BludgerTrack: 52.6-47.4 to Labor

Another week of stasis in the polls results in another stable reading of the BludgerTrack poll aggregate.

This week’s results from Newspoll and Essential Research have resulted in very slight movement to the Coalition on the BludgerTrack poll aggregate’s two-party preferred reading, although Labor makes a net gain on the seat projection as gains in Western Australia and South Australia balance out a loss in Queensland. The new leadership numbers from Newspoll see the preferred prime minister rating maintain its condition of dead calm since the election, and both leaders’ net approval ratings continue their slow downward trend.

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.

721 comments on “BludgerTrack: 52.6-47.4 to Labor”

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  1. Well, I am determined to not google it. But I cant find my books on the Crusades (I suspect Mrs Katich has put them in a box somewhere along with my copy of Hobbes, the Flashman series and some Tom Clancy books).

    I reckon it was the very first crusade. They werent very organised and they did some awful things to Jews and Christians along the way to the point the locals got organised and killed a goodly lot of them. They only made it to Constantinople because Byzantium came to their rescue.

  5. ABC devoting the first 10 minutes of its 7.00pm news to a largely uncritical review of Trump’s first 100 days.

    And we pay for this slop.

  6. Googled it.
    It was the Peoples Crusade and was a prelude to the official Crusades. 100,000 set out, a quarter were killed in the Balkans. They fared worse against the turks – only 3000 escaped (thanks to being rescued again by Byzantium).

  9. My source is Samantha Maiden’s twitter account.
    Samantha Maiden‏Verified account @samanthamaiden 49m49 minutes ago
    More
    PM has unleashed on Queensland Premier as “bitter” in a massive Facebook spray published “only in Queensland”

  10. Gorkay K:

    If Maiden isn’t based in Qld (which she isn’t), how would she know that? I’m not saying MT didn’t engineer this, just questioning the source.

  15. ‘One that really bugs me is “lighted”.
    When ever I see it in a book I translate it to “lit”.’

    But “And all our yesterdays have lit fools/ the way to dusty death” doesn’t work for me.

  16. Boerwar’s link to witch hunting methods on the previous page reveals this then-common practice:

    If witch-hunters struggled to find obvious evidence of “witch’s marks” on a suspect’s body, they might resort to the ghastly practice of “pricking” as a means of sussing it out. Witch-hunting books and instructional pamphlets noted that the marks were insensitive to pain and couldn’t bleed, so examiners used specially designed needles to repeatedly stab and prick at the accused person’s flesh until they discovered a spot that produced the desired results. In England and Scotland, the torture was eventually performed by well-paid professional “prickers,” many of whom were actually con men who used dulled needlepoints to identify fake witch’s marks.

    Along with pricking, the unfortunate suspect might also be subjected to “scratching” by their supposed victims. This test was based on the notion that possessed people found relief by scratching the person responsible with their fingernails until they drew blood. If their symptoms improved after clawing at the accused’s skin, it was seen as partial evidence of guilt.

    This may be dismissed as pre-Englightenment era ignorance, but similar ‘tests’ were conducted on indigenous Australians up until the last century in the name of medical research.

    The University of Adelaide has previously apologised for past cruel and inhumane medical experiments conducted on Aboriginal people in the 1920s and 1930s.
    https://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news314.html

    We may scoff or laugh at the witch hunting stuff now, because it seems so ridiculously and laughably ignorant, but centuries later generations of indigenous Australians were subjected to similar barbaric experiences in the name of ‘science’. I wonder if this will get a guernsey in Abbott’s forthcoming ‘enlightenment speech’.

  20. I studied the history of witchcraft at University (I did a delightfully eclectic course…)

    I highly recommend the book “Europe’s Inner Demons” – my copy went missing years ago.

    Basically, the Bible said there were witches. Therefore there were witches. Therefore if you couldn’t find any, it was because you weren’t looking properly, and if you weren’t looking properly, then you were letting God down.

  21. Gorkay King @ #648 Sunday, April 30th, 2017 – 7:05 pm

    Apparently Turnbull posted a Queensland only post. He probably used facebook feature to target only Queenslanders.

    If you can’t see it, it says:

    Queenslanders Deserve Better

    Queenslanders will have been disappointed, but perhaps not surprised, to read Annastacia Palaszczuk’s bitter, personal and wildly inaccurate attack in the Sunday Mail today.

    It’s hard to know what prompted it.

    It comes the day before we will both be in Townsville commemorating the Battle of the Coral Sea, where 75 years ago Australian and American naval forces turned back a Japanese invasion force headed for Port Moresby.

    And later tomorrow I will be in Townsville announcing local jobs at the site of the new stadium to which my Government has committed $100 million.

    It’s part of the Townsville City Deal we’ve been working on with the City and State Governments. The Premier has advised she will not be attending.

    And it follows the heartbreaking loss and damage of Cyclone Debbie. As the Premier knows, the Federal Government is contributing around 75 percent of the disaster recovery funding. The Queensland Premier welcomed our help – only a month ago praising me and the Federal Government assistance she received, saying “the level of cooperation is unprecedented.”

    This assistance to Queensland was not a one-off. Over the last decade the Federal Government has spent $10.5 billion on disaster recovery, of which 85 percent was spent in Queensland.

    The Premier’s personal abuse will not distract my Government from delivering for Queensland. Our abolition of 457 visas means Queenslanders will have the absolute first priority for Queensland jobs.

    Our gas reforms will help thousands of Queenslanders stay in work – including those at Incitec Pivot in Brisbane where we announced the reforms on Thursday – as well as supporting local businesses and industries struggling with high wholesale gas prices.

    The Premier’s remarks can’t conceal the reality that the Queensland Labor Government is the biggest brake on state development. It seems the Premier knows how to blame but not how to build.

    Normally State Governments embrace Federal funding with enthusiasm. However, the Premier seems reluctant to accept $130 million for Rookwood Weir – a project that will increase Fitzroy Basin agricultural production by $1 billion per year and provide 2500 jobs. Queensland is the only state not to have signed on for Federal water infrastructure funding.

    The fact is, the Federal Government is providing record funding to Queensland: over $100 billion over the next four years. Federal funding to Queensland will increase by 20 percent between 2015-16 and 2019-20.

    Federal funding for Queensland schools is increasing by 27 percent over the same period. Federal funding for Queensland public hospitals is increasing by more than 23 percent.

    Our infrastructure commitments in Queensland total more than $13 billion including $6.7 billion on the Bruce Highway and $1.14 billion on the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing as well as many other projects. And the $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility is considering further projects for investment in North Queensland.

    Queenslanders don’t want their politicians hurling abuse; they want them to deliver. That’s my Government’s focus – delivering opportunity and security to the people of Queensland.

    I look forward to meeting Queenslanders in Townsville tomorrow and announcing the next stage of North Queensland’s exciting new stadium which will deliver more jobs and opportunity for the region.

    Another example, of my Government delivering for Queensland.

    Someone needs to hit him with a “TL;DR”. Also, love how the answer to being ravaged by destructive cyclones is building a new sports stadium. That will surely solve the problem once and for all!

  22. AR:

    Thanks for posting. Wow. What a totally OTT and off the reservation response to Palaszczuk’s comments. Humiliated much Mal?

  23. a r
    You just beat me posting Turnbull’s rant. He really went over the top – insecurity much! Annastacia will be chuffed to know she can rattle him so badly. The coalition more and more resemble the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail!

  26. A R

    And later tomorrow I will be in Townsville announcing local jobs at the site of the new stadium to which my Government has committed $100 million.

    So he’s already got the circus organised. I assume he’ll throw bread to the crowd as well tomorrow.

  27. Perhaps we can expect similar sprays from Turnbull directed at each of the other Labor states and territories in due course. Each of the premiers and chief ministers now know what to say to send him off his rocker.

  28. Perhaps we can expect similar sprays from Turnbull directed at each of the other Labor states and territories in due course.

    They’re all men and I’m guessing Turnbull’s ‘bitter and personal’ remarks really hit the mark with the Lib base when trained onto women.

  31. Where is the link between intelligence and affluence?

    Read the the article in The Atlantic from which I quoted. The link between intelligence and material standard of living in our societies is very strong. The focus on finding the highly intelligent among the poor and helping them falls woefully short of what is needed for a healthy and good society. Rather than organizing a society around the needs of a highly intelligent minority, we should be organizing things so that people of the full range of capacities can flourish.

  32. Where is the link between intelligence and affluence?

    Read the the article in The Atlantic from which I quoted. The link between intelligence and material standard of living in our societies is very strong. The focus on finding the highly intelligent among the poor and helping them falls woefully short of what is needed for a healthy and good society. Rather than organizing a society around the needs of a highly intelligent minority, we should be organizing things so that people of the full range of capacities can flourish.

  33. And later tomorrow I will be in Townsville announcing local jobs at the site of the new stadium to which my Government has committed $100 million.

    Another federal Labor policy announcement from the last election that unimaginative, uninspiring Turnbull leapt on as the train left the station:

    https://goo.gl/images/UhcByP

  34. doG! I can’t believe the nation’s Prime Minister, the occupant of the highest office in the land, HAD to respond to an attack on him by a lowly Premier, and a Labor premier at that!

    How insecure and desperate must he feel to make such a feeble move. The last desperate gasps of a shitty Prime Minister under siege from the dark forces of the media, the opposition, and worst of all, his own party.

    He’s crumbled under the weight of the public gaze and will be quickly forgotten as one of our leaders. I’d feel sorry for him, but then I remember I despise him… for good reason.

  37. In what way is society organised around the needs of a intelligent minority? It seems to be very organised about the needs of the majority.

    Just more fantasies in an attempt to justify extremism.

  38. zoidlord @ #685 Sunday, April 30, 2017 at 8:59 pm

    Bemused needs to lighten up and stop bullying others and calling them jokes.

    Hey Zoid, I didn’t mean to offend you.
    We all make mistakes and it is good to see the funny side of them. I make plenty myself and don’t get offended if someone has a comment making a joke of them.

  40. JD:

    Malcolm’s attack is highly likely a result of the poor standing he has in his partyroom.

    We are sooooo poorly served by this govt.

  42. I half wonder if Turnbull really wants to violently attack his enemies in the LNP but lacks the guts to do so. It might explain why he then directs his pent up anger at those outside the LNP.

  44. Let’s put together a national economic plan that punishes intelligence and rewards the Ignoranti.
    I suggest we call it the Nicholas/Trump Plan.

  45. Bree
    Sunday, April 30, 2017 at 10:42 am
    Americans have a real patriot in Trump as their leader and we’re stuck with Halal Mal.

    A monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare. Unfortunately a lot of other stuff gets typed as well.

  46. Bemused always mentions that I am on another planet or whatever.

    This isn’t the only time bemused has done this, more than just a ‘joke’.

  47. Bemused,
    I see the VI has dropped in trying to stir up trouble.

    Look, I say this only by way of friendly advice, but, really Bemused, if you don’t want to kill this blog stone dead, or as close to it as isn’t funny, you’ll do yourself and everyone else a favour and lighten up on the derision and mockery, eh?

    You can make a point forcefully without having to resort to that.

    And, yes, I know, pots and kettles.

  49. While I remember, I must comment on that Courier Mail editorial today which went to town on Malcolm Turnbull today.

    It was fine, as they go and good to see them pointing out some of the maladroit moves that Turnbull has made, and keeps making. However, what really irked me about it was that the Editor put into the editorial, as an article of faith, that ‘Bill Shorten’s links to the Unions’, was, in and of itself, a bad thing.

    Since when did Unions become the living embodiment of Beezlebub and any politician who has any historical association with them at all, without question becomes tainted?

    I think a lot of journalists and their editors have forgotten who freed them from the Hot Presses of yesteryear.

  50. zoid:

    You are being trolled by PB’s resident asshole. Best move you can make is to ignore him which is what other commenters have done today, hence his limited impact on the blog.

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