On voting intention, the latest Newspoll is no worse for Labor than usual: they trail the Coalition 55-45 on two-party preferred, their primary vote is down a point to 30 per cent, and the Coalition and the Greens are steady on 46 per cent and 11 per cent respectively. However, it seems just about every poll has an added sting in the tail for Julia Gillard these days, and this one finds her recording yet another slump on her personal ratings, which are now at a disastrous 28 per cent approval and 62 per cent disapproval. Tony Abbott by contrast is up four points on approval to 39 per cent, although his disapproval remains steady at a thoroughly unimpressive 52 per cent. Worst of all for Gillard, Abbott now leads her as preferred prime minister for the first time: 40 per cent to 39 per cent, compared with Gillard’s 41-38 lead last time.
The latest weekly Essential Research survey also has the Coalition 55-45 in front, from primary votes of 48 per cent for the Coalition (up one), 32 per cent for Labor (down one) and 11 per cent for the Greens (down one). It too has its own particular sting for Julia Gillard, finding Labor would be leading 53-47 if Kevin Rudd was leader from primary votes of 45 per cent for Labor and 42 per cent for the Coalition. However, it also finds the Coalition would be much further ahead (59-41) under Malcolm Turnbull than Tony Abbott, so it is likely there is a fair bit of mischief-making by partisan respondents going on. Nonetheless, it is hard to overlook the fact that there is an eight-point difference in the results for the two Labor contenders against a four-point difference for the Liberals.
UPDATE: Kevin Bonham in comments, responding to the assertion of Dennis Shanahan in The Australian that “only Paul Keating has had a worse personal rating than Gillard’s today”:
Depends how you measure it, but:
• If measured by net satisfaction there have been 18 worse results. One by Howard in 2001, one by Hawke in 1991 and the other sixteen by Keating, but six of Keating’s were before the election that he won. This is also true if measured by disapproval rating.
• If measured by approval rating there have been 19 worse results. One by Hawke and eighteen by Keating with eight of Keating’s before the election that he won.
The Great Gough
_____________
I like others here got two degrees thanks to Gough’s free university tuition reforms
…….and we thanked him for that…and as he asked too…. I have maintained the rage from that time…he was the greatest of all P.M’s.
and the conservatives in this country were as mad and stupid then a they are now….watching that mob in Sydney today with Jones.and Barnyard I thought ..
this is what 1975 was like !!.
Love Gough in that early period. Every time I worry about Gough’s appalling – no, let’s say paradoxical – decision-making on Indonesia, East Timor and Irian Jaya, I just gloss over it by having another excise-free home brew and looking at my degrees. 😀
Apparently Monckton has a condition – “Graves’ disease is an autoimmune disease where the thyroid is overactive” – with the symptom of bulging eyes. Another symptom must be florid dishonestia.
[Love Gough in that early period. Every time I worry about Gough’s appalling – no, let’s say paradoxical – decision-making on Indonesia, East Timor and Irian Jaya, I just gloss over it by having another excise-free home brew and looking at my degrees. ]
But more importantly how is your boat.? Up there in the Whitsundays without you there you must be worried sick.
I’m surprised no-one has mentioned Medibank and free hospital treatment, which later became Medicare. That was revolutionary.
http://blogs.abc.net.au/antonygreen/2011/06/what-chance-a-double-dissolution-in-the-next-three-years.html
Antony’s post has probably been posted already but here it is again. Interesting..
Darn – yep that too!
Darn
Quite right. That was the most enduring social reform I suspect. How many times have the Libs tried to trash it, and failed?
Whitlam made too many things free from education to medical services. Generally, something obtained without reference to the true cost will be overused (as we see with using clean air).
Free universities produced a great many people doing all sorts of degrees. Whilst there is an economic good where the outcome adds to society/the economy and a general good when people learn something even if it is not of use to the economy. There needs to be some sort of limit unless you wish the general community to provide ongoing education in studies into ancient etruscan pottery techniques.
Similarly, bulk billing mean that doctors could charge 80% of the scheduled fee and bill the government directly. This lead to overservicing by doctors and patients seeking uneccessary and expensive medical treatments.
Whilst TAFE is not a university, I have some personal experience. Before fees, the most popular course was cake decorating. Every TAFE country or city would have groups of women turn up each term and view it as a government sponsored social group, making cakes, being artistic and repeating the course over and over. With fees, the industry died and TAFE could return to apprenticeships, accounting and other courses. They still offered cake decorating but the women had opted to gather at their homes instead of having the government pay for a “host” at $40 per hour.
Sound Familiar to you ?
______________
In Peru a new left wing President has just been elected with much indigenous Indian support ,to redistribute income by>>> TAXING THE FOREIGN MINING COMPANIES>>
He has announced new mining taxes,to a howl of range from the mostly US mining companies,and a warning from Clinton !!
He will be stalked no doubt by the CIA,and the local rightists,but says the money raised will go to the poor for education/health and better housing.
Does this sound anyway familier !
ifonly can you source your evidence that “Before fees, the most popular course was cake decorating”.
Ta
deblonay – there has always been a bigger reason why the corporations want to stop the Labor government in Australia.
[Generally, something obtained without reference to the true cost will be overused (as we see with using clean air).]
ifonly, how much should people be charged per breath?
sadly
some who suckled from the teat of whitlam now would bring down a similarly advanced and enlightened gvt
the worst enemies are sometimes not the fibs,but the ingrates
🙁
Gweneth@5315
Or maybe there a link to an education denialists’ site like the Monckton/Bolt et. al. CC denial site you relied on the other day?
[Whitlam made too many things free from education to medical services. Generally, something obtained without reference to the true cost will be overused (as we see with using clean air).]
Yes, he did over spend. But at the same time, the Fraser government didn’t actually reduce spending back to where it was before the Whitlam government. The increases in spending Whitlam made formed a new bipartisan consensus that lasted until Keating cut spending as a proportion of GDP in the late 1980s (only for it to rise again after the early 1990s recession).
[There needs to be some sort of limit unless you wish the general community to provide ongoing education in studies into ancient etruscan pottery techniques.]
Research into Etruscan art may not directly aid a nation’s economy, but at least makes a nation worth defending.
[Similarly, bulk billing mean that doctors could charge 80% of the scheduled fee and bill the government directly. This lead to overservicing by doctors and patients seeking uneccessary and expensive medical treatments.]
Maybe so, but unlike the 1980s when it was Liberal policy to repeal Medicare, Medicare is now a bipartisan policy that no government would dare repealing
Again, the Whitlam reforms tempered by the Hawke modifications are now bipartisan policy (exactly the same applies with university fees that while not directly free are based on interest free government loans).
btw
you know who you are
[ifonly, how much should people be charged per breath?]
He was referring to climate change – putting CO2 in the air without having to pay for it.
It is nice to see a conservative appreciate that climate change is an example of market failure.
[He was referring to climate change – putting CO2 in the air without having to pay for it.]
SO, thanks for the clarification…
New thread.
[Whitlam made too many things free from education to medical services]
And some here wonder why there’s passionate responses to the idiot-laced comments
[And some here wonder why there’s passionate responses to the idiot-laced comments]
He is kind of right HECS has proven to be a more equitable system than having no fees at all.
Gusface
I know. Under Whitlam Labor created a whole generation of educated monsters many of whom have developed the power of independent, abstract thought. What was he thinking?
[Kimbo_Ramplin Kimberley Ramplin
#CBSNews, reports maid had $100,000 deposited to her bank account, day after #DSK was arrested
26 seconds ago Favorite Retweet Reply
]
Gusface, I, like a few people here think that Gillard should just govern. Do stuff. She is a doer. And doing beats thinking everytime. Because the thinkers don’t do. They just think about it. Never do it. Say what you like about her but she is not a coward. A very committed person I think and these days that counts for me.
Gweneth
I worked in the sector for 15 years. Cake decorating was shorthand, there was actually a few similar courses. I don’t know of any generally available data on the number of teachers so I am afraid I can’t provide independent proof. Anyone from that time will be able to confirm that TAFEs always had home science kitchens everywhere (much like home science at schools). Nowdays, the kitchens are commercial for teaching pastrycooks, chefs etc. The only thing more common than kitchens was general use classrooms (4 walls and a whiteboard). These could be used to teach accounting, secretarial etc.
grey
glad you are on the side of good
🙂
Markets should be built to charge for social ills and sponsor economic good.
I am
an economic rationalist
a political realist
and always right.
if only
you missed one thing
you are a right prat
I wonder if Tony Abbott can see Russia from his house?
dario
he sure can see sarah palin
he has her poster in his bathroom
[Markets should be built to charge for social ills and sponsor economic good.]
Which means it is impossible for you to support the Liberal’s current climate change policy, and that you should vote Labor at the next election.