For all the convulsions it has faced on the political front, in one respect the Gillard government has presented a model of stability in recent months: its opinion poll ratings, as measured by the weekly Essential Research report, have been set in stone since the middle of June. This week’s result shows no change at all on the previous week, with Labor on 32 per cent and the Coalition on 49 per cent of the primary vote, and the Coalition leading 56-44 on two-party preferred. The only change is a two-point gain for the Greens, who are up to 12 per cent at the expense of other parties and independents. Respondents were also asked to rate the performance of Tony Abbott as Opposition Leader, with slightly better results than he is used to from his personal approval ratings: 38 per cent agreed he was “performing the role of opposition leader well and is keeping the government accountable”, with 45 per cent taking the commonly heard view that he is “just opposing everything and is obstructing the work of the government”.
Other questions fielded by Essential Research probe the complex area of public opinion on asylum seekers, and as usual they offer little to help guide political leaders through the minefield. Whereas other surveys have indicated surprisingly high support for onshore processing, the latest survey illustrates how dependent such results are upon the options given to respondents. Only 21 per cent were found to indicate a preference for onshore processing when the available alternatives were offshore processing “in any other country” (11 per cent), offshore processing “only in a country where human rights are protected” (31 per cent) and turning the boats around (28 per cent).
Respondents were further asked to rate features of a good refugee processing system, and here too the public seems determined to make life difficult for the government: the two features rated most important were “keeping costs down” (rated very important or somewhat important by 81 per cent) and the possibly incompatible objective of “protecting human rights” (80 per cent). It might be thought a surprise that the objective of “stopping the boats” only came in third, at 74 per cent. The least pressing concern was ensuring that asylum seekers were not returned to the country from which they had fled (49 per cent).
A question on trust in various Australian institutions emphasises how much work our churches have to do to recover confidence: only 29 per cent declared a lot of trust or some trust in religious organisations, against 72 per cent for the High Court, 67 per cent for the Reserve Bank and 61 per cent for charitable organisations. Interestingly, federal parliament (55 per cent) rated higher than the ABC (46 per cent), environmental groups (45 per cent) and trade unions (39 per cent). Last but certainly not least, the AFL grand final attracted the most interest out of three looming sports events: 32 per cent declared themselves interested, against 20 per cent for the NRL grand final and 10 per cent for the Rugby World Cup.
The weekend brought another polling tidbit from Adelaide’s Advertiser, which has conducted an in-house poll of 642 respondents from the state electorate of Port Adelaide. The poll is a product of the almost universal anticipation that the seat’s current Labor member, Kevin Foley, will head for the parliamentary exit not long after he stands down from the ministry in October 20, in tandem with Premier Mike Rann. Whereas there is little expectation Labor will be troubled in the resulting by-election for Rann’s seat of Ramsay, Port Adelaide-Enfield mayor Gary Johanson is thought to be a serious prospect as an independent candidate in Port Adelaide. The poll nonetheless shows Johanson attracting only 14 per cent support at this stage, with 37 per cent backing Labor, 31 per cent Liberal and 11 per cent for the Greens. Labor has a two-party lead of 55-45, pointing to a swing to the Liberals of about 8 per cent. The poll’s margin of error is around 4 per cent.
Night bludgers
Never before, in the field of taxation, will so many bleed, for so little (if they happen to get off the lounge for five minutes in their spare time, which is unlikely).
bemused
kev was never in qld parl
I walked 4.5 Miles today.
Not bad for a 90 year old.
As I was walking, I listened to some Miles Davis.
Get it MILES Davis.
drake the soulpat guy just wants to sell more bandages and dispirin
🙁
The Qld Public Service tell a diffrent story.
rishane,
I have always thought as a manager of any kind, you need to play to each ‘audience’ because if one of them gets out of balance it can cause your downfall in other areas. Rudd was great at playing to the voter audience, but not to his caucus which, unfortunately for Rudd, had the power to vote him in AND out.
Before we start on the Rudd vs Gillard argument. I liked them both and think, that working together they make a complimentary pair. And should they decide to work that way they would make an exceptional management team.
The Demetriou thing was a beauty. He referred to the Clubs Australia boss as a “hillbilly”.
Exactly. Radio Liberal gave 24/7 pre-publicity for weeks leading up to the various anti-carbon tax “rallies”. And they struggled to get a few thousand to turn out.
Unions in NSW got nearly FORTY thousand turn out to a rally against O’Barrell’s IR changes – with practically ZERO mainstream media promotion.
Gus,
I’d be down the chemist right now stocking up for the bloodbath but I’m not game to leave the house.
It’s a Carbon Tax nightmare out there.
Drake,
Coonan Carbon Chaos!
SK,
Yup!
Hellish Helen Coonan’s Carbon Chaos Capers.
Well put. I guess one of the problems for Gillard poll-wise is that she’s very good at keeping the caucus audience satisfied and everything going smoothly, but efficient government is a hard thing to market.
Totally ignored on the 7PM ABC news tonight – after they had spent all day amping up the bullshit story
bemused:
Rudd was never in Qld parliament, which should strike you as odd that someone who was never elected was able to wield such power an influence over ACTUAL elected members.
His tenure in the Qld PS makes Max Moore Wilton’s term in federal APS looks like a flowery picnic.
rishane @ 548
You really must master those square brackets.
Those poor little petals, couldn’t stand up to big bad Kevvie without bursting into tears. I wish I could have been there and loaned them my hankie and some advice to HTFU.
Drake,
I had to laugh at her comments. They made her look amateurish and small amongst the other panelists (except JA, she is just all small minded bitch).
I hate catalogues of bridal wear, they are all flowing and veils and things and thankyou dear JC I have only one beautiful daughter…whew you guys been through this?
Exactly – and those poor petals over at LP managed to airbrush that when Gillard took over – despite attacking him over it when he became Labor Leader prior to the 2007 election.
Quincelanders are a strange lot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UPw4f1oN7g
rishane,
In my heart of hearts, I believe that one of the first things that need to go in any possible govt turnaround, is saying adios to Hawker Britton.
They are obviously not up to the task of breaking through the murdochracy anti-govt messages. Its time for a fresh approach.
drake
just ripped up the sheets and ground the panadol
Didn’t see the pokies part of QandA, but from what I could work out from Twitter, Coonan was opposed to pre-commitments.
Well, well well.
And zero disclosure about this.
SK,
The camera stayed on Coonan long after she made the riot gaffe. She was visibly embarrassed, as she well should be.
And yes, JA is 100%. She’s irretrievable, the poor sausage.
Dan,
Disclosure? All things coalition, past and present, owe their arses to murdoch.
Mark Arbib is well and truly in the sights of Andrew Elder
Suggests he was asleep at the wheel for the clubs row to get this far. Worth a read
http://andrewelder.blogspot.com/
drake,
I did notice that. It is sad when you start believing your own bullshit Helen.
nite all
especially bilbo
from now on u iz brutus
🙁
GUSSY YOU TRICKED ME!
That wasn’t a story on nuclear safety!
😆
We do what we must to survive the Carbon Chaos. (swmbo will go berserk bout the sheets)
What are you talking about? Those “poor petals” didn’t burst into tears, but had him removed. It doesn’t get more clinical than that.
…
*watches ball fly past to the keeper*
And you’re not 82 Shows 😆
Night all
EVEN YOU BRUTUS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgXQWE1Q-Sc
Don’t worry Squadron Leader, I’m your Wing Man, Gussy can’t handle my fire power.
Frank:
The petals at LP must be feeling silly, after Gillard Labor has introduced a carbon price, disability insurance scheme, and is tackling a mining tax and pokies reform.
True. I’m 90.
You have to be kidding – Gillard is a Rightard cos Welfare Reform – All Cripples should bludge on full pensions regardless they cry.
GD @ 576
Some here may think I am anti-Gillard but I am not. I like both her and Rudd.
But I have unbounded contempt for that creep Arbib and the others behind Rudd’s demise. A self promoting cabal of little ability.
Rudd and Gillard made quite a good team IMHO.
@confessions/565,
Perhaps thats why he failed to reach the public? By not running for premier for QLD?
GD:
ARbib has proven himself to be a wholly incompetent minister – in this and his previous ministry.
Time to cut him loose to the backbench with a view to disendorsing him next election.
worry not gus remember my high horse suggestion.
bemused,
I agree on Arbib and co. There were better ways to manage a transition, but the way they went about it said more about them than it did about either JG or Rudd.
Has anyone any information on what Hawker Britton is doing or might do?
confessions @ 581
Just responding to rishane who mentioned the tears.
A lot of petals getting mentioned tonight. 😉
Better be careful if William is around.
true
the dagger missed any vital organs
🙁
you mean the same Mark Arbib Kevin Rudd relied on to topple Kim Beeazley ??
People in Glass Houses………
Let’s just say his silence on Pokie Reform is noted by some here……
Gus, check your DM 🙂
Yes, the same one.
But as an elected member and member of the front bench, all we can do is assess his performance as a front bencher and minister. His performance has been poor, and IMO he should be moved on in favour of other promising up and comers like Mike Kelly.
frank
double double in 5 hrs
orf to bed