GhostWhoVotes relates that the latest Newspoll has Labor leading 52-48, up from 51-49 last fortnight. Labor is up a point on the primary vote to 36%, and the Coalition down one to 40%. More to follow. UPDATE: The Australian report relates that Bill Shorten’s approval rating is up three points to 36%, which is the first time a poll has moved in his favour in quite a while. UPDATE 2: Full tables here; to fill in the blanks, Shorten’s disapproval is steady at 43%, Tony Abbott is up two on approval to 40% and steady on disapproval at 50%, and Abbott’s lead as preferred prime minister nudges from 42-36 to 43-36.
Today’s Morgan result, combining its regular face-to-face and SMS polling from the last two weekends, was the Coalition’s worst since the election, recording a 1.5% shift on the primary vote from the Coalition (to 38%) to Labor (38.5%), with the Greens down a point to 11% and Palmer United up half a point to 4.5%. On 2013 election preferences, this gives Labor a 53.5-46.5 lead, up from 52.5-47.5 a fortnight ago, while on respondent-allocated preferences the shift is from 53.5-46.5 to 54.5-45.5. Morgan has also been in the business lately of providing selective state-level two-party results, which are presumably based on respondent-allocated preferences. From this poll we are told Labor had unlikely leads of 56.5-43.5 in Queensland and 52-48 in Western Australia, together with leads of 54.5-45.5 in New South Wales and 55-45 in Victoria, and an unspecified “narrow” lead in South Australia.
UPDATE (Essential Research): Essential Research has Labor back up a point on the primary vote after it fell two last week, now at 37%, with the Coalition up one for a second week. The Greens and Palmer United are at 9% and 4%, with others down a point and the other loose point coming off rounding. Respondents were quizzed about the attributes of the major parties, which provides good news for Labor in that “divided” is down 14% to 58%, and “clear about what they stand for” is up 8% to 42%. Those are also the biggest movers for the Liberals, respectively down 6% and up 7%, although they are still performing better than Labor on each at 50% and 32%. The worst differential for Labor is still “divided”, at 26% in favour of the Liberals, while for the Liberals it’s “too close to the big corporate and financial interests”, which is at 62% for Liberal and 34% for Labor.
A question reading “as far as you know, do you think taxes in Australia are higher or lower than in other developed countries” turns up the fascinating finding that 64% of respondents believed they were higher versus only 8% for lower, while 65% believed taxes to have increased over the last five years versus 9% for decreased. Forty-seven per cent believe the current level of taxation is enough versus 33% who believe they will need to increase. The poll also finds 50% opposed to following New Zealand’s example in holding a referendum on changing the flag versus only 31% supportive.
@Mod Lib/1293
We have argued on cost, and you still ignore, so it’s not about cost.
Its not whether Bolt was wrong and he should just apologise.
I want to defend Bolt’s right to be wrong and think he is right.
Whatever happened to “I vehemently disagree with you, but I will fight to the death to defend your right to say it”?
By nabbing Bolt, you have the racists and xenophobes talking about how the government is out to get them. Nobody is going to change their minds.
By highlighting where Bolt is wrong, while allowing him to be wrong, you might actually convince people about the facts and arrive at something constructive. Hell, even Bolt might concede that he overstretched (Nah….probably doesn’t have the character).
I guess it is a philosophical position. I think he has every right to think the wrong thing, to say the wrong thing, to think that what he is saying is right, even if it isn’t and I think the correct response is to not read him, not watch him and argue against him….I just don’t think it is right to nab him in court.
deblonay
talk about domestic issues and tea party – you make sense
on east europe your feet are in quagmire – you will not criticise russia and rationalise conquest … you wait panting for fall of ukraine which will not happen and which would have happened but for american intervention
on europe i will not accept your facts, memories, grammatarian officiousness, ideology, history, sentimentality, warmonging or anti democratic disloyalty to the true solidarity of the political underclass who will bring in the true russian revolution – take your arguments to the germans who know all about living room you jerk
[The point is a question of cost.]
And AGAIN Mod Lib, if the question is one of cost, then the more costly thing to do is to build a temporary network and then replace it. Either deal with that fact logically, or make yourself look a complete twat.
[We should not be borrowing bucket loads of money to do the gold plated thing in this economic environment]
Ok, so we should be borrowing bucket loads of money to spend MORE?
Your logic knows no lower bounds.
[I support Turnbull doing whatever is the cheapest option which does not put us in breach of existing contracts and previous commitments.]
Then you should support Turnbull NOT implementing FTTN. Which is more costly. Again, accept the facts or look like a willfull idiot.
[I have no problems with a Fibre network which terminates in a copper wire giving fast speeds, just not astronomical speeds.]
Nor do you have a problem with wasting billions of dollars. How silly can you look? Really?
[That is called a difference of opinion]
No Mod Lib, this is a difference in basic fact.
You say you want cheaper. Yet your support the more expensive option. Cognitive dissonance, much?
My position is consistent with fact. Yours is not. Deal with it.
[everything
The way 18C is written a politician couldn’t argue
against Shariah law in a TownHall if one of the
candidates was spruiking it.
What a load of fucking shit.]
kezza2 – this is my favorite critique of the day. concise, to the point, erudite, and just.spot.on.
I was working up to saying to everymodlib “spoken like a white man” – if he/she spoke to anybody in australia of asian or african appearance of the almost daily/weekly abuse -mainly verbal, but sometimes physical – from white bogan strangers just as they walk down the street/use public transport. people will mutter racial taunts as they walk past – males get punched and spat on from time to time. They’ll tell you has got worse since howard became PM. These bogans have now been told by the attorney general and PM that it is their ‘right’ to be a bigot. recent cases of people being persecuted for racist hate raves on public transport will not be possible under the new laws – it was their right to express their hate, and their ‘punishment’ is people saying ‘that’s bad’. this is another regressive step by a deeply regressive bunch of arseholes.
the only reason they are getting rid of the law is because of Bolt and the IPA making a crusade. do you feel better for someone such as Bolt and Jones being free to pedal their racist bile from such a position of power, with nobody able to challenge them. if public debate was effective against c***s (my right to use such terms) this they’d have been off air years ago – they have been proven to be wrong so many times, and then pedal the same shite – bolt still claims to have never having been provided when with even 10 names of stolen children when he has been provided with over 300 indisputable examples that are a tip of an iceberg (& the IPA cites his continual lie as ‘proof’ there was no stolen generations).
Jones has been proven to be wrong and corrupt and a plagiarist of fiction as fact on many occasions. if they change the law so these pricks can say whatever crap they like but must step aside if they are shown to be wrong, duplicitous, and have broken journalistic codes of ethics, then I’ll support the law changes. Bolt should have been done for biased and deceptive ‘journalism’ rather than under 18C.
[davidwh
Posted Wednesday, March 26, 2014 at 12:01 am | PERMALINK
It seems to me that Bolte got pinged because he named specific people rather than make a general observation. Am I wrong?]
I think you’re right. Bolt could have express that opinion and let it stand.
Instead, he got pinged because he fabricated stories about the family life of the Aboriginal people he named.
One of the worst was his assumption that a particular surname was German, and his snide, sneering “liebchin” remark was a billion steps too far.
He was crass, callous, hate-inciting, and he didn’t give a shit as long as he justified his stance. When he was taken to task over his bullshit, he cried blue murder.
Not only is Bolt a sook, a self-pitying one at that, he is an egotist who requires propping up by extreme right-wingers.
He’s a danger to the fabric of our society. And he deserves every bit of ridicule that comes his way. We don’t need people like Bolt as a mouthpiece for racial hatred.
Jones at Cronulla was enough for any decent person.
[ We should not be borrowing bucket loads of money to do the gold plated thing in this economic environment. ]
So you support spending vast amounts more over the mid term, for spending, perhaps a little less over the short term??
And people wonder why the Fibs look like such ideologically driven economic illiterates?? Come on down Mod Fib!!!
frednk,
[Have you read enough of the bible yet to realise it is a very confliced book.]
It’s more a library than a book. It contains a multitude of literary forms, has lots of different authors, and spans a couple of thousand years of compilation.
How you read it depends on your hermeneutic key.
[I was working up to saying to everymodlib “spoken like a white man”]
Which you’re sure he is because …
[Deal with it.]
Indeed I shall! Good night.
You can sleep tight with the secure knowledge that you are right and I am wrong 🙂
[Apparenty, I need to bow down to your wisdom and do what I am told. Unfortunately for you, the Liberal Party won the election.
Get out and door knock and maybe Shorten and shorten the obvious pain you are suffering.]
Mod Lib,
You whinged about how we should have a civil rational discussion, but now you demonstrate what you’re famous for here. Getting your jollies being a dickhead. Fine.
You’re still defending the indefensible over the NBN and like it or not yes I do know a lot more about it than you. Deal with it.
[I was working up to saying to everymodlib “spoken like a white man”
]
In pretty sure Mod Lib is neither white nor male.
[1302…Everything
[I want to defend Bolt’s right to be wrong and think he is right.]
You are not defending a purported right to be mistaken. You are seeking to defend a fictitious right to tell self-serving lies based on racial stereotyping, with the intention of harming the reputations of those who are the subject of the lies. This is not a matter of being “right” or “wrong”. It is a matter of preventing one individual from assailing others for gain.
None of youse seem to have realized that neither Shorten nor anyone else in the Labor opposition can rubbish or ridicule the new Bunyip aristocracy, because Bill’s mum-in-law is the VERY FIRST one of all.
Everything
[Its not whether Bolt was wrong and he should just apologise.]
Only right/mini-left wankers think Bolt’s case is the centre of the universe.
It is a meaningless tussle between Newscorpse/LNP/ALP wankers.
For all parties it is a wonderful distraction.
While I accept that You would have use for this, I am exasperated by the pavlov-dog predictable mini-leftists on here.
Always hyper-ventilating to the right wing bellows.
BB
Quentin really farked Labor over accepting it.
Mod Lib has left the scene, again during an argument (not a debate).
BB
[None of youse seem to have realized that neither Shorten nor anyone else in the Labor opposition can rubbish or ridicule the new Bunyip aristocracy, because Bill’s mum-in-law is the VERY FIRST one of all.]
As a matter of pedantry, knighthoods are not, not ever have been part of the aristocracy, except maybe to an uneducated American.
[I was working up to saying to everymodlib “spoken like a white man”
Which you’re sure he is because …]
I’m not, but his/her defense of the anti-vilification laws reeks of someone who has not been subjected to such vilification, or bothered to think about what it would be like. then again, Danny Niallah probably likes the new laws, so point taken.
zoidlord@1317
Mad Lib is a disgrace with her bare faced lying.
It was good to see people calling her out on her lying tonight.
[In pretty sure Mod Lib is neither white nor male.]
Nor Mod.
Zoidlord, I do wish you’d stop making these cheap and stupid attacks on Mod Lib for having a job and needing to get up in the morning.
I expressed disappointment at Bryce over this earlier, but I’m coming around to the “she was shanghaied on this and decided graciousness was the right course” point of view.
There was just a sliver of footage of the “hand over” ceremony I saw on one of the ABC pieces where Abbott was finishing his announcement/justification, and the camera panned across to Bryce as she and others were raising a glass to toast the occasion and she looked (to me, in the split second of footage) positively … baffled, shocked, something like that.
sustainable future@1319
Could Mad Lib be Danny Nalliah? 👿
Diogenes
[Quentin really farked Labor over accepting it.]
1. why is being a Dame, “really farming Labor”?
2. why is having a few Australian knights a real issue to Labor?
3. Does Labor like this nonsense as it is another shadow monster it can pretend to fight?
[ By nabbing Bolt, you have the racists and xenophobes talking about how the government is out to get them. Nobody is going to change their minds. ]
And that alters objective reality how?? Racists and Xenophobes generally ALREADY think the Govt is out to get them. Your right, no one is going to change what is laughably termed “their minds” so the law should at least minimize the hard they can do to others.
[ neither Shorten nor anyone else in the Labor opposition can rubbish or ridicule the new Bunyip aristocracy ]
Good. They can be free to concentrate on demostrable Fiberal support for racism, bigotry, and financial predation on older Australians and the Sydney Water.
lefty e@1321
‘Mad Lib’ fits better.
She is also entirely dishonest in her ‘facts’ which she tries to create a debate around.
[1315
swamprat
Everything
Its not whether Bolt was wrong and he should just apologise.
Only right/mini-left wankers think Bolt’s case is the centre of the universe.
It is a meaningless tussle between Newscorpse/LNP/ALP wankers.]
fmd! what a singular distemper!
[I’m not, but his/her defense of the anti-vilification laws reeks of someone who has not been subjected to such vilification, or bothered to think about what it would be like.]
Which makes no sense at all unless you’re indeed sure that Mod Lib is white.
@William/1322
Pay back for calling everyone a Doll Bludger at post 1038.
[ Zoidlord, I do wish you’d stop making these cheap and stupid attacks on Mod Lib for having a job and needing to get up in the morning. ]
Well, at least he hasn’t been caught by the media skiving off to Kings Park?
ML/E is a troll, but occasionally can be useful peg on which to hang an argument.
I believe you mean the Fremantle monument, imacca.
BB
We’ve all realised the shonky crap Abbott gets up to. It’s not even worth talking about, the “gotcha” was so evident.
Ms Bryce apparently has said she’s accepted the honour, but won’t be using the title.
Up yours, Sir T Firebull of Abbott.
I reckon Abbott’s hankering for a hoodie for his fire-fighting, surf-lifesaving contribution to society, for about the past 14 years.
My father, who contributed so much to his local community, over 60 years, ran rings round this flake.
And even with his limited education, although he had a terrific southpaw, my father’s intelligence and compassion and care for all, including asylum seekers, whether economic or not, would put this piece of idiotic flotsam to shame.
Everything @1293
No, it isn’t a question of cost, as cost is irrelevant to the federal government. How can we borrow boatloads of Australian dollars, given that we are the sole manufacturer of them? It makes no sense.
Since it is no longer about cost, the only thing that makes any difference is the outcome of these different plans. Given that one will need to be replaced by the other within a few decades, it becomse fairly obvious which is the superior option.
Under the new laws we could falsely label Mod Lib as having a certain racial background and then tell lies about him, and it would be ok so long as we were having a political discussion.
Just thinking out loud..
Waleed Aly in an interview this evening expressed some reservations of the current laws and I don’t think you can call him a typical white conservative. I doubt these things split neatly along ethnic lines.
kezza2
Posted Wednesday, March 26, 2014 at 12:32 am | PERMALINK
BB
We’ve all realised the shonky crap Abbott gets up to. It’s not even worth talking about, the “gotcha” was so evident.
Ms Bryce apparently has said she’s accepted the honour, but won’t be using the title.
Up yours, Sir T Firebull of Abbott.
I reckon Abbott’s hankering for a hoodie for his fire-fighting, surf-lifesaving contribution to society, for about the past 14 years.
My father, who contributed so much to his local community, over 60 years, ran rings round this flake.
And even with his limited education, although he had a terrific southpaw, my father’s intelligence and compassion and care for all, including asylum seekers, whether economic or not, would put this piece of idiotic flotsam to shame.
——- right on. what a profound discourtesy – springing this ideological offence on GG as she left office – obviously not warning her? or seeking consent? he is a wretched little dick of a man.
[Pay back for calling everyone a Doll Bludger at post 1038.]
Yes that’s the kind of silly shit you get from Mod Lib when cornered. In fairness its not just him, you get exactly the same response from most conservatives. I pay tax! You’re obviously a dole bludger. Etc Etc. The other night Mod Lib dived into the whole union bashing thing (with scant relevance to the NBN) And tonight he had a go at the “Labor is incompetent, can’t manage projects” thing. Which again is irrelevant to the topic being discussed – aka why spend more for less.
briefly
[fmd! what a singular distemper!]
Yes. absolutely.
I think the ALP gets distracted by right-wing issues important to the Murdoch/LNP.
The real issue is the seemingly unstoppable movement of resources/wealth to the wealthy from he poor.
It seems the ALP would prefer to follow LNP distractions and reinforce the inner-city Green vote and wait for the LNP to wear out its welcome than have and sell a real alternative.
Reading s18c of the Racial Discrimination Act and i say this as a firm believer in free speech but i can’t see the problem with the act.
Its basically saying when in public be polite and refrain from racist comments which surely isn’t that hard.
I do agree that some people are too thin skinned which can stifle debate but surely there isn’t a problem with some basic respect.
I don’t see breaking this as an indictable offense.
If you’re in favour of a law requiring that people be polite in public, you aren’t a “firm believer in free speech”.
MB I don’t have a problem with reviewing any law from time to time. I just hate the thought that it is being done to restore Bolte’s ego because he stuffed up.
MB I don’t have a problem with reviewing any law from time to time. I just hate the thought that it is being done to restore Bolte’s ego because he stuffed up.
[It seems the ALP would prefer to follow LNP distractions and reinforce the inner-city Green vote and wait for the LNP to wear out its welcome than have and sell a real alternative.]
Sadly there is a bit of truth to that. Shorten is playing classic politics. But the reason he’s not well known/loved or indeed ranked too well in polls is because he’s not out there telling us of his radical new ideas for the country. Sadly it is hard to be that sort of leader these days with the kind of incompetent/partisan media we have.
The budget will be a great opportunity for Shorten to take some radical steps. For instance close the budget revenue gap. Even raise taxes. Its time that Labor had a clean break and argued for seemingly unthinkable things.
A lot of ordinary people are willing to contemplate paying more tax in one form or another if at the same time they can see tangible benefits. Complete funding of NDIS. Completion of the Pacific Highway. etc.
Time for Labor to be seen to be doing something completely new so people will stop thinking about the last government.
Has the Coalition Party considered removing S18C effecting the interweb?
Freedom of speech has its limits, just like every freedom. The idea that it is the one totally inalienable right is a fantasy dreamt up by those who were sick of having their bullshit challenged.
You can’t yell out fire in the movies, you can’t scream out that you have a bomb on a plane, why should you be allowed to vilify certain sections of the public based on something as arbitrary as race?
I wonder how far you’d get in public calling Bolt a loud mouthed bully (which is essentially what he is).
I would like to see a journo ask Brandis if people can now put up on their facebook page remarks about Bolt that are highly negative, not thought out, even false. Would Brandis support this?
I’m not sure that Moddy is wrong, if the provision says don’t say something offensive and i go along to the town hall and the local MP says sharia law is terrible because its offensive to Women then potentially both sub-sections (a) and (b) give me grounds to raise concern.
(a) section (a) says if i am insulted that the MP has spoken against my faith which places a firm belief on sharia law which may cause hurt and humiliation or if the crowd starts chanting “those bloody Arabs”i might become intimidated which might raise concern for my well being.
(b) could be relevant particularly if the MP mentions my direct ethnic origins.
Both these provisions do in the literal sense limit free speech in the context Moddy mentioned but the question would be would the court see it as the actual intent thus throwing the case out on the grounds that the MP was discussing an important area of public policy in a public forum.
These provisions need to be tested in court in the circumstances that Moddy referred.
William,
The problem I have with the existing 18C is that it doesn’t deal with the issue of asymmetrical power. People like Bolt should be treated differently in law precisely because they have so much power and influence. And that should have been spelled out in the law and wasn’t.
If I were to publicly say things about Bolt that he said on air, he would sue me to the poorhouse.
And I’d love to know from Brandis whether his new law would allow me to not just have a theoretical right to, but actually get away with saying nasty, factually incorrect, and misleading things about Bolt.