The Seven Network had a poll this evening from ReachTEL, which records a Coalition lead of 53-47 – a substantial shift on the 50-50 result it recorded on September 15, the evening after the leadership change. That’s all there is from that poll at this stage, but there were some headline-grabbing results today from a Morgan poll, conducted by telephone from a fairly small sample of 574. Bill Shorten could manage only fourth place on the question of preferred Labor leader, with Tanya Plibersek leading on 27% (up a point since July), Anthony Albanese second on 23% (up four), Wayne Swan third on 10% (steady) and Shorten down three to 9%. By contrast, Malcolm Turnbull’s first result for preferred Liberal leader as prime minister has him gaining from 44% to 64%, with Julie Bishop on 12% (down three), Tony Abbott on 8% (down five) and Scott Morrison on 4% (down one). The current leaders’ ratings were 66% approval and 16% disapproval for Turnbull, 25% approval (up one) and 62% disapproval (up two) for Shorten, and Turbull leading 76-14 as preferred prime minister.
UPDATE: GhostWhoVotes relates that ReachTEL has Turnbull leading Shorten 68.9-31.1 on preferred prime minister, with 40.2% saying Labor should replace Shorten as leader versus 26.0% opposed.
UPDATE 2: Full results from ReachTEL here. The sample was 3574 – big even by ReachTEL’s standards – with primary votes of 46.7% for the Coalition (up 3.4%), 33.0% for Labor (down 2.9%) and 11.3% for the Greens (down 0.6%).
I think there is some conflation of party, indvidual and ideological biases going on here.
Look no further than the case of Sarah Ferguson to clearly see the inadequacies of the ABC. In any sane news organisation she would be fronting 7.30 instead of Leigh Sales, whose limit as an interviewer is reached with fluffy celebrity pieces.
MB
[ Perhaps, but then why is the right-wing bias of The Australian self-evident to me and the ABC’s not? ]
The Australian does not even try to hide it – e.g. by indulging in artificial “balance”.
I swear I only pressed post once!
Meher
Leigh Sales: yes i stick to my view- she almost jumped in his lap once – it was a bit creepy. I think her Hockey love may have waned a bit
Fran Kelly: see Bemused comments. she is DLP ish but gay. Hates them theit commies which seems to include Albo and the Labor left
Kerry O’Brien: I wil give you Red Kessa
Barrie Cassidy, yes he was slightly labor leaning – very pro Shorten but treated Rudd in a way that should have had him banned. It was personal, vicious and unprofessional;.
Virginia Trioli, NO. Liberal through and through
Jon Faine, Tony Jones, Sarah Ferguson, I will give you these three
Annabel Crabbe: God no – dip stick. Reflects the last person she met. Has she ever read a serious book?
Jonathan Green, No idea –
Geraldine Doogue, She is a nice person. Conservative Catholic but could not hate anyone. A true independent
Michael Cathcart, Norman Swan, Andrew West, the Chaser team, Charlie Pickering, Todd Sampson and, of course, Phillip Adams: None of these are mainstream enough to justify calling out.
I could reply with Vanstone, Julia Baird, Schweitzer and all the people who appear on the Drum
LOL this is sad:
Josh Taylor @joshgnosis 5m5 minutes ago
The ad campaign to justify budget cuts blows its budget. http://www.crikey.com.au/2015/10/26/govt-ad-campaign-to-justify-spending-cuts-blows-out-budget/ … ($)
What’s happened to the great mark simpkin?
If a journalist likes a politician – even if they may not agree with their ideology – they will often allow the benefit of the doubt to be stretched to breaking point – witness Fairfax pushing, for the longest time and all evidence to the contrary, the idea that Abbott would lead the way on acting on climate change.
If they dislike a politician, they instead always look out for the politician’s angle with much of the commentary being around the political game rather than the issue.
[What’s happened to the great mark simpkin?]
I think that there’s some re-programming going on, and Joe may be needing a PA in Washington.
dtt, you forgot Toolman and Jennett, two of the worst offenders.
[
What’s happened to the great mark simpkin?
]
Talk about getting on the Titanic just before they broke out the lifeboats.
meher baba@1318
Cry me a river.
Australia’s new Chief Scientist to replace Prof Ian Chubb has been announced – Dr Alan Finkel:
https://theconversation.com/alan-finkel-announced-as-australias-new-chief-scientist-49733
[Finkel is an outspoken advocate for science awareness and popularisation. He is a patron of the Australian Science Media Centre and has helped launch popular science magazine, Cosmos.
He is also an advocate for nuclear power, arguing that “nuclear electricity should be considered as a zero-emissions contributor to the energy mix” in Australia.]
Mexican @1274
The transformation of finance in the past 35 years is principally responsible for the majority of problems we (in the West) now face.
This “financialism” is not new – integrated finance and politics captured America in the first few decades of the 20th century and has now done so again.
Financialism is nothing like unions or any other group; it has also not got anything to do with free markets in the production of goods and services, except that it steals from and thus undermines such markets.
Eventually it is self defeating – the problem with financialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money – but causes immense damage and incurs immense opportunity cost in the meantime.
smc – Don’t think Simpkins got allocated a lifeboat.
madcyril:
Indeed!
Tony Jones is far from balanced and neutral.
Evidence for that:
1.Climate change denialist:
[a]See the interview with George Monbiot and Ian Plimer – Jones initially went with the climate scientists ‘have a case to answer’ line re “Climategate” until Plimer appeared and was eviscerated by Monbiot with Jones tagging along behind.
[b]Deliberately set up Suzuki on QANDA. was proud of it, by inviting denialist wackos with their flat earth ideology to ask stupid false and convoluted questions which Suzuki couldn’t possibly answer in less than half an hour.
2.Sexist
[a[Infamously blamed Gillard for ‘being the first victim of the misogyny war that she started”.
[a]Went with the standard media line from Murdochistan that Gillard ‘failed to answer questions’ about TURC and p[c]completely lost the plot about the relevance pf Gillard’s misogyny speech – he was not alone in the mass media in that respect and had plenty of company at the ABC
3.Pro-Liberal
Walked all over the lad who confronted Ciobo on QANDA and apologised for the sins of the ABC- but completely ignored the fact that 2 of his guests on his panel had threatened to kill the Prime Minister of Australia on national TV in the past – one of them repeatedly. Both prominent Liberals.
Surely that’s enough?
William in today’s Crikey on the poisoned chalice of having Greens in cabinet. Di Natale should be careful what he wishes for.
[Whether they like to admit it or not, successful minor parties like the Greens owe much of their appeal to being above the compromises and policy failures that are an inevitable part of governing. Whenever this cover has been removed, the Greens have suffered a sharp drop in electoral support as those seeking to make a generalised protest against the major party establishment have taken their business elsewhere.
For its part, Labor has floundered when its political adversaries and media critics have had the opportunity to paint it as beholden to the Greens.]
Seems Simkin has managed to scramble aboard a lifeboat.
[
Abbott’s media adviser, former award-winning ABC journalist Mark Simkin, will move to Christian Porter’s office while two other junior media advisers will also work for other ministers.
]
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/media-diary-dastyari-called-to-account-on-phone-bill/story-fnab9kqj-1227556777738
Agree with WB’s assessment.
It’s a poisoned chalice for the Greens to be seen to be too close to either party in the political duopoly by accepting cabinet positions.
Both major parties beholden to the pokies and gambling industry:
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/poker-machine-profits-come-from-sydneys-poorest-suburbs-20151023-gkh7j4.html
[Surging gaming industry profits are coming from the pockets of gamblers in Sydney’s most disadvantaged suburbs, who are betting billions more each year on the pokies, a Fairfax investigation has found.
Fairfax has obtained state government data showing which of Sydney’s 40 council areas lose the most money playing poker machines in registered clubs.
Four of the five suburbs registering the fastest-growing and largest losses are ranked Sydney’s top-five most disadvantaged areas by the Bureau of Statistics.]
Expect Christian Porter to appear nightly on ABC news with in fluro vests.
Pegasus@1371
They are not ‘industries’. They are organised crime with a government franchise.
Why does Joel Fitzgibbon score so many appearances on ABC Q&A? He’s on the panel again tonight.
bemused
[They are organised crime with a government franchise]
Now that is a good definition .
bemused,
I was trying to be ‘kind’ hence my use of the euphemism ‘industry’.
It is a damning indictment of both major parties who refuse to reign in the ‘industry’ in any substantial way.
[They are not ‘industries’. They are organised crime with a government franchise.]
Perhaps we should call crime (i.e. illegal profit-taking’) an industry and add it to the GNP?
Pegasus,
It’s well known that the Greens are most popular when it’s all advocacyand whingeing and they have no responsibility for actual implementation or on going management.
WB confirms that when people are looking for Parties or individuals to Govern, the Greens are rather low on the selection list.
[Former Labor member Billy Gordon has begun to flex his political muscle as a balance of power MP, as he turns his attention to a second piece of Palaszczuk Government legislation.
Mr Gordon will combine with the two Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) MPs, Shane Knuth and Robbie Katter, to vote against earlier lockout times for pubs and clubs, unless the Government reworks the laws.]
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-26/billy-gordon-palaszczuk-government-legislation-changes/6884482
Sorry MB, but as far as some of the ABC presenters, I think your are being a little too even-handed.
The whole of the ABC is not infested with a nest of either r/w or l/w journo, but sure as hell some are more than happy to indicate which way they might lean.
You may not see what I see in Fran Kelly, but that is not the point…plenty of others seem to.
What one makes of Macca’s three hours on Sunday of solid hayseed, provincial town stuff is anyone’s guess
It sure does not sound like urban/Labor/Green stuff to me.
GG,
As i am not a subscriber to crikey, i can only respond to confession’s little excerpt.
Don’t be offended if i say i wont take your word on anything to do with the Greens 🙂
Does anyone get the spooky feeling that Malcolm is always shooting a movie in his head called “Turnbull PM”
Paul Sheehan has declared his support for the Turnbull Cabinet so the rest of you might as well STFU 😆
[In summary: the machine does not want the rank-and-file involved. It has declared an emergency which does not exist. It is tacitly supporting someone who thinks that being a federal MP and president of the NSW Liberal Party are jobs that can be done at the same time.
This is the primacy of machine politics.
It is identical on the other side of politics. This is why Australian political life is increasingly occupied by a political class that engages in politics as a career, is not even remotely reflective of the general community, and acts as a barrier to entry for talented potential candidates from outside the insider bubble.
This self-serving insularity was personified last week by the comment from Labor’s deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek, who said Malcolm Turnbull, because of his wealth, was “out of touch” with ordinary Australians.
This is coming from someone who spent her career as a public servant or political staffer and is married to a career public servant, Michael Coutts-Trotter. Their combined annual income is about $800,000, all paid for by the taxpayer.
We know who is out of touch. The new front-line of the federal government – Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison as Treasurer and Christian Porter as Minister for Social Services, the biggest-spending portfolio in the government – is wiping the floor with Labor.
All three are highly adroit public speakers and it is no coincidence that all had successful careers before entering Federal Parliament. Turnbull’s life as a lawyer, merchant banker and journalist is well known. Morrison was the managing director of Tourism Australia. Porter was treasurer and attorney-general of Western Australia before seeking a seat in Federal Parliament.]
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/liberal-party-members-should-rage-against-the-party-machine-20151024-gkhmuq.html#ixzz3pdzJ2t4u
[What’s happened to the great mark simpkin?]
Karma?
GG:
Di Natale was just speaking out both sides of his mouth like any other politician. As William pointed out he isn’t even the first federal Greens leader to muse about a coalition govt with Labor, so essentially I think we can dismiss his statements as a stunt.
When the Magic Water Man speaks we should all listen Lizzie.
(and then snigger)
Today’s laugh.
Shorter Morrison: ‘don’t blame us we’re just the govt!’
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/29909825/higher-rates-not-our-fault-morrison/
fess,
If Di Natale wants to be Government Minister he’ll have to join a Party that provides that as a possible option.
Lizzie
Interesting that magic water man Sheehan mentions morrison’s high powered jobs without mentioning he was sacked from them.
ratsak
[When the Magic Water Man speaks we should all listen Lizzie.
(and then snigger)]
Especially as one magic water man is writing about another magic water man.
[Turnbull’s $10m for ‘rainmakers’ with no proof
THE Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, is giving a $10 million boost to research promoted by a rainmaking company part-owned by Rupert Murdoch’s nephew Matt Handbury, despite scientific experts hired by the Government stating the firm had provided “no convincing data” to support the technology.]
http://www.smh.com.au/news/federalelection2007news/turnbulls-10m-for-rainmakers-with-no-proof/2007/10/23/1192941065568.html
rossmcg,
It was a case of “We know where the hell you are. Now, bugger off!”.
poroti@1375
GG
Labor needs to consider the real possibility that say in 2019 or 2022, they could scrape into government with support of a Greens Party with 7 or so seats. This could then force Labor to accept in the HoR which would mean that henceforth Labor would only govern with say a Greens vote of 18% and Labor of 33%. A coalition at this point may be a necessity.
I see the following seats as vulnerable to the Greens
Batman, Wills, Melbourne Ports, Freemantle, Sydney, Grayndler, Richmond, Fraser and from the Libs/Indis , Higgins, Brisbane, Ryan
Interesting profile on the BBC coming up on Nigel Owens who presumably will referee the Rugby World Cup final this week
[In the programme, Owens also discusses coming out as gay and a failed suicide attempt when he was 19 years old.
In 2007, Owens came out live on a Welsh-language television programme hosted by former Wales captain Jonathan Davies.
A year later Owens published an autobiography in Welsh in which he revealed that he made a suicide attempt while suffering from depression.
He also suffered from bulimia and became addicted to steroids during that period of his life.]
bemused@1392
Oops… should be more careful where I put my reply. But I am sure anyone can work it out.
daretotread@1393
Well we should work hard to ensure that distasteful eventuality does not occur.
[When the Magic Water Man speaks we should all listen Lizzie.
(and then snigger)]
It was actually “Unique Water” not “Magic Water”.
Whatever, unique or magic, you sure need a bucket handy when you’re reading his stuff.
Coaltions with the Greens have never worked and I doubt many Party Memebers would support such a coalitiona at Federal level.
Labor should operaate as a minority Government in their own right.
As for claims about Greens picking up seats, we’ve been hearing that for years. First with Democrats and now the Greens. I don’t dwell on hypotheticals that are unlikely to happen.
Shell-bell:
In the words of the existential philosopher, John Rambo: “Sir, will we be allowed to win this one?”
Simple answer: “No.”
rossmcg
Morrison? A success? Where the hell are you?