is in good hands.
I digress, no more jokes but i think the govt. has to simplify it’d message if it wants to enact it’s agenda. Case study, Obama saying if he did good policy the voters would go along.He was wrong. Hillary would have done the same.
Wrong! do good policy But explain it to the voters why and in there language.
Remember most did not go to uni and a just trying to make a decent living for themselves and there kids.
Both sides are guilty of being spin wankers
Just on Sky’s criticism of ABC plans to set up a 24-hour news channel.
“Mr Frangopoulos also claimed the new channel would violate the ABC charter to only provide services that commercial broadcasters could not or would not provide to the public.”
What rubbish, since when was Sky news available on Free 2 Air TV?
OzPol
What you say makes sense, and if a DD will benefit the greens then Rudd won’t have one (I hope)
The ETS has been put off because of the Greens actions and seeing as an ETS doesn’t look like being passed before the next election, Rudd may as well go to Mexio first and see if a deal is struck there.
Hopefully he will be returned with increased majority, Abbott will get the big A and joe becomes leader and passes the Macca/Penny ETS.
What do you call a deer with no eyes?
No idea.
What do you call a deer with no eyes and no legs?
Still no idea.
What do you call a deer with no eyes and no legs, encased in a block of ice?
Iced still no idea.
What do you call two deer, with no eyes and no legs, encased in a block of ice, copulating?
Iced still f***ing no idea.
NOT for five year olds. Even VCE students look a bit scandalised.
Ah, I can see it now: “Thirty Years At the Chalkface: My Life as a Stand Up Comedian.”
[885
TheTruthHurts……..I don’t think an ETS will be an election issue. It was a big issue last election, but now almost everyone is over it. I certainly am.]
HTT, the ETS was mentioned by both contenders but could hardly be described as a big issue at the last election. Labor’s first act was to ratify Kyoto and Rudd’s first overseas trip was to Bali with Ministers Wong and Smith. But it was not a controversial issue.
You may very well wish it will not be an issue at the coming election, but it most certainly will be a big number with the voters. We are experiencing the hottest summer on record, and it is not yet over. The environment – and the damage being done to it – is the meta issue of our time. It will not go away because the empirical reality is the climate is changing profoundly, seemingly irreversibly and far more rapidly than we can adapt to.
They say fear is a powerful motivator in politics. There are few things more threatening – especially to those under the age of, say, 40 years – than radical climate change. And do these younger voters want politicians to attempt to find meaningful and practical responses to this threat. You bet they do.
I don’t know if you have children, but I have a number of adult children. They and their friends are scared shit-less by two things: the facts of climate change on the one hand, and, on the other, the pretense by the right that climate change is not real.
As I say, you might like to think CC is a non-issue. This just proves once again how unfit the right are to hold office in this country.
Darryl
[Mr Frangopoulos also claimed the new channel would violate the ABC charter to only provide services that commercial broadcasters could not or would not provide to the public. ]
I get the feeling that about 90% of the ABCs stuff either could or would be provided by commercial broadcasters so that arguments not going to fly. Looks like the ABC is stepping up to the plate with this, the Drum and the overseas stuff and generally pi$$ing off Murdoch.
Steve – I’ll join you in that and send one too.
Frank and OzPol – I just read the piece re Skynoos’ getting uppity about ABC4 – priceless, isn’t it.
zoomster. I look forward to your theater performance.:)
I don’t write my own material, noidea, but it’s all in the delivery.
Will Kev launch ABC4 like he did ABC3? Or will Tone want equal time and make it a double act? 🙂
[Looks like the ABC is stepping up to the plate with this, the Drum and the overseas stuff and generally pi$$ing off Murdoch.]
In the same way the BBC p….d James Murdoch enough for him to make stupid comments. Wonder what Rupert will say. I guess every day, in every paper, the ABC will cop it from now until opening day for ABC4.
[In the same way the BBC p….d James Murdoch enough for him to make stupid comments. Wonder what Rupert will say. I guess every day, in every paper, the ABC will cop it from now until opening day for ABC4.]
Especially as ABC Perth Stateline presenter Rebecca Carmody, who is currently on Maternity Leave has a regular Column in the Sunday Times 🙂
What’s really going to hurt Murdoch is the ABC apparently making sure no-one would bother paying for access to News Online rubbish.
That must be really killing him.
[What’s really going to hurt Murdoch is the ABC apparently making sure no-one would bother paying for access to News Online rubbish.
That must be really killing him.]
and will Murdoch forbid Bolta, Milne and Akkerman from appearing on The Insiders ? 🙂
That may well be the upside 🙂
zoomster. Btw after you have studied dios book about Hitler & Stalin i would love to read it also if dio does not mind.
Would someone who is able to read Chinese writing please tell me what the English translation of this is please.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/peter124u/4292190881/
[what coffee was served on the titanic?]
OK, I give up, what coffee was served on the titanic?
[and will Murdoch forbid Bolta, Milne and Akkerman from appearing on The Insiders ?]
Excellent question Frank. Maybe Insiders (if it survives) will move to ABC4 in which case Murdoch will probably (IMO) issue a blanket ban on any of his stooges appearing on that station.
The presentation of non-stop news eventually turns current events into a dull background drone….or maybe it’s just me that is becoming a dull drone.
ABC NewsRadio more or less proves there is not enough good material to run a 24/7 news service, and they are forced to import bulletins from overseas broadcasters. 24/7 tv news is likely to become a fairly arid space, though it will put the acid on sky and could kill off news and current affairs as we know it on free-to-air services.
The best thing about non-stop free news is it may put the skids under the plans of the great media monopolist, Rupert M, to charge for access to the online content of his papers. I am willing to pay at least 8c a day to frustrate the Murdoch’s quest to own everything that involves words, pictures and data.
Who is Rupert Murdoch anyway?
I heard he once ran some loss making dinosaur
😉
Murdoch banning his mob will be a blessing in disguise except for George Mega and perhaps Lenore Taylor who is really one of the better journos.
How lovely tho to go without Bolt, Akermans, and Milne. There must be some better RW journos than that lot.
[Btw after you have studied dios book about Hitler & Stalin i would love to read it also if dio does not mind.]
They will be in the post to z this weekend. After that, they’re free agents!
Frank
If we pray hard enough, it might come true. I think the main reason Murdoch lets them go on the ABC is to give them credibility as political commentators. Why the ABC has to stoop to such lows is beyond me.
Just imagine the tirade that JA will launch on the ABC once she is no longer on the board. Murdoch will expect her to and she’ll deliver. Of course she’ll be prepared to lie to support her attack and claim that she’s simply providing a former ‘insider’s’ perspective.
Fantastic news that the ABC are going to launch a 24 hour news channel. Let’s hope for some real balance in political reporting. And I mean real balance i.e. NO bias towards either Labor like it used to, or Liberal like it does now and has ever since the invasion of Iraq.
Also, let’s hope for quality business and market news reporting. What a beauty, Foxtel’s owners (Ltd News and Telstra) can go jump with my $60 a month I’ll be saving.
And do you think Sky News are not carrying on like good sorts over it? Almost as bad as the TAB’s submissions to the Productivity Commission to try to preserve their monopoly. For heaven’s sake, show some dignity, they are meant to be grown adults LOL! 😆
Never mind, got it.
Thank Heavens for Advanced Dork
polyquats
Posted Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 10:17 pm | Permalink
what coffee was served on the titanic?
OK, I give up, what coffee was served on the titanic?
“Sanka.”
I apologize
Briefly – the thing I do like about A-pac is that you get to watch and listen to what pollies and professional people actually say instead of a journo spinning their own interpretations to you.
Some of the speeches by various faculties and discussion sessions are fantastic. Even some of the thinktank stuff is good. The Community Cabinets are great because the ordinary voter is more interesting than the journos.
If the ABC can do the samel then Murdoch will need to be very worried. In the long run, isn’t this what the ABC is supposed to be doing anyway. I’m not a Mark Scott lover but more power to him for putting some action into the ABC.
The media world would be a saner place without Blot, Pies, and the pocket Drunk.
The ABC giving murdoch a big kick in the goolies. Maybe payback for all the crap that his right wing papers have been throwing at Rudd or acknowledging there is no honest news reporting around any more.
And if they manage to make it a non-partisan ABC channel that isn’t staffed by murdoch journalists and doesn’t take its talking points from the Liberal Party or murdoch media…well then it may be a genuinely useful thing in Australia. The only source of honest news.
honest source of news
So after 2 hours i return and diogenes still is too scared answer why for 12 mths he Diogenes , th Greens posters and Bob Brown hav all insisted on a 25% cut as a minimum , and all harsley critisised Rudd for not having a 25% cut
now they ar hypocritcaly in just one day sayin forget all that , we will hav a NIL cut
Greens and there suporters hav no integrity about wanting CC mitigaton This is all about cynicaly chasing votes
Then to leave any details of there no compo out of a press release hoping Newspapers do not notise , nor workers who will loose there jobs
This is one of th most fraudulent shabby flip flops in oz politcal history , and NO WONDER there ar no Greens here
Yet Diogenes who claims not to be a Green has been a leeding nasty critic of Rudd for NOT having a Greens polisy 25% cut for past 12 mths , and now Diogenes is th only one on PB defending Greens polisy , again , suporting a Greens nil cut You should stik to doctoring as you know zero about sensible CC mitigaton polisy
It is hard to know which will be most hated. The honest reporting of news or the competition.
[For heaven’s sake, show some dignity, they are meant to be grown adults LOL! :lol:]
Centre – instead they are ‘groan’ adults who are sounding a trifle childish .
I think that everyone getting excited about the ABC News Channel haven’t been listening to ABC News Radio – endless loops of sport/traffic with crosses to BBC interspersed with very repetitive local headlines.
I listen to it in the mornings only because Fran Kelly is soooo appalling.
These days I listen to do-it -yourself radio. Download podcasts of favourite programs from ABC, BBC PRI (http://www.pri.org/). Supplemented with wonderful lectures from iTunes University – Philosophy from Oxford, Public Health from Stanford etc. I have a 2 hour a day commute, and it’s not enough time for all the great stuff I can find to listen to.
[The presentation of non-stop news eventually turns current events into a dull background drone….or maybe it’s just me that is becoming a dull drone.
ABC NewsRadio more or less proves there is not enough good material to run a 24/7 news service, and they are forced to import bulletins from overseas broadcasters. 24/7 tv news is likely to become a fairly arid space, though it will put the acid on sky and could kill off news and current affairs as we know it on free-to-air services. ]
Maybe they’ll telecast actual parliamentry sessions other than Question Time and move QT off ABC1 – and therby not upsetting those who want to watch repeats of The Bill and perhaps they will not be restricted by the timeslot when showing QT as well – if you recall recent events.
[Of course she’ll be prepared to lie to support her attack and claim that she’s simply providing a former ‘insider’s’ perspective.]
I wonder if JA has signed something saying she can’t divulge or tip the bucket on the “company” she was once on the board of.
You normally have to sign a confidentiality and a “I will act in the best interests” waiver to do that kind of thing.
We must have a company director or a lawyer at PB who could comment.
‘Serve the people’
Seems like a communist party logo or statement
Polly
i find the variety good on some days,and it cetainly adds to the world view.
my fave is ‘all things considered’
I take your points, BH. If this makes news more immediate and less subject to “interpretation” and “commentary” by so-called journalists, then that will be a good thing. I am completely bored by the commentary and seldom read any of it, so hopefully a new format will bring us more news and not just mere opinion.
Peter Young@919
It means “serve the people”. It is one of the most famous and enduring slogans devised by Chairman Mao, and the caligraphy is (suitably) a replica of his writing.
Truthy
Here’s a question for you. I would really like your honest opinion about it.
Today I met a lady who is almost 80 years of age. She came here 20 years ago by aeroplane. She had a 2 year working visa but that expired 18 years ago. She has been here “illegally” since then. She spent all her savings on medical treatment for a condition she had, as she is not entitled to Medicare benefits. She eeks out an existence by sewing and patching costumes for stage artists. She lives in boarding house style accommodation. Other residents are largely alcoholics or suffering from mental conditions. A few weeks ago, one of the other residents poured boiling water over her. She has red welt type marks on her arm. She cannot get Housing Department housing because she is not an Australian citizen. She went and saw the Immigration Department this week and she needs to pay $1,500 to process an application for an extension of her long now expired visa. She cannot afford to pay the fee.
Her mother was Italian and her father German (jewish).
What would you do with her?
‘Maybe’ in the end all news and current affairs will be produce by the new channel thus by passing all the Howard loving appointees.
I did mention last year that Rudd should do something like that.
Ronster
Lets just look at the first sentence.
[So after 2 hours i return and diogenes still is too scared answer why for 12 mths he Diogenes , th Greens posters]
Mistake number 1. I am not a Green or a Green poster.
[hav all insisted on a 25% cut as a minimum ]
Mistake number 2. I actually supported passing the ETS as many here can attest to.
Let’s just say that it’s all downhill after you making two errors before finishing your first sentence.
You haven’t even read the Garnaut policy which the Greens are advocating have you Ron?
I know the feeling polyquats….FK has become an oppositionist. Maybe she has always been one, but in the past she was niggling the Liberals. Trouble is the Libs are such duplicitous bunch of wreckers, it is a pity she is playing into their hands.
By the way that is my wife’s translation – she is the Chinese person here.
[‘Serve the people’
Seems like a communist party logo or statement]
TP
I think that was on the cover of “the little red book”
#948 and #943
Thanks for that. That’s very interesting.
That pic shows the cover of a shoulder bag someone gave me as a present. I was wearing the bag when I ran into and was talking to some protesting Falun Gong people. They were shocked at my bag and told me it was bad, but refused to say what it meant.