Essential Research: 53-47 to Labor

No change this week on voting intention from Essential Research, but further questions suggest the Abbott government’s anti-terrorism measures may be striking a chord.

No change this week on the Essential Research fortnightly rolling average, which has the Coalition, Labor, the Greens and Palmer United steady on 40%, 41%, 9% and 2%, with Labor’s two-party preferred lead at 53-47. Further questions relate to terrorism, and they offer rare good news for Tony Abbott, whose handling of the threat has 46% approval and 33% disapproval. It would also be to his advantage that fully 75% of respondents believe the threat has increased over the last few years, with only 2% opting for decreased, and that considerably more respondents think the government should be spending more on anti-terrorism measures (39%) than less (12%), with 56% favouring more restrictions versus only 28% who believe current laws strike the right balance. Less good for the government is the finding that 34% approve of the Human Rights Commission’s performance versus only 22% disapproval, although 44% allowed that they didn’t know. Another interesting finding is that 48% would support a national ban on greyhound racing, with only 26% opposed. The poll also finds that 57% take a favourable view of multiculturalism versus 29% for negative, and that 67% think racism is a problem in Australia.

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.

855 comments on “Essential Research: 53-47 to Labor”

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  1. [831
    Matt

    Question @827:

    No, they’re being killed because they committed capital offenses.]

    This is merely the pretext for killing. The prisoners will die because it pleases the President. He wants to daub himself with the blood of the powerless. He wants this because he thinks death is an instrument he can use to his advantage. He supposes death is a tactic he’s free to use. The truth is rather the reverse. Death is using him. He has let it out into the streets.

    This is not really about law. It is about power. It is about obedience, subjugation, dread and complicity.

    It’s not so very different from our own leader, who is cultivating his own alliance with death. Blood is for the spilling. We’ve been asked to taste it, to feel its stickiness on our fingers; death has been given leave to play in the interstices of our imaginings. These leaders do not want to serve us. They want to haunt us.

  2. Good Morning

    Briefly.

    Well said. The fact they are putting pressure on by transferring them to the death island while legal processes are still continuing is proof of this.

    @ellinghausen: Christine Milne, Julie Bishop and Tanya Plibersek light candles for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran http://t.co/sf7fCwqMCm

  3. Whenever a gross injustice is done by a state there is no shortage of simpering toadies around to wring their hands and sigh,”Que sera, sera.”

  4. Hola there Bludgers from Dubai – 48mbps downstream, 24 up on my hotel wifi. Not sure if this is totally legit, but pull your finger out Malcolm we are I joke country with #Fraudband

    Watching SpeetTest cream 48mbps down over wifi here is stunning.

    Next stop Greece, then some close bys and I’m venturing into the ME. My insurance is paid up.

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