The final Newspoll for 2012 has the Coalition opening up a 54-46 lead, up from 51-49 last time, from primary votes of 32% for Labor (down four), 46% for the Coalition (up three) and 11% for the Greens (steady). However, personal ratings are little changed, with Julia Gillard on 36% approval (down one) and 52% disapproval (steady), Tony Abbott on 28% approval (down two) and 59% disapproval (down two), and Gillard’s lead as preferred prime minister narrowing from 46-33 to 43-34. Hat tip as always to James J, whom the Poll Bludger wishes a very happy new year.
Essential Research also has the Coalition leading 54-46, which is up a point on last week, from primary votes of 36% for Labor (down one), 48% for the Coalition (up one), 8% for the Greens (down one). The monthly personal approval ratings show a sharp fall for Julia Gillard, down four on approval to 37% and up four on disapproval to 53%, with Tony Abbott respectively steady on 33% and down two to 56%. Gillard’s lead as preferred prime minister is down from 45-32 to 43-34. Also featured are questions on gas and electricity prices, which find 27% blaming the federal government, 16% state government and 45% power companies, and 56% believing power generation and distribution should be operated by government against 24% for private companies. A question on media regulation has 44% believing the Press Council should deal with complaints against 28% for a new government-appointed organisation.
Bemused
The A Team under the PMOA is set fair and raring to go.
Fiona
Sleep well
Psephos @ 5405: “The Coalition and the Murdoch press will drop Ashby, Labor has already dropped Slipper, like a pair of rather mouldy hot potatoes. Neither side has any interest in this matter dragging on next year. Both sides will settle for the draw and let it die over the summer.”
There remains, however, the interesting question of who is going to pay Mr Ashby’s bills. Reading the court’s judgement, it’s a bit hard to see Mr Ashby as the sort of person who will take kindly to being dropped like a mouldy potato. I’m old enough to remember the contemporary accounts from Judge Sirica’s court when he read out the letter he received from the Watergate burglar James McCord, who took umbrage at being similarly dropped.
[Well this may not mean much at all but one person I know who has always voted Liberal is going to sack Abbott and switch to Labor for the next election.]
Centre, on this I am not surprised. Many of us are a wee bit pissed off at the pathetic coverage of this Ashby matter but my own feeling is we need to be patient.
It’s a slow burner!
Bemused @ 5447
Yes, no doubt about that.
Good to see Joel Fitzgibbon speaking common sense about the budget “surplus” debate.
No doubt the PM will be pleased he exercised his democratic right and raised the issue for public discussion
Fiona – glad you’re OK,take care and take time to recover.
Oh, feeney. You really have NFI. 😆
Steve777 @ 5418
Another thing I find about right wingers is that they tend to have an excellent grasp of the social contract as they feel it should be applied to themselves.
Fiona
Glad you are oK
I hate the holidays on the roads
All my drivers will be finished up for 2 weeks from thursday and I will be the only one doing the essential driving.
People please stay safe it is a nightmare on the roads at holiday time
Kinkajou
Posted Saturday, December 15, 2012 at 10:01 pm | Permalink
wait with bated breath?
——————————————————–
or pray.
vic said it s a new account but then i suppose people can have new accounts,
vic would know more than i though
fiona
Close call.
Glad you are OK. 🙂
confessions @ 5457
Right on cue!
Come in spinner!!
Psephos, the government can chew gum and walk at the same time. JG has had too many near-death experiences to let this Rares decision go, it may end up being her Tampa.
The policy platform is good, but needs another term to bed down.
Rossmore@5451
On reviewing the campaign and results of the 2010 election, you are clearly wrong. 😛
briefly:
Going back to your point about Labor and the media, I think the rot set in when Rudd started doing 24/7 rubbish announceables instead of trying to weave a narrative.
He had a perfect opportunity to do so as PM with the GFC response, but chose instead to stupidly and narrow-mindedly gag frontbenchers from even mentioning the amount of the deficit. That was a mistake.
In my view a lot of Labor’s failures at media management go back to the Rudd era, and that whole fearful, cautious, insular approach. Needing to fill the so-called 24hour news cycle. Thank heavens we now have a PM who eschews that stuff.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/festive-spend-could-be-best-in-three-years/story-fn7ki14e-1226535771240
[Christmas spending could be best in years, Deloitte survey shows
By Ed Logue AAP December 13, 2012 1:33AM]
This article from a couple of days ago could be coming true. I saw a seven news segment tonight saying retail sales were going very well in the shopping centres, at least in Melbourne. Makes a change from Deloitte Access Economics repeated failed attempts to pick the mining bust (a few times in recent years). Could be a reasonable economic year next year if the mycareer employment forecast, which was failrly positive, holds up as well. Budget surplus still a reasonable prospect IMHO.
5454
joe2
[Many of us are a wee bit pissed off at the pathetic coverage of this Ashby matter but my own feeling is we need to be patient.
It’s a slow burner!]
I think that is likely to be the case.
I don’t think this one is going to go away as quietly and conveniently as some might hope.
I took time today to write to the Attorney General, Albo and the PM to ask that they pursue an enquiry. I figure a little people power couldn’t hurt.
Joe2 Ashby turning on the Libs would be their worst nightmare. Strangerr things have happened… The ball is in his court now if he was smart enough to realize that several senior Libs political careers depend on his silence. What dark deeds are occurring to secure his ongoing silence…… This sordid tale ain’t over yet…..
Centre
[We want to know the involvement of Pyne, Brandis, Hockey and Abbott in the Ashby v Slipper affair]
Forget about your betting conflict of interest.
Add BishopJ to the list.
and Warren Entsch.
It might be easier to ask which of the coalition front bench was not involved!
Leroy
All I can say is that the shops here in Melbourne have been busy for weeks now. Very different to last year.
Feeney
Will you be the first to admit,unlike you did with Ruddstoration, that you were wrong if Labor delivers its surplus and you are still a clown?
Joe2
I swear on my marbles that it’s true. I know one voter who is sacking the Liberals over Slippergate.
[People please stay safe it is a nightmare on the roads at holiday time]
Sure is. We had a wet after a long break, yesterday. Treacherous with dickheads sliding all over the place.
[The policy platform is good, but needs another term to bed down.]
The policy platform is more than good. It’s far superior for this country than anything either the coalition or the Greens are offering.
Liberals and Greens offer nothing other than magic pudding, pie in the sky fantasies with nothing even remotely attached to objective reality.
If you want serious policies, grounded in reality, then the choice is really quite simple.
Bemused … One thing I am sure of, the PMoA will be all the wiser after the 2010 campaign …
Rossmore @ 5469 – One good reason for keeping the idea of an inquiry in the air, even if it’s not ultimately pursued, is that it could play with the minds of any potential sugar daddies who might be approached to come up with half a million or so big ones. (This assumes that the LNP is no longer in a position to seek to put the bite on Mr Palmer, and that the notion of setting up a fund for contributors has become a bit tainted lately.)
Gecko:
Good on you. I am building up to a similar request myself, only deciding on the desired framework within which I think it would best be delivered.
And this Rossmore from Ackland.
[Already, there’s a looming conflict issue. He might sack Mr Harmer and get separate legal advice, which could urge him, within the seven-day deadline, to apply for an order of the court that Mr Harmer pay these costs.]
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/ashby-case-a-shocking-spectacle-20121213-2bcgg.html#ixzz2F7RkSTHO
Laocoon
Leave Mes alone, she was pushed into Ashby/Slipper like S%G slushfund 😯
Phil Vee@5419,
Thank you for the link to Abbott’s speech. Didn’t want to go there myself, to Liberal HQ, and retrieve it.
Thank you again for reaffirming my interpretation of Abbott’s words. I must admit that I was listening as I was making Dinner, so only caught it in one ear and with half a brain.
The next Coalition government won’t shirk hard decisions
Why on earth does Tony Abbott assume, as the default position, that hard decisions necessarily need to be made? What’s so wrong with the nation and the economy that this is a given?
The bastard is just telegraphing, covertly, that he has in mind for those of us not in his good books, a world of pain.
but will talk to the experts before decisions are made rather than just argue with them afterwards.
The only ‘experts’ the federal Labor government ‘argues with’ are the crackpots and shills. The only ‘experts’ an Abbott government would consult before ‘decisions are made’…are the crackpots and shills.
As those who worked with me as a minister can attest, my style is to consult with the people that a government decision could impact and to work out for myself what are its real pros and cons.
Just cast this methodology through the prism of Abbott’s RU486 decision-making process and extrapolate into the future of an Abbott-led government. Seat required.
The next Coalition government won’t take an “officials know best” approach to the problems of the nation
!!!
This is the kicker sentence. I mean, what do people study for decades to become experts in the field, if not to be more knowledgeable about the subjects they have studied, compared to those who have not done as much study in that area? Like politicians.
and won’t make decisions that impact on people’s lives without, as far as is possible, taking them into our confidence first.
What does this actually mean? Tony is going to be so kind as to tell us poor wretches whose lives he has decided to wreck all about it beforehand? So kind of the potential benevolent dictator.
I’m sure Tony Abbott goes the full drool, like a kid in a candy shop, when, in his private moments, he contemplates achieving the position of Prime Minister of Australia. Not for the good he can do in the job, but for the power it will give him to control people.
Gecko@5468
Good work Gecko.
I trust you have also signed the petition being gathered online?
i have always felt sad for people who cannot move on in life
it must be on their mind every second of the day
what a miserable thought
i pray for you
Let me add my voice to the chorus of well-wishers, fiona. I’m not a supporter of metaphysics, so I’m not sure about luck or purpose playing a part, but I’m very glad to hear that you have come through ostensibly unscathed.
The advice of others to take care of yourself tomorrow is wise. Be around those whose company you value most.
Best Wishes
kettle black
bemused you got stuck in to me for writing
to our members
o and i bet u copy and paste you cannot help it
Rossmore@5475
I am sure of that too.
cann some one keep that copy of abbotts speach in case it
dissapears off his web site,
albo needs to see that
briefly@5431,
Excellent fellow, your man. Please say hello to him from me.
I will do that. Except I don’t know what he will say in return, as I can only converse with his ashes, which are up on the sideboard. He died from Multiple Myeloma on August 28, 2009. 🙁
Still, it was a good 30 years together. And I have my 2 sons as eternal reminders. 🙂
sprocket_@5463
Agreed. ALP needs to pick its time, but they should NOT just let the Ashby stuff fade away.
Centre
haha – you have clearly been given the evil glare
[I know one voter who is sacking the Liberals over Slippergate.]
The proverbial doctor’s wives’ market?
Early in the day, Billie posted the link to:
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/the-poor-get-poorer-while-the-rest-get-the-handouts-20121214-2bfdo.html
[WHEN will Julia Gillard’s government find the courage to raise the dole? Her party’s website tells us it is working for a ”fairer Australia”. But while middle-class welfare endures, our poorest citizens are living far below the poverty line.
The Greens and others want a $50-a-week boost to the single Newstart rate. (A broader, costlier reform would involve indexing the dole in a similar way to pensions.) Where might that $50 a week come from? New research by the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the richest fifth of Australian households receive nearly half of all wages paid – and also get 12 per cent of government assistance. The second-richest fifth get 11 per cent.
Newstart, says the Business Council, ”no longer meets a reasonable community standard of adequacy”. Yet a Labor government – in power for five years – has kept it brutally low. What a topsy-turvy world we live in.]
Meanwhile the regular PBers bang on all day about media bias.
Centre @ 5472
Yes to the first part. No to the second. Why do you find it necessary to resort to abuse if someone is not up to your superior intellectual standards?
I merely pose the question, as others more intelligent and across these economic matters than you or me, why is it so necessary to deliver a surplus?
There may be good reasons for it. I am yet to be convinced.
I am not alone in the Labor Party with some misgivings. I may be in the minority but that’s never worried me.
[ The next Coalition government won’t take an “officials know best” approach to the problems of the nation]
I’m waiting for Newman govt to do scepticism around vaccination ala fluoridation (btw Brisbane City Council runs a vaccination clinic), while the NSW govt is demanding the Aust Vaccination Network changes its name to something a little less deceptive.
🙂
Don’t forget Clive Palmer is telegraphing that he has something up his sleeve to tell us about next week.
Obama seeks new Defence Secretary
______________________
A usually well-informed New York Jewish site(but very anti-Likud site )..Mondoweiss…says that Obama is soon to announce he will nominate a new defence secretary former Senator “Chuck” Hagel..a republican and a known opponent of the idea of war with Iran
It has already drawn fire from the neo-cons whose always favour war in the Middle East
It may be a further manifestation of Obama’s dislike for Netanyahu and his policies and a sign of a much harder line again Israeli policies by Obama
Hagel has described the Israeli call for war with Iran..as “Alice in Wonderland”policy
Mondoweiss sees it as a turning point in US defence policy and a break with policies dominated in the US by the zionist lobby
It says that the Lobby is already on the attack in Washington
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/12/chuck-hagel-said-idea-of-going-to-war-with-iran-is-alice-in-wonderlan
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/12/chuck-hagel-said-idea-of-going-to-war-with-iran-is-alice-in-wonderlan
Just something out of left field which may interest?
Tony Abbott had ” no specific knowledge” of the Ashby conspiracy, prior to reading about it in the papers. It turns out that “specific knowledge” is a debating term, and Abbott was a gun debater at school, at Sydney Uni and at Oxford. Debating gets quite technical.
http://www.apdaweb.org/old/guide/rules.html
Half way down on this link is a discussion of “specific knowledge” and how it is used in debating , remembering that debates have notional Government and Opposition.
It reminds me very much of the “we have no plans to…..” form of words to deny something you actually have in mind. But you have no A0 blueprints, so “have no plans” is true, albeit a white lie.
Laocoon
Put it this way. I believe Greenway will be getting one extra swing vote 😎
Feeney
It’s far too early to debate whether or not the budget will be in surplus.
I have given my reasons why the government should do everything possible to deliver that surplus.
Go back and check my prior posts, I’m not into repetitive posts like you e.g. Ruddstoration 🙂
would some want the vaccination thing
only becauce they want people to pay for it them selves
god help up imagine most would not
what a dreadful thought
my say@5484
Just to please you!
I am using the quick quote feature of cccp. You should try it.
They will get lots of messages on this and they will all the totalled up as a measure of public reaction. This is something that is actionable rather than a general whinge about something.
[I trust you have also signed the petition being gathered online?]
I hope this petition is in order, unlike the last one I saw being pushed here.
There is a lot more to come on this matter of Ashby, me thunks.
+++
My neighbour, Frank, died today after a long illness. I’m glad I visited him for the final farewell. Vale, Frank.
Frank’s life revolved around his truck, an ugly Ford. “It’s my lifeline,” he said.
He’d often hare off to NSW for wood. He never gave up.
In the early days here, in the pub, Frank would tell a story. It was a long and painful process. One could get at least three pots in before the end game.
But, it was worth the effort. The punchline was always a cracker.
Frank would be bemused by this brief mention on PB. Frank was old school: All politicians are bastards, all the same. Bye, Frank.
His sister is handling matters, but unable to cope. Two dogs, a cat, and a parrot of some description in a cage.
I can’t take the dogs. My boxers would scoff ’em.
Maybe the bloody parrot? Short-term. What do parrots eat?
(I do not approve of birds in cages.)
However, a parrot out the front might be a jolly good thing for the boxers. Much sniffing. Will attempt to think.
+++
Good night, Bludgers.