The Australian plugs what will presumably be an Easter polling break with Newspoll’s quarterly breakdowns, featuring voting intention and leadership rating results since the start of the year broken down by state and metropolitan/non-metropolitan. The state figures differ from the current BludgerTrack readings in being weaker for Labor in Queensland, but stronger in New South Wales and Western Australia. Later this week I’ll incorporate these numbers into BludgerTrack and publish one of my complete quarterly updates. The other figures that stand out for me are the huge drops in Tony Abbott’s approval ratings in Western Australia (down 17% to 25%) and South Australia (down 11% to 19%), with his disapproval rating in South Australia at a remarkable 74%.
UPDATE 7/4 (Roy Morgan): The latest result from Roy Morgan, combining the last two weekends of face-to-face and SMS polling from a sample of 3063, is a relatively strong result for the Coalition, who are up 2.5% on the primary vote to 40.5% with Labor down 4% to 36% and the Greens up 1.5% to 12.5%. On respondent-allocated preferences, this pans out to a big drop in Labor’s lead from 56-44 to 53-47, but the shift on previous election preferences is a good deal more modest, from 54-46 to 53-47.
UPDATE 8/4 (Essential Research): Essential’s fortnightly rolling average is steady at 53-47 to Labor, although Labor are down a point on the primary vote to 39%, with the Coalition steady on 40%, the Greens steady on 10% and Palmer United up one to 2%. Further questions find 69% opposed to raising the pension age to 70, with only 21% in support; 35% support for lowering the threshold for payment of GST on online purchases, with 45% opposed; and majorities in favour of banning alcohol advertising and raising the drinking age, but not discouraging consumption by increasing tax.
Page 66 says it all sadly.
Unbelievable.
[On April 1, someone at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade thought it would be a great jape to tell some of the lowest paid and most insecure staff their jobs were being sent elsewhere.
The 30 public servants in a section of the Passport Office — many contract workers and low level PS ranks — were confronted by an announcement on the office video information screen saying their jobs were being shifted to Melbourne.
For five hours the message stayed on the screen until it was finally revealed as a prank. The targets, employed at the Canberra Regional Eligibility Centre, were not impressed.
Then it got worse: news.com.au has learned the managers behind the prank told staff they “should have known it was a joke”.
But one source said: “No one found it funny and staff in that section were understandably very upset.”]
http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/passport-office-staff-told-they-were-losing-their-jobs-in-cruel-april-fools-prank/story-fnkgbb6w-1227295566506
If you’re a federal public servant in the current environment, why would you automatically assume this was a joke?
[Page 66 says it all sadly.]
LOL especially on the subject of ‘stimulating change’.
[Page 66 says it all sadly]
Ha ha, nice one. 😉
Abbott’s war on ice, melt the poles.
Abbott intends to eradicate ice through global warming.
[
Diogenes
Posted Wednesday, April 8, 2015 at 6:45 pm | Permalink
…
Actually I can’t think of any murderer in Midsomer Murders who meets the technical definition of a serial killer.
]
Given the murder rate in Midsomer I am surprised there is anybody left in Midsomer to murder.
Labor and the Greens were in power… how long was it… 6 Years?
But now suddenly something must be done on the multinationals tax avoidance.
I mean really and truly, why does it always take a Coalition Government to get these things fixed?
Confessions
I would be interested to know who was responsible for the April 1 “joke”
I dare say if it was a worker or union member Abetz would be all over it.
If it was a manager we will hear nothing.
BK:
😆
@TBA/908
And Howard was in for 10 PLUS years, your point?
rossmcg:
Looks to me it was initiated by managers, but in any case it was a pretty sick joke to put onto people. Esp in an environment where people are feeling awfully vulnerable about their jobs.
[ I mean really and truly, why does it always take a Coalition Government to get these things fixed? ]
You expect the Libs to fix something? Too much blue kool aid Goatchaser. It will slow you down. 🙂
Confessions
Yes, I read the story again slowly, and it blames a manager.
I had a few managers in my time who thought they were funny. If I had pulled similar stunts I would have been having a trip down to HR for some counselling on inappropriate behaviour.
I am no fan of the weakening of the RET target and yes I see it as Labor backing down.
However I think Labor had no choice. It was either a compromise of nothing. The target can be increased according to the science later on when Labor is in power.
If Labor keeps the compromise target in government then yes they are then sellouts on renewable energy.
[ Looks to me it was initiated by managers, ]
The article states that pretty clearly and whoever did it had to have access to their bulletin system. The idiots who did it have left themselves incredibly vulnerable to accusations of bullying from the affected staff and if their senior managers have any sense they will publicly crap on them. An apology to the staff is the minimum that should happen.
What have the Tories “fixed” in relation to international tax dodging?
This inquiry is a Labor initiative and on day one we hear Hockey has acted to protect the names of the usual suspects.
Some fix
Where is C Pyne, The Fixer?
rossmcg:
Office humour often scrapes a fine line, but I can’t fathom being personally responsible for staff thinking they were about to lose their job as some kind of joke fodder.
And on office jokes and what is stretching the boundaries, I offer this, in the hope it never comes to a workplace near me!
http://www.thebolditalic.com/articles/7154-what-our-office-learned-working-naked-for-one-month-ironically-nsfw-
I expect the coalition will “fix” corporate tax the same way they have “fixed” debt and deficit, and “fixed” NBN.
@Rossmcg/917
Protecting themselves….
917
Having watched it live that’s not the impression I got.
Labor’s explanation
@AustralianLabor: We can’t wait until the next election to save our renewable energy industry, we have to act now & here’s why #auspol
https://t.co/BsPRo4WkyD
[The idiots who did it have left themselves incredibly vulnerable to accusations of bullying]
Absolutely!
[“You expect the Libs to fix something?”]
They fixed Labors boat mess.
Oh yes and the Carbon Tax. And the Mining Tax.
The current target is 41,000 GWh. Labor’s surrender was 33,500. The coalition is rejecting this capitulation as incomplete. They are demanding 32,000. They say they will continue working the senate cross bench.
What was the point of labor agreeing to weaken the target substantially if not to bring an IMMEDIATE end to uncertainty?
LNP have lost the argument in Queensland. Voting system they introduced means no drama like in Federal Parliament.
Also Bob Katter as good as called the tacticians in the LNP racists for assuming Gordon would resign.
Thanks guytaur. I don’t think they will keep the compromise
TBA
Yes the mining tax, what thanks have the miners returned, flooding an oversupplied market forcing the Iron Ore price to more than half.
Did the Liberals get some polling advise about the word ‘fix’ & ‘fixer’, it’s everywhere.
Confessions @ 923: If one of the staffers puts in a formal complaint – and I would very much hope that someone does – the perpetrator will be “dead puppies”. The only question will be whether s/he gets done for breach of APS values, code of conduct violation, bullying or 9-on-the-Richter-scale stupidity.
[925
Nicholas]
The currently installed RET capacity is well below 35,000GWh. The retention of the target will enable the industry to continue to build at a viable level. The 41,000 target is not due to be completed for another 5 years. When Labor win the next election, the target will be revised – even extended.
For the moment, the LNP have the upper hand. They have repelled billions in investment. Considering the vulnerability of the industry, this is very far from the worst deal available.
Gareth
Maybe the Tories need to do some more research.
In some circles, the “fix” is not a positive term.
Cricket for starters, horse racing …
@TBA/924
Debt getting larger.
multinationals avoiding paying appropriate taxes…. etc
pedant:
Yes,I would hope they complain as well. But if the staff are feeling vulnerable about their jobs, they are just as likely not to do so.
TBA @ 924 – yes tell us how abolishing the carbon price and the mining tax as well as spending over a billion dollars imprisoning refugees has fixed the “budget emergency”, repaid the debt and revived the economy. It seems you can only regurgitate Liberal talking points. You don’t even do that very well.
[924
TrueBlueAussie
…the Mining Tax.]
The biggest risk to the resources sector in this country is not tax. It is the misallocation of capital by the industry.
Confessions @ 934: They should all put in a joint complaint. There’s safety in numbers; and, in addition, managers who are seen to have got all of their staff off side don’t survive for long. Finally, the senior managers in DFAT by and large are smart people, and know better than to attempt retribution against the workers in such a case.
Goodnight.
[ They fixed Labors boat mess. ]
That would be the one that Morrison has turned into the Liberals Child Sex Abuse in Nauru Mess and handed off to the ever brilliant as well as supremely competent and compassionate Dutton would it??
[925
Nicholas]
It is truly bizarre that a Green would prefer to align itself with the LNP and obstruct the RE industry purely in order to satisfy a trumped-up grievance with Labor.
Abbott has been too quiet for too long. Obviously his handlers will be keeping him out of the spotlight, but I think we are due for another piece of Abbott stupidity as only he is capable. That combined with another blundering incohesive budget should do wonders for the polls.
Tom.
The same could be said of Labor, briefly by the face saving exercise “comprising”.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/imf-fears-global-economy-is-suffering-secular-stagnation-10161154.html
[The International Monetary Fund is coming around to the idea that the world is in the grip of an economic “secular stagnation”, meaning the living standards of future generations will be lower than previously expected and national debt burdens will be harder to reduce.
In a chapter of its latest World Economic Outlook the multinational body concludes that global potential output growth – the total economic output that nations can produce without generating damaging inflation – has fallen significantly in the wake of the 2008-09 financial crisis.
The IMF researchers attribute the decline to an ageing global population and lower capital investment by businesses in both advanced and emerging market economies. The argument that these factors have cut potential growth rates echoes that put forward by the US economist Alvin Hansen, who predicted in the 1930s that the US was experiencing a “secular stagnation” as a consequence of dwindling technological innovation and a drop off in the rate of population growth.
In its study published yesterday, the IMF said: “Potential growth is likely to remain below pre-crisis levels, while it is expected to decrease further in emerging market economies in the medium term. These findings imply that living standards may expand more slowly in the future.”]
[942
zoidlord]
What are you talking about?
[comprise
kəmˈprʌɪz/
verb
verb: comprise; 3rd person present: comprises; past tense: comprised; past participle: comprised; gerund or present participle: comprising
consist of; be made up of.
“the country comprises twenty states”
synonyms: consist of, be made up of, be composed of, contain, take in, embrace, encompass]
Zoomster and Psyclaw
First I am assuming that those checking metadata will have IQ higher than the average chook, though perhaps not as high as a kelpie dog.
I am not sure if you two actually can read, but what I clearly implied would be “Psyclaw received 19 letters from the Commonwealth Bank in 2015” 12 of them are dated the 11/12th of every month so we can assume it is a Visa card statement. 4 of them came in the first week of July and January so we can assume they were half yearly statements.
However the other three are unexplained. This may trigger a wider search of bank accounts to find out if there has been unexpected expenditure, since the extra non routine letters may indicate a financial stress. OK we found one was a standard promotion but still leaves 2 unexplained.
The exact same for utility bills. One comes every quarter. OK yes we KNOW that Zoomster (grandma and egg sucking!) However when the second and the third come in a quarter you can suspect that one is a disconnection warning. Comprehend? Add in a few letters from debt collection agencies and you get a picture of the person’s finances.
Clubs and societies, kids school letters can all be tracked.
Coalition Party wants RET gone, it Labor wants to compromise to attempt to save it, but not the original amount.
How can this be a compromise when the is not getting the stability it needs?
Coalition Part goal is like the MRRT and Carbon Tax, zip and nothing, deal with it briefly.
That is the reality you guys you need to live with.
DTT
As you are a clairvoyant or spokesperson for same, your snoopers will also know what bank letters come from banks of which I am a customer and otherwise.
I constantly receive bank letters from banks I have never dealt with.
Nevertheless as you say, you are confident that the contents of the letters will be knowable.
Psyclaw
DTT is unhinged and is going the way of Kezza2. Do not expect to have a logical discussion with her. I’d recommend giving her a wide berth.
[What have the Tories “fixed” in relation to international tax dodging?
This inquiry is a Labor initiative…]
No it isn’t.
As I posted earlier, it is a Greens initiative.
October 2014: http://greens.org.au/node/6153
[The Senate has just voted in favour of a Greens motion to launch an inquiry into corporate tax evasion, in the lead-up to the G20 summit.]
[949
Pegasus
This inquiry is a Labor initiative…]
Thanks for sharing.