The latest fortnightly Newspoll has Labor leading 51-49, which is down a point on last time and equal with the time before (and also the same as the ReachTEL poll conducted on Thursday). Primary votes are 41% for the Coalition (up two), 34% for Labor (down one) and 11% for the Greens (down three on last time, back to where they were the time before). Tony Abbott has enjoyed a big hike in his personal ratings, up six on approval to 41% and down two on disapproval to 52%, and he has gained a 41-37 lead on preferred prime minister after being level at 37-37 last time. Bill Shorten is up one on approval to 38% and steady on disapproval 43%. Hat-tip to GhostWhoVotes, and of course The Australian.
Also out today was the regularly fortnightly Morgan poll, covering a sample of 2922 respondents from two weekends of face-to-face and SMS polling. This recorded next to no change for the major parties on the primary vote – the Coalition on 38.5% and Labor on 37.5%, both up half a point on last fortnight – but has the minor parties moving in accordance with recent trends, the Greens being up 1.5% to 12% and Palmer United being down half a point to 4%. The previous poll was the only one recently published which failed to record a lift for the Greens, no doubt because half the survey period predated the bipartisan commitment to send military forces to Iraq. Labor gains half a point on both the respondent-allocated and previous election measures of two-party preferred, respectively leading 54.5-45.5 and 53.5-46.5.
UPDATE (Essential Research): Essential Research is steady at 53-47 to Labor, with Labor up a point on the primary vote to 39%, the Coalition steady on 39%, the Greens down one to 10% and Palmer United steady on 4%. Also featured is a biannual gauge of attributes of the various parties, recording little change for Labor since March apart from a six point drop on “clear about what they stand for”, while the Liberal Party has weakened across the board, particularly with respect to “keeps its promises” (down nine points), “divided” (up eight points) and “looks after the interests of working people” (down six points). The poll adds further to a somewhat confusing picture on the public attitudes to the Iraq commitment, with 52% expressing approval for sending military personnel versus 34% disapproval. However, 51% say doing so will make Australia less safe from terrorism, versus only 15% for more safe. Questions on industrial relations laws indicate broad satisfaction with the status quo, 30% saying current laws balance the interests of employers and workers, and a fairly even 23% and 17% believing they favour employers and workers respectively.
Bernard always does go too far. Just put them on standby for now. We can always deploy quickly as required.
davidwh@792
You are a misguided soul who is not beyond redemption and that is why I am gentle with you. 😉
Josh Taylor @joshgnosis 1m
Wait, why is Village Roadshow reducing release times news again today?
@workmanalice: Police at Central station interrogating people carrying swords and what looks like a plastic gun @abcnews http://t.co/MmEJXrkakx
Are you my mum?
Soon there will not be any toys/cosplay allowed in Australia…
Josh Taylor retweeted
Alice Workman @workmanalice 1m
Police at Central station interrogating people carrying swords and what looks like a plastic gun @abcnews pic.twitter.com/MmEJXrkakx
[790
Player One
Surprise!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-24/government-argues-intelligence-agencies-need-increased-powers/5765638
Not even dead 24 hours, and already being used by Brandis as a justification for his draconian law changes – when it is probably him and Abbott that led to this young man’s desperate behaviour in the first place.
What a disgusting bunch!]
What is actually troubling (at least to me) is the knowledge that the various protagonists will try to fortify their arguments and make political capital while standing over the corpse of hot-head.
This is a profoundly sad and life-changing moment for his family and is a tragic event for as all.
This should not be a time for blame but for contemplation. We need to find ways to bring ourselves together rather than to add to the outrage…There will likely be many such moments in the days ahead and we will be more in need of compassion and redemption than anger and guilt.
kevjohnno@800
😆
Thanks for that kevjohnno, I had forgotten what happened, but now you have jogged my memory, it was something like that.
Moderation at ‘the blog of batshit insanity’ is modelled on North Korea. Total conformity or else… 😆
davidwh
[Suck it up Bemused. You only get bullied because you are a male.]
Nonsense. Bemused gets bullied because he is a bully. Most of bemused’s posts – not all – are simply designed to insult or denigrate another poster.
davidwh@805
Without knowing your mum, I have come to greatly respect her wisdom and support her in he endeavours to rescue her wayward son.
She is clearly a good woman. 😉
http://kevinbonham.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/poll-roundup-terror-focus-improves.html
Poll Roundup: Terror Focus Improves Abbott’s Ratings
2PP Aggregate: 51.5 to Labor
Also, I made a methods change to my aggregate this week – it now uses a hybrid model of the 2PP for a given poll that is derived both from the published 2PP and the published primaries. I made this change just before the current Newspoll, which is a fine example of exactly why I did it. This is documented in a special supplement which I firmly expect to be the least read thing on my site all year:
http://kevinbonham.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/wonk-central-what-do-we-do-with-poll.html
Wonk Central: What Do We Do With The Poll Rounding Problem?
The supplement has been rated Wonk Factor 5 and even carries its own warning sign.
Albo making it crystal clear. High Speed Rail is part of Labor’s agenda
briefly@807
Interestingly, a policeman’s wife phoned in to 774 this morning and related how her husband came home shaken by what had happened. And he was not even involved or anywhere near what happened!
There is insufficient recognition of just how damaging such events can be to a much wider circle than those immediately involved.
The 2 police involved, particularly the one who fired the shot, will be traumatised,
In some such cases police have not been able to return to normal police duties.
zoomster@809
That is simply defamatory and untrue.
I will put it down to your general ignorance.
zoomster I avoid taking sides in personal spats and was just trying to add some light relief. In my personal experience involvement in personal spats on blogs is all downside.
“@ABCNews24: Anthony Albanese: A high-speed rail line would be a shot in the arm for regional areas along its route #npc #auspol”
daretotread@711
I object on the basis that I want to continue wearing a colander as religious headgear!
bemused
I don’t really like to get in this argument, but please don’t use this line.. It’s like the “Why did your face got in the way of my fist?” argument.
guytaur@797
(Insert joker meme)
Muslims get death threats, no one bats an eyelid.
A muslim makes a threat, everybody loses their minds.
bemused
[ I will put it down to your general ignorance. ]
You simply can’t resist the insults, even when it compounds your original offense, can you?
I too have noticed that Bemused typically plays the man rather than the ball.
I’m working on the assumption that they are more often trolling than serious – especially once the knives come out.
Sometimes a little bit of trolling keeps a community honest, and other times it’s just tiresome.
[ The problem in dealing with this incident objectively is that the whole issue is clouded in political and media grandstanding. ]
Yup, and watch the scum on the Fiberal front bench exploit it to the max. Brandis is a disgusting creep. 🙁
I’d really like to see the ALP, quietly and seriously commit to a review of all Security legislation as part of their platform for the next election.
Exactly what do we have, is it effective and necessary, and is the price in terms of freedom and transparency worth it??
FFS, if we can have Royal Commissions to designed to try and trash Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard reputations and the last Govts record, they we can certainly have a serious, independent and above all OBJECTIVE inquiry into whether or not the Govts of both persuasions over the last couple of decades have done the right thing with this class of legislation.
We can apparently be expected to get behind a push to “remove red tape” and cut back on rules and regulations when it relates to business and the economy? Its a lot less arguable that we should get behind a push to make sure we have an appropriate balance in legislation between security and the freedoms people expect of a democratic society.
This topic links into some of the fundamentals of how our society works which i would argue is a pretty important subject matter and worthy of serious attention outside of the normal political and media circus.
Way to prove me wrong, bemused!! (A pity you won’t see the irony…)
Steve et al
Sorry but using a gun against a knife wielder, whether they are an Islamist or a schizophrenic is NOT proportionate force. If policemen need a gun to overpower a kid with a knife perhaps they need a career change.
tielec@819
Good grief!
So when I defend myself I am playing the man?
That takes the prize.
zoomster@821
I have observed you long enough to know you are never wrong.
You remind me of the powerful irony in the title of Alexander Solzenhitsyn’s short story “We Never Make Mistakes”.
About Numan Haidar.
If we take away from the equation that this 18-year old man was an Afghani who just happened to have got mixed up with the wrong group of people, what are we left with?
Is this that much different from that father who got shot at a footy match?
Don’t get me wrong, the police officers were doing the right thing in self-defence, but having read all the comments on news sites, it seems the entire community of not just muslims but immigrants in general are getting the flak.
daretotread@822
Not when both cops have already sustained knife wounds, in one case multiple knife wounds.
I am fiercely critical of police shootings in most cases, but not in this one.
18 years old is not a kid. A youth yes, but often 18 year old youth are as strong as many adults in the 20’s and 30’s. I’m not sure what proportionate force would have been justified when one officer was receiving ongoing serious injuries.
bemused
given that I’ve often admitted here that I was wrong, that’s absurd.
davidwh@827
The stereotype I have in my head is this guy has probably been working out at the gym too. I’m going by pure speculation though.
[Sorry but using a gun against a knife wielder, whether they are an Islamist or a schizophrenic is NOT proportionate force. If policemen need a gun to overpower a kid with a knife perhaps they need a career change.]
Never bring a knife to a gunfight.
The impression (and it’s just an impression) that I got was that one of the coppers went to shake the young bloke’s hand and the knife was produced and wielded without warning.
Could be completely wrong on this, but if that was the case then the obvious idea was to strike quickly and to disable the two policemen with the knife so that they couldn’t use their guns.
It’s not a terrorist act. Several police have been killed by knife-wielders over drugs arrests in the past few years, or after being simply stopped in the street. We may never know the real truth, as the teller of one side of the story is dead.
The young bloke might have been keen on taking a couple of policemen out, or he may have been spooked, or pumped-up, or thought they were about to arrest or handcuff him. But bringing a knife to a police station is highly suspicious, as he must have known that the knife would not survive a metal detector test once they proceeded inside the station.
So, to me, it looks like the young bloke was ready for trouble and may have been prepared to start it. In which case, shooting him, after being wounded, is a pretty fair response.
And once again Youth get’s attacked on the social sites and media.
It’s more terrorism!!
@Reuters: Fired UPS worker kills two supervisors, self, in Alabama shooting http://t.co/OW3Uhli9dO
[So, to me, it looks like the young bloke was ready for trouble and may have been prepared to start it. In which case, shooting him, after being wounded, is a pretty fair response.]
Agreed BB. The police have to react fast at close quarters.
That’s the problem with someone looking for trouble. Often times they find it.
Deleted at commenter’s request.
@smh: Man arrested in Sydney terror raids walks free on a two-year good behaviour bond and $500 fine http://t.co/WsoGfCXnvZ http://t.co/xl8Up05Q9a
Now for the bomb threats:
http://m.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/brisbane-cbd-shops-evacuated-part-of-george-street-closed-by-bomb-threat/story-fnihsrf2-1227068967746
Raaraa@829
I had a similar stereotype too.
And such a guy would be a very formidable physical opponent for most police who are not exactly in peak physical condition.
But we must wait to see as more information is released.
[813
bemused
There is insufficient recognition of just how damaging such events can be to a much wider circle than those immediately involved.
The 2 police involved, particularly the one who fired the shot, will be traumatised…]
Quite so.
I heard Abbott on the radio news today, saying he had been in touch with the families of the police officers to assure them they had his support.
This is a proper reaction but does not go far enough. He should also be in contact in the same way with the family of the dead youth and offer them his support and understanding as well.
He should do this on behalf of all of those in the community who know what it is to be struck with a violent death and who have to find a way to live through it.
We all have the same choices – whether to act in ways that bring us together or in ways that will accentuate the divisions. This is true for all of us, from the most eminent to the most humble, among whom I certainly count myself.
@KnottMatthew: Ooh ah: Labor flags deal to support temporary protection visas in return for path to permanent residency http://t.co/loMUCRjNAj
@Simon_Cullen: Former Parliamentary Speaker Peter Slipper will avoid jail. Magistrate says it’s “not appropriate”, the ABC’s @ElizabethJByrne reports.
ACOSS @ACOSS 2m
NZ does not have dangerous 4wk waiting period for unemployed @welfare_rights @Mareeoh https://www.welfarerights.org.au/news/2014/9/24/media-release-24-september-2014 … @gerardthomas_1 #UnfairBudget
Puff, the Magic Dragon.@834
And I could tell you a few stories too Puff about being on the receiving end of some very threatening behaviour by a female including being bailed up with no available retreat while she was wielding two carving knives.
But what’s the point? Women are generally not like that.
The exception does not prove the rule.
briefly@838
I disagree.
Abbott has been inflaming the situation and should just STFU.
[Abbott has been inflaming the situation and should just STFU.]
Then he would be criticised for saying nothing.
Slipper to repay the $900 to the Commonwealth and do 300 hours community service over a two year period
Just logged in, is it worth watching QT?
First question on terrorism and I’m switching – YAWN!
$3 an hour…pretty low return
That seems like a fair result victoria. Despite what I may think of Slipper as a person he has paid a big price for his sins.
DaretoTread
[Sorry but using a gun against a knife wielder, whether they are an Islamist or a schizophrenic is NOT proportionate force. If policemen need a gun to overpower a kid with a knife perhaps they need a career change.]
I don’t think there is enough information yet to know whether the force was proportionate. A key factor is the proximity of the person with the knife and the police with the guns. Given that both police got stabbed it must have been pretty up close and personal. If I had a gun in my hand and was getting stabbed I would feel justified in shooting my assailant.
David,
He could take a more neutral stance, but his ego doesn’t want to let go.
For some people, taking any type of action is too extreme or too little, or not enough, for this, some people will never change.
But Abbott has taken the extremism road.
In other news, Google has done more than Coalition Party on Climate Change, by quitting an extremists group:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-22/google-quits-alec-says-link-with-climate-skeptics-wrong.html