Labor slips back a point in this week’s reading of the Essential Research fortnightly average, from 54-46 to 53-47, although this is to do with a particularly weak result for the Coalition a fortnight ago washing out of the result, rather than a turn in their favour this week. On the primary vote, the Coalition is up a point to 36%, Labor is steady on 37%, One Nation is steady on 10%, and the Greens are down one to 8%. Other findings are that 49% disapprove of Donald Trump’s self-styled Muslim ban, with only 36% in favour. At least some of this would appear to be down to questions of implementation, as the gap is narrower on the question of whether Australia should do something similar, with 41% in support and 46% opposed. Fifty-three per cent agree with the Prime Minister’s position that it is not his job to comment, versus 36% who disagree. Other questions relate to technology use, including a finding that 50% say technological change is making lives better, with 25% opting for worse.
The public transport comparison to Singapore is rubbish.
here in Australia you need roads, highways, freeways airports for people to get aroun plus off road bike tracks and trams as well as long distance rail and suburban rail. Therefore the dollar is spread thinner than in population dense and restricted size areas like Singapore.
You’re comparing apples with fruit salad.
el guapo @ #2797 Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 7:32 pm
Well, Donald Trump certainly demonstrates your point.
Bemused
Yes, Melbourne trains are not too bad, depending on which line you consider. The regional rail link proj ct still is not running the numbebr of trains promised to justify the project, two years after opening. Brisbane rail frequencies are terrible. Sydney and Perth are OK. Adelaide are fair till school and uni holidays, when services quietly dissappear. Then they wonder why patronage drops.
But all of them, compared to medium sized cities in Europe or Canada, run less trains during the peak, much less off peak. We still spend more building freeways as a % of GDP than any other OECD nation. We could use the same money so much better. Cimic and the CFMEU have too much clout with governments.
greensborough growler @ #2801 Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 7:38 pm
Certainly is. Singapore has 25 times the population density of our biggest city.
Some people here need to learn about economies of scale.
Cupidstunt
Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 3:11 pm
I think ON voters are just disaffected Lib/Nat voters.They wouldnt vote for Labor in a million years.
I reckon it is a mistake to generalise in this way.
The ON leaning vote is not uniformly anti-Labor even though most of its recent upsurge is drawn from the LNP. It is better to characterise it as an anti-politics-as-usual/anti-incumbent expression. In WA it overwhelmingly signals a rejection of the status quo.
If the ON/Lib deal goes ahead both parties will likely lose. ON will lose because they will be seen as a willing proxy for a widely-disliked Government. If Libs hand out HTV’s for ON, every ON volunteer and/or candidate will be taken to be a Lib in disguise. The Libs will lose because they will be seen as willing to both stand in for and sell themselves to an untested and likely-quite-crazy bunch of ratbags. This can only hurt the Lib brand. Voters will be very well entitled to ask…are ON actually just Libs in a different tee-shirt…are apparent Libs actually ON sympathisers?
While the Crazy factor attracts a portion of the electorate towards ON, the same factor also repels lots of Lib-leaning voters – voters who are attracted to the Libs precisely because they are not “crazy like Pauline” and can be relied on to represent established order, respectability, prudence and restraint.
Out door-knocking today among the hard-to-reach and disaffected, I would say the desire for change remains untouched by the prospective Lib/ON union. Longtime Labor voters and many past Lib-voters alike want to change the Government. They will vote to bring that about both by directly supporting Labor or by giving them their down-ballot prefs. Attempts to marshal Lib/ON voters by using HTVs will not change this. If anything, the purported Lib/ON union means these two parties will now be running a counter-intuitive campaign for Labor.
As well (and this should not be underestimated)…the prospect of a Lib/ON win will drive every other outfit, especially Labor and the Gs, to try that much harder. This was certainly evident among the volunteers today.
GG
What you say used to be true when I first started working. But Aussie cities are getting bigger, and their centres denser. PT in most is rubbish compared to similar sized OECD cities. Singapore is not a valid comparator due to density. But most Canadian cities leave us for dead, with similar density and lower expenditure.
Test 2 – I’m losing some comments.
That’s funny. Comments without links get through, those with links don’t.
mari:
Good on you.
If any true Labor voters change to ON then they should hand their heads in shame.
BK, the gremlins are confusing you with Pegasus.
Socrtaes,
So, why do you talk about Singapore?
That’s why the specific discussion about lauding Singapore is bollocks!
If any true Labor voters change to ON then they should hang their heads in shame.
bk @ #2808 Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 7:46 pm
Check your links – e.g. I recently discovered that links with the word “blog” in them won’t get posted. Not sure if it is all such links, but it certainly applied to a few I tried. Also, some domains seem to completely blocked. I don’t know why, but Crikey suddenly seems to be censoring posts.
Cupid, who should they hand them to?
“It’s why I prefer the face to face direct interaction with people. You can gauge how much and how complex information they can take on board.”
This is true, but I wonder what proportion of political interaction is face to face? I’ve spoken to 1 politician for 3 minutes in my entire life.
FS
They should hand their heads in to be looked at. Spellcheck.
el guapo @ #2816 Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 7:51 pm
Probably better that way. Every time I’ve met a politician face to face I have come away with less faith in politics.
P1
Singapore has a population density about four times Sydney. Where did you get the 25 times figure from?
http://www.citymayors.com/statistics/largest-cities-density-125.html
ABC News
40 minutes of my life I will never get back:
1. Long story that there was NO major fire event in the Hunter
2. ABC “exclusive investigation” with the implication that the transfer from Warfarin to NOACs (one of the great advances in patient safety in the last 5 years) was due to bribery from Big Pharma
3. Press release from AFL of black women players
Why didn’t they just put on pictures of ducks on a lake with light classical music like they did in the old days when they had nothing worth saying
zoomster @ #2776 #2776 Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 6:31 pm
Onya! Way to go!
🐘
“John Howard didn’t give his preferences to One Nation. I won’t give our preferences to One Nation.”
Something for the moderate Liberal voters to think about.
“Premier says it wouldn’t be that unusual for Liberals to hand out One Nation how to vote cards”
He’s right. It would be entirely consistent with the contemporary Liberal Party.
GG
I did not raise Singapore others did. Yes Singapore has a high density and we will not get Singapore PT in Australian cities. But while our density is increasing, we are still lousy at planning and delivering PT in a bipartisan manner. Singapore is more efficient in delivering PT projects, so we do not do as well as we could. We should have PT equivalent to Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Nantes or Bordeaux, but we are far short of them.
player one @ #2814 #2814 Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 7:50 pm
Yes. I have stopped using links, I have started to rely on people googling the text to find where it came from, a practice I abhor usually, but maybe I could try using small url links and see if they get through.
player one @ #2814 Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 7:50 pm
No. The string “blog”was not in the link.
socrates @ #2819 Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 7:55 pm
The greater Sydney area – i.e. the area covered by the Sydney public transport network – is 12,368 sq km, not the 1,687 sq km shown in that table. This is the area you need to compare to Singapore, not the inner urban zone. And this doesn’t even include the urban zones to the south and north, which are now part of the outer commuter belt, and which are serviced by the same public transport network.
I think it’s really sad to see the link between alcohol and Islamophobia, and, dare I say it, if that woman who hurled the beer cans at the Muslim woman in NZ was an Australian, well, you’d have to be able to make an odds-on bet that she would be a One Nation voter as well.
I am convinced of the fact that there has been a conscious policy, stretching back decades, to dumb down a certain % of populations the world over and then feed them propaganda (you only have to look at Fox ‘News’ in America, or read the Murdoch rags in Australia), to enable the outcome that we have seen today and been discussing.
* The rise of Islamophobia
* The concomitant rise of populist parties that feed off these people and their votes, so as to covertly advance their agendas which are inimical to those very same people.
Which brings me back to the point that these people’s brains are too addled by alcohol and other drugs to be able to get all but the simplest, nastiest messages through the haze.
How to cut through that with the truth? That is the $64000 question.
greensborough growler @ #2801 Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 7:38 pm
Singapore has roads, highways, freeways, an airport and busses. No trams and not sure about bike tracks. They have a rail link to Malaysia.
They are best compared with a city rather than one of our states.
Our sprawling cities are not really a good idea and our focus on cars is unfortunate.
We can do better. We should do better.
don @ #2825 Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 8:02 pm
Good idea, but cumbersome if you have more than one link!
“Well, Donald Trump certainly demonstrates your point.”
The principles of effective communication remain whether you’re selling a positive vision of the future or a steaming pile of horse-shit.
Socrates,
However, you were happy to use Singapore in your unrelenting rant about Australian alleged indifference/incompetence.
The reality is that in Australia there is a limited amount of money that has to be split across a number of forums and choices. Whingeing about how poor we are at doing your particular favourite mode of public transport is pretty pathetic.
Here in Victoria, a truckload of money is being invested in a wide range of infrastructure projects including rail, road and freeways. It’s never enough and never will be. But, it’s what we can do with what we’ve got to spend.
Oakeshott Country,
But did you see the obese toddler the woman was holding in the story from Singleton? Whoa!
I’m a long time Labor supporter and today I did my first door knocking session for the 2017 election. Its the first time I’ve provided active support other than financial and I was surprised that I enjoyed it.
Going into it I was skeptical of how effective door knocking and having conversations with voters would be, now that I’ve seen it for myself, talked to others doing it and seen what type of data they collect, I can see why the Liberal and National Party have a mortal fear of the ALP ground campaign. Both the ALP and the unions have well organised campaigns underway in my seat, Swan Hills (Ellenbrook) and I think Frank Alban will be seeking alternate employment after the election.
Given the fragmentation of the right wing vote, in the long term they are in serious trouble if they can’t find a way to replicate the ground campaign or counter its effectiveness.
bemused,
But what about the population density?
10 reasons why there is a large protest vote.
I don’t necessarily agree with the ‘reasons’ but my view is that they are the reasons that protest voters have.
1. Fear of muslims combined by anger that the elites either don’t get it or are not paying the consequences. One nuance is that the elites don’t care that the muslims are successfully grabbing social welfare from genuine people who deserve it as a birthright.
2. Loss of wage power.
3. Unemployment.
4. Underemployment.
5. Precarious employment.
6. Growing disparity between rich and poor.
7. Knowing that you and yours are being diddled by the spiv class. The spiv class is all-inclusive.
8. Resentment that the people who should be looking after your pockets are more interested in minority issues like marriage equality.
9. Generalized loss of control epitomized by globalization, foreign takeovers, profit repatriation etc, etc, etc.
10. A tax system, legal system, economic system that is skewed to the benefit of the wealthy.
Readers will note that underlying ever single particular reason is a feeling or a direct experience of or a fear of declining power or of powerlessness.
socrates @ #2803 Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 7:41 pm
Wouldn’t the same construction organisations be involved in building rail as well as road?
It seems some on this site are all in favour for the thinking of the 1950s which gave as sprawling poorly serviced cities. A shame really. We need to plan our way out of that.
el guapo @ #2832 Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 8:10 pm
Yes, but the point is that if you try and reduce everything to a three word slogan, don’t be surprised if “pay less taxes” beats “save the environment” every time.
El Guapo,
Cue picture of Barnett morphing in to Hanson.
A vote for Barnett is a vote for Pauline Hanson!
socrates @ #2819 Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 7:55 pm
He/she/it is known for just making shit up.
bw
[Readers will note that underlying ever single particular reason is a feeling or a direct experience of or a fear of declining power or of powerlessness.]
Ain’t that the truth.
Boerwar:
Hard to disagree with your 10 reasons.
bemused,
and you are well known as a total fuckwit!
What annoys me is the propensity to take it out on those least able to protect themselves rather than looking for sensible solutions. Anger & fear is the meme of the protest voter.
GG
I was pointing out that the efficiency with which Singapore uses its infrastructure money is much better than here. We actually have the highest transport infrastructure expenditure in the OECD in % of GDP terms. We spend a lot, but waste a lot. For example, Sydney rail lines cost three times the unit cost of rail lines here in Adelaide, even for a greenfield site. Why?
Bemused
The big road projects tend to be large PPPs, making them massive fee engines for lawyers and financiers. Plus as we have run out of preserved surface corridors to build freeways, they have gotten far more expensive, and uneconomic. The same firms and people can build both, but some skills are different. It would be good for us if we could transition people from building one to the other, with some retraining. As recent goings on in Qld with the Redcliffe rail line demonstrate, there are still large contractors here that can get rail technology wrong. We are quite good at civils and track, fair on power, and poor on signalling IMO.
“Yes, but the point is that if you try and reduce everything to a three word slogan, don’t be surprised if “pay less taxes” beats “save the environment” every time.”
Then you need a better slogan! “Pay Less Tax” will also beat a complex explanation of the fact that tax underpins the civilised polity we inhabit.
Socrates,
If you couldn’t be a cherry picking pedant, you’d have nothing to say.
BK – Try posting this one
http://www.abc.net.au/news/
Boerwar,
Good accurate list.
A lot of potential Queensland ON voters around the Rockhampton and Townsville regions are not racist red necks and to label them as such is a big big mistake. It is a mistake because it simplifies the reason for their disquiet and instead of concentrating on the real reasons as noted by you the majors have taken their eye off the ball.
Labor, at a state and federal level, is now very aware of the real concerns here in Queensland and are ramping up there response. Will it work here in Queensland is a question that will be answered over coming months. The state labor government had 12 months ( approx) to convince disgruntled voters labor is aware and is listening to them. Bill Shorten and federal labor will also be working the regions really hard right up until the next election.
Cheers.