Newspoll: 54-46 to Labor

The final Newspoll of the year is consistent with an overall trend that gives the government a lot to think about over the summer break.

What will presumably be the last Newspoll of the year records no change on a fortnight ago, with Labor’s two-party lead at 54-46. Labor grabs the lead on the primary vote, moving up two points to 39% with the Coalition up one to 38% and the Greens down one to 12%. For the first time in a while, Tony Abbott’s personal ratings are not appreciably worse than last time, his approval steady at 33% and disapproval up one to 58%. Bill Shorten is respectively down two to 37% and steady at 43%, and the size of his lead as preferred prime minister is unchanged, being 43-36 last time and 44-37 this time.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

1,550 comments on “Newspoll: 54-46 to Labor”

Comments Page 30 of 31
1 29 30 31
  1. [How in the Hell can you be scathing of the #I’ll ride with you hashtag ?
    Unless you’re an extremely self-centered and insecure individual ?]

    I think it’s fair enough to question whether some people just feel good about sending a couple of tweets while those at risk still get attacked. It’s a question of symbolism as opposed to practical action. Similarly, some have questioned the preponderance of awareness-raising days for diseases and things like the ice bucket challenge – whereby people take trivial action rather than doing something that will actually address the issues.

    Is there a better way we can protect those at risk rather than with a hashtag?

  2. lefty e

    [Meanwhile, the government is cutting the indigenous and remote eye health program. ]
    Some would call that “political violence” . It’s political and will cause physical harm to the affected people.

  3. the bail debate is a distraction.

    There are hundreds if not thousands of people in Australia on bail while awaiting trial for serious crimes, including murder.

    Many of those people committ more crimes while on bail. Many don’t.

    So what do we do, turn Austraiia into a prison? Judges make the call and they get it wrong, often with tragic results, but that is our legal system.

    Unless of course you are an asylum seeker, who has committed no crime, and you are detained indefinitely with no guarantee you will ever get a fair hearing of your case.

  4. It takes an awful lot for me to congratulate that lying toad John Winston Howard, but on days like this, despite all of the ills he did in his time, he will forever be remembered and indeed celebrated for the gun control laws that have helped make tragedies like this morning such a rare occurence in Australia.

    Seeing how quickly some nut jobs (thankfully mostly US nutjobs) have sought to try and peddle their gun nuttery over a death toll that would barely rate a passing mention in the US media it is sobering to think where we might be now had Howard not grasped the nettle in 96. Does anyone seriously think Abbott would have done the same? And the thought of Abbott as LOTO stirring up gun nuttery and ‘attacks on our freedom’ with the full backing of the Murdoch press if say Julia had faced a similar moment of truth in her term? Truly awful to contemplate.

    You didn’t play good too often Johnny old son, but on gun control you played a blinder.

  5. I don’t know what Devine’s and Kenny’s issues are, but I thought the response by Poss was appropriate:

    [Possum Christmitatus @Pollytics · 15h 15 hours ago
    Really, if you’re chucking a tantrum about a hashtag, you probably need to reassess a very long list of your life choices]

  6. [1429
    BK

    1435
    Gecko]

    Federal ICAC, with no statute of limitations.

    I also want to see Abbott’s role in jailing Hanson properly investigated. And I don’t even like Hanson. But something seriously stinks about all that.

  7. [It always surprises me that random members of the public, with no awareness of the particular facts in a particular case nor experience of weighing up the various different factors required by legislation would presume, without any information, to know better than a judge. I suppose it’s easier to just go with the general feeling.]

    Well said. Ignorance is never an excuse to shut up these days.

  8. [Possum Christmitatus @Pollytics · 15h 15 hours ago
    Really, if you’re chucking a tantrum about a hashtag, you probably need to reassess a very long list of your life choices]

    … such as if embryogenesis really was such a good idea in your case.

  9. [Australia losing its innocence has thus become a constantly repeated process]

    I said this morning I heard the phrase twice in the space of 30 mins having first turned on the TV.

    Grrrr.

  10. Maybe Devine’s criticism of #illridewithyou was to publicise it AND stay within proprietors editorial policy to keep her job at Newscorpse

  11. [Meanwhile, the government is cutting the indigenous and remote eye health program.]

    A more pointless and cruel, even vindictive, cut is hard to imagine.

    Abbott can’t avoid direct moral responsibility for these things, seeing as he chaired the expenditure review meetings.

    Arsehole. 🙁

  12. I’m not following the events in Sydney at all closely as it’s too distressing and my feeling of powerlessness is too difficult to bear. I think I’m right in saying that the word ‘miracle’ hasn’t yet been used in the media coverage. As it’s been 12 hours since the siege ended my question is who will be the first journalist to use that word in the usual cheap throwaway fashion?

  13. lizzie
    Someone else is the actual minister, however, Abbott said something like “I hope to be a Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs”.

  14. [Just Me

    Isn’t he Minister for Indigenous Affairs?
    Or is it just Minister for Women?

    It really is 1984. 30 years later.]

    Not to mention de facto Minister for Science (via chairing the science funding committee).

    But mostly just the Minister for Himself.

    In the mid 80s I was doing technical support for indigenous health in the NT, just when a lot of these programs were getting cranked up, including working with John Hargreaves, who is a close to a secular saint as I ever met. I have seen firsthand the personal and community devastation preventable eye disease causes and it makes me extremely angry to see such callousness.

  15. confessions

    [I don’t know what Devine’s and Kenny’s issues are, but I thought the response by Poss was appropriate]

    My guess is that NewsCorpse is in feverish denial over whether racism and xenophobia are widespread in Australia – especially against minorities such as Muslims. Of course they are. But it doesn’t fit their narrative.

    NewsCorpse believes that racism does exist in Australia – but only against privileged white males like Bolt. Bolt and his fellow travellers regard themselves as an oppressed minority.

  16. [This idea that Australia has lost its innocence is rubbish to say the bloody least.]

    That Daily Tele headline “the instant we changed forever” is so over the top, it is scarcely credible that anyone would take it seriously.

    The headline is 911 stuff – and I’m sure Rupert made kazillions out of that terror moment – where a whole country was terrorised.

    These poor buggers in a cafe were terrorised. Australia wasn’t.

    PISS OFF Rupert Murdoch, PISS OFF News Corp. Get the fuck out of here. Leave us alone to deal with the coward Abbott you foisted on us.

    Go on, git, get the buggery out of here ya fake Yank.

  17. http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/12/16/terror-in-a-social-media-age/

    [This is presumably what happened to self-professed social media “goddess” Laurel Papworth, a teacher at Sydney University, who reacted to news of the siege yesterday by asking (complete with sad faces) where Lindt cafe’s social media manager was, as if being on Twitter somehow entitles us to front-row seats to a crisis.]

    Some people just have their priorities screwed the wrong way around.

  18. The decision to go ahead with the release of the MYEFO has worked well for Abbott/Hockey.

    Very little mention of it and certainly on the blogs I view no comments permitted

  19. [1480
    jules

    Australia was basically built on genocide. What innocence did we have to lose?]

    Exactly. We never had it from the start, especially when you consider that most of the original invaders were convicts in an already harsh era.

  20. [jules
    Posted Tuesday, December 16, 2014 at 2:43 pm | PERMALINK
    Australia was basically built on genocide. What innocence did we have to lose?]

    And here’s the irony of ironies:

    AT the recent LAST STAND AT WINTON – attended by Alan Jones, a farming family (driven off the land by a bank foreclosure) had this to say:

    [The truth is, no Australian was ever consulted about whether or not they wanted to see their land mined into oblivion or see our precious water poisoned and given away for free, whether they wanted to be driven off their land by the greed of banking executives who saw the chance to make a profit by wiping out the weakest and most vulnerable amongst us.]

    And they can’t see that even though they love their land, this is exactly what they did to the original inhabitants.

    Karma’s a beach.

  21. [This is presumably what happened to self-professed social media “goddess” Laurel Papworth, a teacher at Sydney University, who reacted to news of the siege yesterday by asking (complete with sad faces) where Lindt cafe’s social media manager was, as if being on Twitter somehow entitles us to front-row seats to a crisis.]

    And hence the Papworth Scale was born.

  22. “@danielhurstbne: I should add that traffic to Parliament House is NOT blocked. Traffic near #DFAT is blocked. ACT policing says bomb response team attending”

  23. [Maybe Devine’s criticism of #illridewithyou was to publicise it AND stay within proprietors editorial policy to keep her job at Newscorpse]

    Maybe billie … whatever – it really does take some good qualities for someone to look at a person like Devine and look for the best in them tho. Nice one.

    [I also want to see Abbott’s role in jailing Hanson properly investigated. And I don’t even like Hanson. But something seriously stinks about all that.]

    Mw too, and I’m no Hanson fan.

  24. ltep @ 1451

    I think one reason the #IllRideWithYou tag is worthwhile is to do with letting everyday people who agree with the sentiment know they are not alone.

    Would there have been such a quick and vigorous condemnation of the guy on the train from Upfield in its absence? Hard to know.

    I read something about how the CIA managed to completely miss the overthrow of the Soviets and it basically boiled down to this: Even the worst military dictator never has the direct loyalty of more than a small segment of the population, for argument’s sake, 10%. But so long as the opposition is never allowed to organise into groups larger than a handful of people, the tyrant stays in power. However, if the opposition ever manages to provoke the entire opposition to act at once, the tyrant is immediately toppled.

    Same principle is going on here. The vast majority of people agree with the principle, they just need reminding they are in the majority to prod them into action.

Comments Page 30 of 31
1 29 30 31

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *