Newspoll has given the Coalition its best result since early April, with Labor’s lead at 52-48 from primary votes of 40% for the Coalition (up four), 34% for Labor (down two) and 13% for the Greens (up one). This amounts to a two-point shift to the Coalition’s favour on two-party preferred – although it should be noted that last fortnight’s result was above trend, whereas this one is right on it. Tony Abbott’s 41-37 lead as preferred prime minister puts him ahead of Bill Shorten for the first time since early May, the result a fortnight ago having been 38-38. This reflects a worsening in Shorten’s personal ratings, with approval down two to 36% and disapproval up three to 44%, rather than an improvement in Abbott’s, which are little changed at 36% (steady) and 54% (up one).
Also out today was a result from Roy Morgan that supports the proposition that Newspoll’s fluctuations are largely statistical noise. Both major parties are down fractionally on the primary vote, the Coalition by half a point to 37.5% and Labor by one to 38%, with the Greens and Palmer United both gaining half a point to 11% and 5.5% respectively. An improvement in Labor’s respondent-allocated preferences gives them an impressive headline lead of 56-44 on two-party preferred, up from 54.5-45.5 a fortnight ago, but the two-party result based on preference flows from the previous election is unchanged at 54-46.
UPDATE (Essential Research): Also a quiet result from Essential Research, which has the major parties steady on 41% for the Coalition, 39% for Labor and 51-49 to Labor on two-party preferred. The only change is that the Greens are down a point to 8%, and Palmer United up one to 5%. We also get Essential’s monthly leadership ratings, which are the first to record Tony Abbott’s MH17 bounce – up three on approval to 37% and down four on disapproval to 54%, and back in front on preferred prime minister for the first time since April at 37-36, compared with a 37-34 deficit last time. Bill Shorten’s personal ratings are little changed, his approval down two to 34% and disapproval up one to 40%.
The most interesting finding from the supplementary questions is that 51% oppose the government’s internet surveillance proposals with only 39% in support, while 68% profess little or no trust in the government and ISPs to protect the stored information from abuse. The survey also asked respondents to rank a series of environmental issues as either important or not important, and while all scored strongly, it’s perhaps curious to note that climate change scored lowest at 71% important and 27% not important, with protecting the Great Barrier Reef highest at 91% and 7%. Respondents were also asked to assess the government’s record on asylum seekers according to a range of criteria, with pleasing results for the government in that responsible and fair (along with “too secretive” and “just playing politics”) topped the list at 45%, while “too hard” and “too soft” were bottom at 29% and 26%.
b
[The difficulty the US will be having with the Kurds is a desire not to upset Turkey.]
This will make a change from their current difficulty which is stopping Turkey from invading Syria AND Iraq.
Yazidis are Kurds BW.
[BSA Bob
Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2014 at 9:17 pm | Permalink
Boerwar @ 896
Thanks for providing this vital clarifying point (sarcasm not directed at you. So they are in fact Baddies.
I’m sure that if this important distinction were explained, the refugees would willingly return to their persecutions to await rescue by a more reputable organisation.]
It is possible that the PPK will get a white hat upgrade some time in the next couple of years if it turns out that they have the capacity, the will and the organisation to stand up to the ISIS Black Hats.
guytaur
[like a mad dog’s breakfast]
JTI described last week for Abbott’s government as like watching a camel eating custard. This week looks to be carrying on from there.
poroti
[…like watching a camel eating custard…]
More like watching a camel eat its own dung.
…while trying to thread the eye of a needle…
[JTI described last week for Abbott’s government as like watching a camel eating custard.]
What does that mean? I’d imagine watching a camel try to eat custard would be kinda cute.
Watching the Abbott govt OTOH, not so much.
Here’s one for Hockey:
‘And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.’
‘needles’ were (anciently speaking) gates designed to allow people through but to stop animals like donkeys and camels from going where they were not wanted.
confessions
From his comments I took it being a very messy and not pretty or graceful. Speaking of camels eating …….
p
*laughs*
Must be close to charging or release time for Harriet Wran .
The police only have 4 to 6 hours to make their mind up.
[“ the poorest people either don’t have cars or actually don’t drive very far in many cases”.]
A bit unfair on Joe ass he was selectively quoted. His full quote makes far more sense.
[Once implemented our policies will ensure the poorest people either don’t have cars or actually don’t drive very far in many cases”.]
@ezraklein: .@FareedZakaria “what you’re seeing is the end of any kind of polyglot, multicultural Middle East” http://t.co/7Rr9x1wm17
[Speaking of camels eating …….]
LOL.
That’s what I was getting at! 😆
Victoria @ 892 (I think)
Yes, I only left 7.30 on to see if it was gonna be as bad as previously. Should call it 3.75, or am I being too generous?
BSA Bob
Definitely too generous!
Poor people don’t drive, we don’t need a car manufacturing industry because the wealthy only drive imported cars, including the govt
Not only did Luke Grant (2GB)join the band of males denigrating Jodi McKay he did so:
(a) on a fake twitter account;
(b) cast innuendo about a paedophile helping her campaign;
(c) was doing a job on someone he used to work with.
http://www.news.com.au/national/gb-host-luke-grant-behind-fake-jodi-mckay-twitter-account/story-fncynjr2-1227023241784
Did a quick whip around tonight’s ALP meeting, only one of us (the host) hadn’t driven there.
Conclusion: we’re all rich!
Boerwar @ 909
The phrase in the bible is self explanatory.
The “needle” as a gate was christian revisionism over time to allow rich men into heaven.
[Conclusion: we’re all rich!]
Exactly. What was I saying about people who live in rural and regional Australia?
Where are the Nats on Hockey’s ignorance?
@LambieJacqui: Royal Commission needed for ADFA abuse | SBS News http://t.co/DI62bM9iEx
zoomster@920
Or your public transport doesn’t run at night. 😛
New twitter list
#OtherThingsThePoorDontDo
bemused
since we don’t have public transport, no.
zoomster@926
😀 irony intended.
“@PositiveTony: #OtherThingsThePoorDontDo Ride in Comm Cars to Launch Your Book on Government Coin @TonyAbbottMHR”
A former Supreme Court justice saying that a Royal Commission into ADFA won’t be productive will ensure it won’t happen under the current government’s watch.
In Sydney, most people who work in the CBD use public transport to get to work. A significant and growing minority of people who work in some large centres like Chatswood and Parramatta now use public transport for their daily commute if they work from 9 to 5. Nearly everyone else drives.
Whether they want to use it or not, public transport is not a practical option for most. I expect that the situation in other mainland capitals is similar, with CBD-focussed public transport, while public transport barely exists outside capital cities.
Lateline leading with Hockey car comments
Steve777
[Whether they want to use it or not, public transport is not a practical option for most. I expect that the situation in other mainland capitals is similar, with CBD-focussed public transport, while public transport barely exists outside capital cities.]
it could be made a viable option for most in significantly sized urban areas of course. The trouble is that cities in Australia aren’t set up to make best use of public transport. That said, there is an established culture around car driving that is hard to break.
[A former Supreme Court justice saying that a Royal Commission into ADFA won’t be productive will ensure it won’t happen under the current government’s watch.]
As if it ever would have regardless. I had to whip Johnston’s arse when they were in opposition over his apparent prevarication about the so-called ADFA Skype sex abuse inquiry. No surprises at this end if he as the Minister gives this dead air now.
Goodnight
Steve777@930
Melbourne doesn’t yet have centres as large as Parramatta and Chatswood. And the railway system is entirely radial, unlike Sydney where there is some cross town capability without going through the centre.
Yes, many cannot use public transport, but if you can get those who can use it to do so, you clear the roads for those who must use them. This point now seems to be understood by sections of the roads lobby in Victoria and they now provide some support for public transport.
To fix Melbourne’s trains and make them more versatile would take at least 20 years with bi-partisan political support for a plan designed by experts.
Review of new series Utopia which screened on ABC tonight. I am curious as to what the govt involvement with construction industry is all about
[The timing of the series is perfect, given the current controversies about government involvement with the construction industry (as the Independent Commission Against Corruption have learned…), and the performances are note perfect – the commitment with which Lehmann warns “the tweet tide will turn” should win the man a Logie, and Pacquola and McGregor make a great comic team. Can’t wait for next week.]
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/utopia-recap-is-the-new-working-dog-comedy-a-place-youd-really-want-to-be-20140813-103t7p.html#ixzz3AHDDbnHs
Sickening really.
ITV News @itvnews 2h
Robin Williams’ daughter leaves social media after receiving abuse following father’s death http://itv.co/1pNzTJj
And this is partly due to the hatred that politicians and media fault.
Imagine Senator Brandeis, but without his knowledge of economics, and you get Joe Hockey.
I’m going to be naughty and repost my own tweet:
Kevin Bonham @kevinbonham
I estimate <10% of tweets containing both the words “Newspoll” and “Murdoch” are intelligent. #auspol #newspoll
935
Melbourne does not have the demand for places like Parramatta and Chatswood because its CBD has had and continues to have more space to expand around the focal point of the rail network. Think St Kilda Rd, Southbank, Docklands, etc.
The vast majority of trips, in Melbourne, are either local or radial and so unless there is a major local activity centre that can be connected to an existing line, there is really not enough demand for circumferential rail. The only real examples of radial rail projects that are worthwile in Melbourne are Alamein-East Malvern-Chadstone-Oakleigh and possibly Sadringham-Southland.
Tom the first and best@940
Bollocks! Well a lot of it anyway.
You could look at it the other way around and say that local activity centres have not developed because they are so poorly served by the railway system.
Sydney has just as much scope for its CBD to sprawl as Melbourne does. Take a look in the area around Central station toward Redfern.
I agree that Alemain-East Malvern-Chadstone – Oakleigh (Hughesdale?) makes sense, but why stop there? Keep going down toward Mentone.
Why not extend the Glen Waverley Line to service Knox Shiopping Centre and link up with the Belgrave Line around Ferntree Gully to form a loop?
Why plan a proposed Doncaster Line as a dead end? Where could it usefully intersect or link with another line?
How are we able to have Km after Km of grade separated freeway and not be able to do it with our railway lines?
The big problem with public transport is that it will never pick you up at your front door when you’re ready to leave and drop you off in front of your destination. If you’ve spent $20-30-40k up front and fixed costs of $3k+ per annum on a car you’ll use it if you can.
People in Sydney are prised out of their cars for the daily commute by increasing congestion and disappearing free/affordable parking. Sydney’s geography is not car friendly, with lots of natural choke-points and an unplanned road system and urban sprawl that grew like a fungus over 220+ years.
There are parts of Sydney where you could live quite well without a car, provided you rarely went further West than about Strathfield (10km from the CBD). The Eastern suburbs, Lower North Shore and inner West are well served by public transport, travel by car is barely faster than public transport most of the time and there’s nowhere to park when you arrive at your destination. Strangely enough, these areas seem to have the greatest concentration of 4WDs in the State.
There should be a train line that follows (approximately) the Western Ring rd and meets all those lines from the other side of Footscray all the way to Greensborough or somewhere similar on the Hurstbridge line. There’s probably also scope to finish an encircling line from the eastern end of the western ring rd down thru Dandenong to Frankston.
I haven’t lived in Melbourne for 20 years and when I go back it amazes me to see how much its grown toward the west, north west, north and north east. I imagine its the same on the other side.
A pity to be posting this so late when few are around to read it, but this is a great article extolling the virtues of the British NHS and, in passing, our Medicare.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/13/brits-dont-be-fooled-the-nhs-is-brilliant-and-aussies-dont-let-your-guard-down?CMP=ema_632
[ A pity to be posting this so late when few are around to read it, but this is a great article extolling the virtues of the British NHS and, in passing, our Medicare. ]
Thanks for that. A worthy read. Wonder what the reaction of a US, repuglican, anti-Obamacare campaigner would be??
Re Bemused @944: I’m still up and I read it too. Medicare is not perfect but we have to defend it. If we lose it, seeing a doctor will be like seeing a dentist – unaffordable to many.
And copayments must be resisted. Their purpose is to end bulk billing, with the co payment ratcheting up year by year and doctors’ fees ratcheting up further, with private insurers making a killing – many times over – literally.
941
Melbourne does have activity centres around several of its major junctions. Footscray (although that is almost a CBD extention), Dandenong, Ringwood, Caulfield, South Yarra (another almost CBD extention), Sunshine and (although it is not actually at a railway junction) Frankston. It is just that there is not the demand for them in the way there is in Sydney. Nor have most of these local activity centres been hard to get to by car but there is very little circumferential car travel either.
Sydney does have a major constraint on its CBD that Melbourne does not. Sydney Harbour. Melbourne`s CBD sprawls over the Yarra (into Southbank and down St Kilda Rd) as well as north, east and especially west.
Between Mentone and Oakleigh there are lots of golf courses, bits of parkland, industrial estates (of the sprawled variety) and the residential density in the areas that are residential is not all that high. There are no large centres of activity density except Oakleigh and that includes Mentone. There are certainly higher priorities for rail construction. It looks more like an exercise in extension idea by ruler on map.
Extending the Glen Waverley line to Knox is not a bad idea but it is not circumfrential but radial. Linking up with the Belgrave line is a good idea however loops are bad PT practice because they provide more travel in directions people do not want.
There is potential to extend a Doncaster line to Ringwood in the long term.
The km and km of freeway and other large road projects suck up much of the the transport budget and road planners consider freeways better at increasing road capacity than level crossing removals. Not all grade separations are created equal. Moving the road, rather than the railway (which is often more expensive because of the shallower gradients), creates pedestrian hostile environments and that is bad for the rail network, local business and residents.
Also most of Melbourne`s PT capacity problems are of a radial and/or local nature.
Nett_NEWS++™ by @Otiose94 http://bit.ly/1nAtjp1 #Budget2014, JoHo, PUP, Jogart & Bacall by David Rowe © http://bit.ly/1sYTcAr
Super car-salesman Joe is spruiking his wares.
“Roll up! Roll up!
Get your Mini Metadata here!
Cheap as chips!
Built without penalty rates!
Only comprises the licence plate and owner’s manual, so no fuel or servicing costs apply, and no need for a cigar ashtray!
Automatically informs the feds if driven on more than C-class roads, but, hey, I can show you how to over-ride this!
The virtual vehicle for the upwardly-mobile povo!
Get yours here while the Budget impasse lasts!
No rain checks as it doesn’t come with wipers anyway!
Roll up! Roll up, for the Roughie’s Roller!”
Thanks to Otiose, I begin most days with David Rowe and his increasingly disturbing images. This morning’s image of Joe and Clive will stay with me all day. I’m not sure that’s good for my mental health.