Essential Research: 56-44 to Coalition

The latest Essential Research poll has Labor losing the ground it gained in last week’s result: their primary vote has dropped a point to 31 per cent, with the Coalition up one to 49 per cent, the Greens steady on 11 per cent and two-party preferred out from 55-45 to 56-44. Furthermore:

• Little change has been recorded on the carbon tax since an improved result a fortnight ago: approval is steady on 39 per cent and disapproval up two to 51 per cent. Exactly half of all respondents believe that Tony Abbott either doesn’t believe in or doesn’t care about climate change.

• The government’s “Malaysia solution” on asylum seekers has suffered a sharp decline in popularity since June 16: support is down nine points to 31 per cent and opposition up 14 to 53 per cent.

• “Trust in organisations to handle personal information” runs, from highest to lowest, the medical profession, banks, governments,Australian companies, online companies, political parties, foreign companies and the media.

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.

2,376 thoughts on “Essential Research: 56-44 to Coalition”

  1. C64 was my first computer. Loved that little thing!

    Assembler, Basic, Pascal, C, C++, Smalltalk, Java… must they keep re-inventing the wheel for me?

  3. Quentin Dempster’s Statement verbatim, minus his mobile no.

    Statement by Quentin Dempster ABC Staff-elected director (in exile) 2 August 2011
    Re: Program cuts at the ABC
    There needs to be a public inquiry into the siphoning of taxpayers’ funds meant to sustain independent public broadcasting to the commercial television sector.
    The list of current program cuts, misleadingly represented as schedule refreshment, is in fact the intentional destruction of the ABC’s creative independence.
    An inquiry to establish the facts is needed into this major shift in the role of the public broadcaster away from its Charter and public purpose.
    I think an inquiry would show that this process, which began with the outsourcing of production units such as drama, then moved on to natural history, now includes all documentary, arts and, finally, studio-based light entertainment.
    The loss of in-house production will have a particularly significant impact on arts and other specialist communities especially those outside of Sydney and Melbourne.
    Public broadcasting is founded on the idea that you cannot have creative independence unless you have a capacity to make programs yourself, unencumbered by the commercial imperative.
    Under the Kim Dalton model ABC programs are these days commissioned on the basis of their commercial ‘bankability’ – their capacity to be on-sold to pay TV and other commercial operators after a showing on the ABC. When this commissioning model is applied there is little room for public purpose, innovation and risk-taking, much less independence from commercial influence. What the public gets from this model is Hallmark television or light-weight, sexy and formulaic stuff pitched at an AB demographic.
    The public has become alerted to the way in which SBS has been undermined with its once loyal audience by SBS’s increasing dependence on commerciality.
    Commercial co-productions and out-sourcing at the ABC, though less visible, are just as corrosive of the public role of the ABC as paid advertising at SBS. All of this without any public discussion.
    In the context of the current ‘convergence review’ this siphoning of taxpayer funds to commercial purposes fundamentally shifts the place of the ABC in the Australian media and cultural landscape.
    An inquiry would show the extent to which the taxpayer’s trust in the ABC as an independent and creative voice is being betrayed.
    The public trust of the ABC is based on an expectation that we are independent of commercial influence.
    That trust is being breached by current management and board policy.
    Quentin Dempster

  4. The ABC was ‘culturally trained’ well before 2007, it was fawning of unca in 2007, any complaint would have been laughable, because the pro Howard fawning was as strong as ever, what no doubt you’d have found troubling Glen was the public didn’t buy it briefly.

    It would be an interesting study to work out why sometimes lies spread through the media like the distortions on pink batts, the outright disgraceful lies on BER and moronic stupidy we see aligned against the NBN catch on and are believed by the populus and when they are ignored.

  5. Public broadcasting is founded on the idea that you cannot have creative independence unless you have a capacity to make programs yourself, unencumbered by the commercial imperative.
    Under the Kim Dalton model ABC programs are these days commissioned on the basis of their commercial ‘bankability’ – their capacity to be on-sold to pay TV and other commercial operators after a showing on the ABC. When this commissioning model is applied there is little room for public purpose, innovation and risk-taking, much less independence from commercial influence. What the public gets from this model is Hallmark television or light-weight, sexy and formulaic stuff pitched at an AB demographic.

    case study

    7.30 report

    in fact all their abc is riven with this sad virus

    🙁

  8. RupertMurdochPR Good girl. You can have 2 biscuits in the tea room RT @overingtonc Weak, frightened governments censor the media.

    😆

  9. poroti

    Posted Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 9:44 pm | Permalink

    Frank Calabrese

    Quentin Dempster’s Statement verbatim, minus his mobile no.

    i think he sums the problem up pretty damn well.

    and QD is no ALP fan by any stretch – he said as much when he spoke to the WA FABC AGM a few years ago.

  10. Dio,

    Sounds like a very serious extortion attempt.

    Mosman has the highest land values in the nation – home to the mega-rich.

    A pretty bloody nasty thing to do. Hope it turns out ok.

  13. Finns

    “They are completely impossible to fulfill,” Lippestad said, adding that although Breivik has agreed to be examined by local psychiatrists, he also wants to be investigated by Japanese specialists.

    “He claims the Japanese understand the idea and values of honor and that a Japanese (specialist) would understand him a lot better than any European would.”

    I see Breivik wants a Japanese psychiatrist as they understand honor.

  16. For a brief period I was a computer whiz!

    A friend of mine got a posting in charge of the computer room for one of the faculties at Melbourne Uni (think it might have been Geography). Stories of students taking floppy disks out of their wallets, unfolding them, and then asking him why they didn’t work.

    Meanwhile, I was taking classes of 25 students for their very first lessons on PCs (I was the first English teacher in our school to insist on all my classes being timetabled in the computer room for at least one period a week). I would stand in front of the class and say, “Put in Disk A. Now, remove Disk A and flip it over. Put it back in. Now remove it and put in….”. Getting the whole class onto the (very poor) equivalent of Word took easily 10 minutes.

    As late as the early 90s, I was impressing students with my computer skills by removing the covers of machines which weren’t booting up properly, wiggling the whatever they weres which were always coming lose, and then restarting the computer. Always worked.

    My friend went on to work at Silicon Valley and made millions. Yet at one stage our skills in the area were exactly equivalent.

  18. “He claims the Japanese understand the idea and values of honor and that a Japanese (specialist) would understand him a lot better than any European would.”

    I see Breivik wants a Japanese psychiatrist as they understand honor.

    Diog, what a FARQing idiot. They should tell him NOBODY has committed Seppuka for the Fukushima fiasco, scandal and lies.

    In the old Samurai days, the whole Cabinet would have committed seppuka in public.

  20. I see Breivik wants a Japanese psychiatrist as they understand honor.

    Breivik expected to be killed yet he didn’t commit sepuku.

  22. And here is this the CPSU’s media release – whicgh is strange as prior to this when the topic of Jen’s petition was raised with Mr Thompson he was less than enthused with such a beast.

    CPSU media release 02 August 2011

    Union slams ABC program cuts
    The ABC union has warned that the national broadcaster’s decision to cut programs including Art Nation and the New Inventors, sack staff and further outsource production, is a breach of its Charter and may jeopardize its ongoing funding.
    The union is calling for an immediate audit of all TV production costings, both outsourced and in-house, to ensure taxpayers are getting value for money.
    Graeme Thomson, ABC Section Secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union said: “Taxpayer have the right to be outraged by the dismantling of their ABC.
    “This announcement raises serious questions about whether the ABC is delivering against its legislative Charter, Parliament’s justification for the ABC’s one billion budget.
    “ABC staff have been gutted by this decision. They are personally committed to delivering the quality content that has made the ABC one of Australia’s most important and respected cultural institutions.
    “The cutting of Art Nation, the ABC’s only remaining TV arts program, is an act of cultural vandalism.
    “The ABC is at its best when it broadcasts the best international and domestically produced material available. This has meant maintaining a balance between in-house and private sector production.
    “Under Head of Television Kim Dalton ideologically driven approach, this balance has been lost. The ABC TV has been reduced to a mere transmission tower broadcasting the same material from the same production houses used by commercial channels. This threatens the ABC’s distinctiveness, rationale and ultimately, its funding.
    “The national broadcaster is required to provide quality programs that reflect the diversity of Australia, its cultures and regional perspectives. The announcement today that regional TV producers are to be sacked destroys this important arm of the ABC Charter.
    The union has also criticised Managing Director Mark Scott, claiming he has overseen the destruction of the ABC’s television production.
    “Mr Scott claims he supports a ‘mixed model’ of internal and external production. But on his watch we have seen more outsourcing than under Jonathan Shier,” Mr Thomson said.
    “What angers ABC staff is that they have been set up for failure. The internal programs have been starved of funds and promotion budgets, while external productions have had funds lavished on them and have been heavily marketed by the ABC.
    “ABC program-makers, eager to rebuild in-house production have been repeatedly told by Mr Dalton to leave the ABC and pitch the program ideas from outside because he is not interested in producing them inside. Australian taxpayers are entitled to be angered at this arrogance and waste,” Mr Thomson said.

    For further comment contact Graeme Thomson, ABC Section Secretary Community and Public Sector Union

  23. Finns,

    Even in Samurai days a few scapegoats would commit seppuku for their lord – i.e. the plebs would pay to save the master’s face.

    A bit Murdochian, actually.

  24. Amigos

    I thought you would enjoy both enjoy it. 😀

    Augustus

    what has anders bolt had to say about breivik?

    When a Muslim commits an atrocity, it’s because he is a Muslim (did you know the average age of suicide bombers in Pakistan is 16?).

    When a right-wing Christian does it, it has nothing to do with ideology. It’s a potty training thing.

  30. Very old computer nerd here as well. 🙂

    Had quite a few before it but I have a soft spot for the Amstrad 1512. That was one hell of a PC.

  31. SMirabellaMP Sophie Mirabella
    The Gillard Government compared with the failed ideologues of beta technology http://tinyurl.com/3v59nnn%5D
    My response:
    [This analogy is completely is way off the mark. VHS became popular because it was licensed to other companies, whereas Sony retained a monopoly on the use of the the Beta format.

    A more correct analogy would be to see that Beta is like internet connections based on the copper phone network that is owned by Telstra, because ISPs must pay a fee to a monopoly in order to access the network, whereas the NBN will be like VHS, where any company can access the network for the same cost irrespective of if they are a huge national ISP, like Telstra Bigpond, or a small state based ISP.

    So this article is good in the sense that it encourages thought about the issue, but the more accurate conclusion to make is the complete opposite of what it argues. The Government is supporting the opening up of the internet using a the most technologically advanced system based on fibre optics, while the Coalition seems hell bent on leaving us in the ‘Beta era’ of the internet where Telstra has an effective veto on competition in the fixed broadband sector because it owns the copper network.

  34. WWP

    I thought they were biased against Howard….

    Did they call workchoices ‘serfchoies’? I don’t think so, name one former govt program the ABC referred to by the oppositions insult for it, and name one currect govt program that isn’t referred to by the opposition rubbish.

    It is something that could be studied objectively if someone had the time and money, such a study could show you right and me wrong, but I doubt it.

  36. gusface,

    the unusual thing was that their master was forced to suicide (but notice in the end, they all ended up dead too)- he must have been a very foolish master – not likes our good master Rupertsss.

  37. Scarpat

    Any good with a light sabre?

    only for cutting off the tops of champagne bottles.

    Ever tried doing it?

    Friggin’ disaster the only time I saw someone do it.

  48. GhostWhoVotesGhostWhoVotes

    #Galaxy Poll Carbon Price: Support 37 (+2) Oppose 55 (0) #CarbonTax #auspol

    5 minutes ago

    GhostWhoVotesGhostWhoVotes

    #Galaxy Poll Primary Votes: ALP 31 L/NP 48 GRN 13 #auspol

    8 minutes agoFavoriteRetweetReply

    GhostWhoVotesGhostWhoVotes

    #Galaxy Poll 2 Party Preferred: ALP 44 LNP 56 #auspol

    9 minutes ago

  49. GhostWhoVotes GhostWhoVotes
    #Galaxy Poll Carbon Price: Support 37 (+2) Oppose 55 (0) #CarbonTax #auspol
    6 minutes ago

    Movement at the station

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