Things have improved slightly for the Coalition in Newspoll’s January-February result for state voting intention in Victoria, with Labor’s two-party lead down from 55-45 to 53-47. The Coalition is up three points on the primary vote to 39%, with Labor steady on 38% and the Greens down three to 13%. However, Ted Baillieu’s personal ratings continue to deteriorate: his approval is down two to 31% with disapproval up five to 53%, and his lead as preferred premier has narrowed from 39-30 to 38-31. Daniel Andrews is down two on approval to 30% and up two on disapproval to 36%. Numbers courtesy of GhostWhoVotes.
Are things looking up?
Shite.
Thought it was a federal poll/
As you were.
Ted is a disater and everyone knows it
In recent weeks he has given a spate of half-baked policy ideas…none well received
Bad News Ted
The Newspoll tables:
http://bit.ly/13z0W1X
It appears “moderate” Liberals like Ted “Fuck Teachers” Baillieu don’t hold much appeal down here for too long. A useless, boring, do-nothing government that actually is one by-election away from complete collapse. Bring it!
There guys, nice to read some wanton Labor smugness once in a while huh?:D
Baillieu also suffers from the typical Liberal myopia on transport. The solution is always a toll road tunnel. Never mind if the last four in a row have gone broke. Never mind if a serious transport expert, Sir Ron Eddington, found that the obvious long term solution for Melbourne was a tunnel to fix CBD rail capacity.
As much as this may be pleasing for Labor supporters, it is a recoverable position and Baillieu still has almost 2 years to go. Vibe I am getting from my Victorian poli friends is that, while Ted is certainly vulnerable, he’s still with a good chance to win re-election, especially if he starts becoming a “good guy” in the final year or so of this term.
Carey,
Bailleau will be lucky to see the week out if this morning’s scandal about lies and deceit from him, his deputy and every one else associated with the tawdry Simon Overland demise takes hold.
So, talk of him winning elections two year’s hence is rather premature to say the least.
The knives are out and he will be gone in the not to distant future.
Socrates @ 6
Melbourne desperately needs a second east-west road link linking the Eastern Freeway with the Tullamarine and the Westgate. This is a city that has never got its east-west connections right – Citylink (a successful toll road and tunnel) was part of it but needs more. There is a cross city metro being planned but it is currently being criticised by some who believe that the public transport focus shoudl be put on outer suburbia – both inner and outer need additional in my opinion – as well as the east-west road.
Rarely do I agree with GG but his post has more than a grain of truth. Damn it – you even used the word ‘tawdry’ before me – but there is no other description. But should Ted go, the question is ‘who?’. Matthew Guy is obvious but in the wrong house and in the wrong part of the city for an easy parachute – most of the other prominent ministers are either in the wrong house – David Davis (though he could be parachuted more easily into Ted’s seat of Hawthorn) or just not premiership material (Kim Wells or Alan Mulder).
6
Eddington is no real transport expert. He was an airline executive.
Eddington proposed both a road and a rail tunnel, like his rapport was designed to produce.
The whole “big tunnel to fix all problems” nonsense has infected Melbourne Rail planning for decades. The City Loop was part of this. It soaked up the PT funding for a generation and thus many much needed suburban rail projects are yet to be funded. Much can be gained from options not shown and assumptions not analysed in the rapport
A bunch of other measures can fix the issues the tunnel seeks to address rather than the massive single project spending of the tunnel. Extra capacity, not envisaged by Eddington is being added by the extra pair of tracks over Dudley St (a recent modification to the RRL) allowing for the extra capacity of terminating trains at Southern Cross Platform 8 without effecting the Regional trains` access between the flyover and Southern Cross Platforms 1-7. Better PT can be provided to the Arden St area with trams. Tram capacity can be added to St Kilda Rd with greater use of William St, traffic light priority/shorter light cycles and the use of an upgraded South Yarra as a transfer point for trains from/to the lines that run through it to allow passengers who currently go to Flinders St and get a tram south to get off at South Yarra and catch a tram west then North or change to a south bound tram depending on their destination.
9
Melbourne needs less freeways, tollways (with the exception of the conversion of existing freeways and highways to tollways) and highways not more. Building roads undercuts public transport and encourages driving. No city has ever built itself out of congestion and those that try just end up endlessly building more and more roads and thus making the city a less nice place to live will sprawl, pollution and high transport costs.
There is not unlimited funding for transport projects and as such spending on transport should go to the best project not the biggest, shiniest and costliest. The capacity issues on the rail system are not in the centre but further out where there are single track sections, level crossings (including 4 with trams that require the trains to go very slowly across them) and areas that lack rail lines to provide them with the longer distance radial transport at a reasonable speed.
It’s all thanks to a big media conspiracy in Victoria. 😉
@10:
Robert Clark? Seems to be influential.
Of course I suspect that should such a course of events come to pass, we would soon find out just how unpopular the liberal government could get…