What I believe will be the farewell Nielsen poll for the Fairfax papers shows no dividend to Tony Abbott of the carbon tax repeal or (so far) the MH17 response, with Labor’s lead up from 53-47 at last month’s poll to 54-46. The poll of 1400 respondents was conducted from Thursday to Sunday, from which you can draw your own conclusions about its likely responsiveness to what’s occurred over that time. Labor is up three points on the primary vote to 40%, with the Coalition steady at 39%, the Greens down one to 12% and Palmer United steady on 5%. However, Tony Abbott’s personal ratings have improved: his approval is up three to 38% with disapproval down four to 56%, the gap on preferred prime minister narrows from 47-40 to 46-41, and while Bill Shorten is down one on approval to 41% and up three on disapproval to 44%. Even more entertainingly, there are personal ratings for Clive Palmer (approval 37%, disapproval 51%) and a preferred treasurer poll (Joe Hockey’s lead narrowing from 51-34 in a poll conducted I-don’t-know-how-long-ago to 42-42 now.
UPDATE: Phil Coorey in the Financial Review relates results on the leaders’ personal characteristics; more from Michelle Grattan at The Conversation.
And again another question about being angry. What is with that?
meher baba
Posted Monday, July 21, 2014 at 11:16 am | PERMALINK
bemused@150. Not the Israeli worldview I’m afraid. Israel has always stated that their policy is to “pay back ten for one” as a deterrent. They are, after all, a nation surrounded by many tens of millions of people who want to wipe them off the map, so they need to be pretty tough.
Maybe they are a nation that should never have existed in the first place. But they do. And they have to battle to survive.
—–nonsense – israel needs a realistic plan for peace at all costs and it needs peace – something it has failed to do for sixty years – it continually puts its own surivial and that of neighbours even world at risk for religious ideology and projection of past exp[erience –
ten eyes for one — since when was this biblical??
and what is some mad extremeists lob something more than light missiles at them?
this is a global scandal … peace now
Oh boo hoo hoo because I dared to post something about Rudd in response to an article in yesterday ‘s newspaper.
Oh dear, disagreements among Labor supporters on PB (of whom I am not one BTW) will somehow help the Libs will it? As if! I know it’s hard, but please try to keep it real.
Dear Mr Rudd, of course, wrote the book on how disunity in Labor ranks helps the Libs. He is relevant to the current situation because he played a dominant role in creating it. No Rudd, no Tony Abbott PM.
Rudd and Gillard will come up in the news again from time to time and, if the spirit moves me, I might choose to comment about them. Those who don’t like it can talk to William about it. But I’m not sure that he would agree that the most important thing for this blog is for all the posters to present a united front against Tony Abbott.
I’d hope not, at any rate.
victoria:
That was a terribly lightweight interview, and even with that Abbott seemed to struggle through it. And as meher said earlier, this is the guy you never see when you want an explanation as to why your pension benefits are being cut, or healthcare is going up, but the first sign of a tragedy he’s on every show he can get on at the last minute trying to milk it for all it’s worth!
meher baba
As i said, teenagers behave more sensibly than some here. If they dont want to hear about Rudd, they can scroll on by
confessions
Abbott does not engender any confidence as a leader. He is not fit for purpose
meher
Interestingly, when I tried suggesting that undermining Julia Gillard may not be helpful to Labor, the Ruddistas’ response was much the same as yours!!
The article about Rudd was interesting, but not surprising. I can understand why his fan club might not actually want to discuss it, though.
[As i said, teenagers behave more sensibly than some here. If they dont want to hear about Rudd, they can scroll on by]
I enjoy hearing about Rudd very much, I could read game of thrones but it is so long and boring and the fantasies are all much more grounded in reality than the Rudd stories I read here. Fantasy and comedy gold.
And what kicked today off. Oh I know it was some mindless bias rejoicing that the same MSM that gets pilloried here on a daily basis wrote a story that reinforced the bias and beliefs here and so was embraced like a book of holy writ etched in stone by the hand of god. Naughty of us to think for ourselves I know.
Gough Whitlam has spent the last 35 years of his life trying to shape how historians will view him. I don’t blame him for that. He’s a politician. He’s got a big ego. I trust we will now hear some criticism of Gough on that score (and Keating, etc etc etc).
WWP
As i said, scroll on by if you are not interested
[As i said, scroll on by if you are not interested]
As i said I’m very interested.
zoomster@207
I thought the article was fairly innocuous.
As I posted earlier…
bemused@112
http://www.smh.com.au/national/saving-the-environment-through-the-back-door-20140718-3c6n7.html
Ben Oquist assisting Clive Palmer.
Astrobleme
Posted Monday, July 21, 2014 at 11:42 am | PERMALINK
Meher Baba
I think you may need to read about the lead up to the split between Israel and the rest of the Mandate of Palestine. You can’t hope to see a solution if you don’t understand what the problem is.
The people who were living in that area were denied an opportunity to choose their future. They had their future imposed on them. And although the Jewish people were happy and managed to fight and win (initially) the conflict goes on because the initial two state solution was not accepted by the majority of people who lived in the area.
There will be no solution to the Arab-Israeli problem until the initial injustice is addressed.
Personally I can’t see any solution, neither side particularly wants peace but appearances. Israel appears bent on trying to keep their conquests and The Palestinians will continue to try and fight Israel.
—isreal has upper hand and needed with america to find right solution for peace not impose as you say one more unilateral solution – the division of 1948 needs to be erased – one multi cultural secular state israel/palestine – this is only way attack from outside boundaries can be stopped and peace within guaranteed … they are all humans, all semetic, all abramaic, after all
[Gough Whitlam has spent the last 35 years of his life trying to shape how historians will view him. I don’t blame him for that. He’s a politician. He’s got a big ego. I trust we will now hear some criticism of Gough on that score (and Keating, etc etc etc).]
Criticism of Gough or Paul … blasphemy … sacrilege … and completely impossible if you are sane.
Next you’ll be saying that Menzies did one or two good things (as opposed to zero) and that in some ways Howard was ok …
WeWantPaul@211
Victoria didn’t understand you. She is waiting to get her lead from confessions.
WWP
Then enjoy the contributions…
[WWP
Then enjoy the contributions…]
I do some make me think, some give me a good deep laugh … laughter is the best medicine they say.
This is the reality.
[The Great Barrier Reef is in the worst state it’s been in since records began and will be “pretty ugly” within 40 years, Australian scientists say.
A senate committee is investigating how the Australian and Queensland governments have managed the reef, with the UNESCO agency to decide next year whether to list it as a World Heritage site in danger.
Scientists have told the committee the reef is facing threats from coastal development, such as a massive port-related dredging project at Abbot Point, farm run-off and poor water quality.
The reef cannot rejuvenate after times of stress as it once did, the scientists say.
The Australian Coral Reef Society – the oldest organisation in the world that studies coral reefs – says coral cover has halved since the 1980s, when the reef was listed as a World Heritage asset.]
Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/great-barrier-reef-will-be-pretty-ugly-by-2050-20140721-zv7yp.html#ixzz3848PADId
WWP
Indeed
WWP
[… Labor is bereft of any talent at all]
Oh, you figured it out – even if in exaggerated form.
I’m sure Labor have talent in lots of areas, but they clearly lacked the ability to work well with and support each other over the past two terms. Rudd was a part of that, Gillard was a part of that and so were the rest of them.
confessions
Just to set the record straight, I posted that link last night as a farewell gesture to TP, but it was ignored at the time. 😉
[Yarra Council will join forces with Moreland Council to launch legal action in the Supreme Court against the Napthine government’s controversial East West Link.
The inner-city council held an emergency meeting on Monday and unanimously voted to challenge Planning Minister Matthew Guy’s June 30 decision to allow the 18-kilometre road project go ahead]
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/yarra-council-joins-moreland-to-fight-east-west-link-20140721-zv688.html#ixzz3849Z1G1L
lizzie
Can you repost the link please>
@zoomster “is not the same as actually caring” – I’d be careful to presume what individuals care or not care about, you can’t know and ultimately your make judgement off the media discourse.
The discussion tends to be focused on on-shore arrivals (in the media and by politicians) as it is the issue that political traction and affects elections. The Greens can hardly be blamed for that.
“if they never talk about them, they may as well not exist” They actually do talk about them and a consistent line they have in their own mantra to ‘stop the boats’ is that if we increased offshore intake this would reduce the number of people trying to come by boat (a naive position, but I think one genuinely informed by a compassionate position).
The Greens have many issues, and some of their politicians seem to be of the careerist ilk (like many in the ALP and LNP), but they are a party that is built on a social justice platform (a shift from their earlier environmental platform); so I think you attempts to paint them as Machiavellian are way too simplistic.
DisplayName@221
Like the rest of the human population, Rudd had some personal weaknesses and it would appear that one of his greatest was a poor ability to delegate to others and let them get on with the job.
He also appears to have been averse to a collegiate style of leadership which drew on the collective wisdom of Cabinet.
They mystery to me remains how Cabinet, with some very strong personalities in it, could not bring him to heel and curb his negative traits. It just does not make sense to me.
If Rudd was not a good administrator then Cabinet should have enforced delegation of a lot of administrative functions to the Deputy PM who, it is claimed, was a good administrator.
Of course it would have needed to be sold to him as something like ‘freeing him up to do the things only he can do’.
lizzie:
Too funny!
Caught a very brief snippet of Kroger in full sabre rattling mode this morning.
Kroger referred to Putin as one of the few surviving ‘communist’ leaders. His evidence was that Putin had been head of the KGB.
(a) Putin was never head of the KGB.
(b) Putin resigned from the KGB when it supported a failed putsch against Gorbachov. (The details of this are somewhat murky.)
(c) Putin’s party is not the Communist Party.
(d) In the last Russian Federation elections Putin’s party far out-polled the Communist Party.
In post-truth politics, facts are no hindrance at all to people like Kroger.
MTBW@224
BK posted it this morning I think, as one of his list.
As I have now posted twice, I thought it was fairly unremarkable but it did cause some hyperventilating in some quarters.
bemused
(a) you are confusing Rudd with rational human beings
(b) you will recall that Rudd demanded, and received, the right to appoint all cabinet ministers, not just to individual ministries but to the ministry itself.
He could sack anyone who rocked his boat.
Thanks bemused!
lizzie
That is good news because the sooner it is destroyed 100% the sooner we can drill it for some much-needed oil.
MTBW
My computer, is slow, so I don’t know why I’ve bothered, because you won’t believe that Rudd is the supreme egotist, but
http://www.theage.com.au/national/kevin-rudd-rewrites-history-with-heroic-flourishes-20140718-zuf3s.html
Boerwar
There are no words to describe this idiocy. Perhaps your irony is all we have left.
lizzie
That is OK I saw it yesterday!
Boerwar@230
And the appointed ministers could then deal with him.
Should not be a problem for people with any backbone.
MTBW@235
Did you, like me, wonder what all the fuss was about? Did it really justify an article in the SMH?
Ladies, gents and bemused: There are bigger issues out there.
Take a read of this, for example:
[Allowing super funds to leverage into property and other investments was arguably one of the biggest blunders of the Howard Government. In permitting leveraged investment, the Coalition effectively turned super from being a retirement savings system into a speculative vehicle, in turn dramatically increasing the riskiness of Australia’s retirement savings and financial system.
Given many SMSFs have already lost large sums during a period of strong property price appreciation, one can only shudder to think what will happen once price appreciation slows or values fall.
It is a disaster waiting to happen and highlights the need for leveraged investment in superannuation to once again be banned.]
Labor policy should be to smack leveraged investment within SMSFs right between the eyes. It’s akin to drawing on your super balance for a day at the races.
So, all talk of inflated house prices, stick it back on Johnny Howard’s incredibly poor decision. Trash his economic reputation — it was shite anyway — and that of the LNP, and then propose a solution for the future.
Please, Messrs Bowen and Burke, grab that low-hanging fruit!
bemused
Only the people involved would know for sure – and they may not – the rest of us are just guessing.
My guess is that there was a whole lot of silence, or at best tiptoeing around and papering over cracks – this frequently happens even if or especially if people are well intentioned and trying not to create problems – and then more pressure was applied than duct tapes and string could handle and it all fell apart. Well, it’s a nice story anyway ;).
bemused
They did deal with him. They replaced him.
lizzie
They did but what did they do then?
lizzie@240
Well that worked well didn’t it?
Like having a justice system where the only available punishment is capital punishment.
‘All or nothing’ is not a great idea.
[ They did deal with him. They replaced him. ]
The electorate eventually dealt with Rudd the only way possible.
It says a lot that they were willing to risk Abbott the Cnut to do so.
Oh, and this is me watching the Stafford by-election results coming in on Saturday night.
😉
William
I believe that the Fairfax newspapers may have an error in the graph they use to present 2PP results: Labor 46, Liberals 41.
One rotten apple to go.
LU
You would have really enjoyed it I gather.
Abbott is showing similar traits to Rudd in that he is descending into a mindset of fantasy and delusion.
Both are weathervanes and careerists who lack any substance to fall back on when rejected.
One politician after another throwing themselves in front of a camera to repeat the same lines. Stop it !!
[Asked about the weekly sessions of prime minister’s questions, Clegg said: “I think the whole thing has become a complete farce.
“It might have had its time once but this is a place where you can’t call people by their name, you have to call them ‘right honourable blah blah blah’ or if they have a legal background you have to say ‘right honourable, learned’, if they are actually in the army it’s even worse, you have to say ‘right honourable, learned, gallant’. It’s just people … shouting at each other, it’s a very concentrated, gladiator, sort of spectacle.]
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/20/farce-prime-ministers-questions-nick-clegg
Mr Clegg should come to Australia and witness true farce: QT with BBishop as Speaker!