The New Year poll drought has been brought to an end by Essential Research, which will henceforth be conducting fortnightly polls, dispensing with its long establishing practice of polling weekly and publishing two-week rolling averages. As related by The Guardian, the poll has Labor’s lead unchanged on the final poll last year at 53-47 – as usual, primary votes will have to wait for the publication of the full report later today. Both leaders’ personal ratings have weakened: Malcolm Turnbull is down three on approval to 38% and up one on disapproval to 45%, Bill Shorten is down four on approval to 32% and up four disapproval to 49%, and Turnbull’s lead as preferred prime minister is out from 42-28 to 42-25.
Other findings: 53% support a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks, with 38% opposed; 44% support and 29% oppose “Australia becoming a republic with an Australian head of state”, which is all but identical to when the same question was asked a year ago (44% and 30%); and society is widely seen as going to pot, with crime perceived as on the rise across all categories, regardless of what the official statistics might say.
UPDATE: The primary votes are Coalition 37% (steady), Labor 38% (steady), Greens 9% (steady), One Nation 6% (down one). Full report here.
“Frankly this is a nightmare scenario for the USA and I assume that there is a great deal of energy currently being spent on how they can achieve first strike without copping excessive flak in return. However it is probably already too late.”
I think the fact that Trump has failed to appoint a huge proportion of the important people in the orgs that should be doing this probably means that even if they are expending a great deal of energy on anything at all, then that energy will produce nothing at all.
DTT
Labor and the Greens are trying their best not to have us choose sides. Its all the LNP all the way with the USA at the moment.
With care Australia should be able to remain friends with both China and The USA.
Another reason I want a change of government. Labor and the Greens get it. I guess most of the cross bench probably do too.
No one cares about the one dayers including the players. They are boring and irrelevant.
“With care Australia should be able to remain friends with both China and The USA.”
It depends entirely on how the Trump thing plays out, if the midterms go well for Trump and / or he gets a second term being friends with the US will be of itself incredibly damaging to Australia.
guytaur
Yep, just like it was under Obama. You wonder why the “deplorables’ are so desperate for change they will vote for a Trump ? Nothing to lose. Shafted by the plutocracy when it was Clinton, Bush and Obama.
WWP
Can’t argue with that.
zoomster says:
Sunday, January 21, 2018 at 7:17 pm
don
‘You could get it moved to a more convenient location.’
You could, but then it wouldn’t meet the building regs, and thus no electrician would do it for you.
The regs (in Vic, at least) are that the smoke alarm must be in the highest possible point of the ceiling.
Fair enough, but a competent electrician could rewire it, and run a wire down to eye level and put a button on it to shut up the toast alarm.
My sons resorted to covering theirs with GladWrap…
I suspect that would contravene the regs pretty completely!
“No one cares about the one dayers including the players. They are boring and irrelevant.”
Then CA should take grade players into it and not rip the guts out of the BBL with their selections for something so irrelevant. The BBL surely will be their cash cow, but fans will get very annoyed over time with the one dayers taking the talent out of the BBL. For example the scorchers needed competent umpires last night, but Tye and Richardson who aren’t even playing today would have been quite important also.
Boerwar
“I see that we are busy betraying the Kurds. As per predictions on Bludger. The West has no shame in the Middle East: the coffin of Western Civilization.”
———–
The equation of “The West” with the chicanery of the USA is totally absurd. The USA is not “the West”… Even the yanks believe their country is “exceptional” and unique.
The USA is the least “western” of western countries.
It is only quasi-western, because it: maintains the right to kill prisoners it does not “like” (capital punishment); to use land mines; to be exempt from normal laws against “crimes against humanity”; to overthrow any foreign government it opposes; to overthrow democracies if their policies threaten US capitalism.
The other obvious issue that seemingly goes over the heads of the bloggers on this blog (surely, the most US obsessed blog in the blogosphere) is that to put all your eggs in the US of A basket, and abandon critical thought, may not be a very wise move for a middle power in the west Pacific.
OK OK
Yes Ido think Putin is pretty hot – brains and braun – what more can a girl ask for. Bill Clinton was all the go too.
On the other hand the idea of being touched by Trump makes me want to puke. He has neither brains nor Braun. Icky.
I am also pretty hot for Harrison Ford AND Craig mcLaughlin
Now that is probably more about me than you ever want to know.
Diogenes @ #2803 Sunday, January 21st, 2018 – 7:47 pm
Feel the force Diogs.
Turn off the TV.
Bw
McLaughlin and wife got a big coverage in the Sunday Sydney Herald.
Claimed every thing he’d ever been involved in had a “Benny Hill” back stage.
Diogenes:
An apt description of every cricket game ever played.
I might add to the quasi-western values of the USofA is their undemocratic electoral system (though that is an Anglo-phone characterstic) and their undue religiousity and bibliolotary.
A cartoon from the West is upsetting a few on twitter.
TheAviator1992: Disgusting cartoon published in The West Australian, just days before Invasion Day.
Shame on you Dean Alston and publishers! pic.twitter.com/wqeWRx0mRb
GG
I have. I’m watching Nick K.
WWP
It’s sheer bloody mindedness from CA. They could get the scheduling sorted out. Just look at the crowds for BBL. The TV ratings are the only reason Ch10 didn’t go under ages ago.
The USA is the biggest player in what most people refer to as ‘The West’ at the moment.
But they are not the only player, and Europe, Canada, Australia have taken various positions and have influence over what goes down in the Middle East. If there was a concerted effort from Europe, Canada, Australia, NZ to divert the course of actions against the Kurds in the Middle East – particularly if Europe had any influence they could use, and were willing to use, on the Turks – maybe something different might happen. The fact that Europe is so weak and inwardly looking at the moment (and we can put a fair whack of blame for that on Cameron and BoJo for accidentally getting Brexit up), and Australia seems to have withdrawn from any willingness or ability to positively influence world geopolitics.
And, of course, ‘The West’ that started the ball rolling on fucked-uppedness in the Middle East was that of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and that was primarily about what the English were doing drawing lines on maps at the time.
‘The West’ has fucked it up completely in the past, present and seemingly the future, and no that’s not ‘The West’ = ‘The USA’.
“I might add to the quasi-western values of the USofA is their undemocratic electoral system (though that is an Anglo-phone characterstic) and their undue religiousity and bibliolotary.”
I have sympathy for the electoral college and for the senate (ie equal representation for each state) as perhaps not ‘great’ democracy but still understandable. However their efforts at voter suppression and gerrymandering are just text book anti-democratic.
Geoffrey Rush set the standard for denying allegations of sexual misbehaviour.
Sue.
McLachlan simply denying any impropriety is not enough.
And it is also should be noted that complaints have been made to police. So that has to run its course.
“WWP
It’s sheer bloody mindedness from CA. They could get the scheduling sorted out. Just look at the crowds for BBL. The TV ratings are the only reason Ch10 didn’t go under ages ago.”
If by bloody mindedness you mean some kind of basic stupidity I agree with you.
WWP
Your naivety is breathtaking.
If there is a HOT conflict we cannot take sides. We have US military bases on our soil, the most recent established under Gillard. If the two protagonists start shooting expect Darwin as a minimum to take a hit and obviously all our iron and coal exports would be blockaded even if they started.
The idea that it is Trump that is calling the shots is in fact laughable. US presidents are heavily constrained but most off all they have allowed a huge military/intelligence establishment to grow and it essentially dictates policy.
Look we all love Obama (including me) but he was no more able to constrain US military madness than is Trump. Bush did not even try. Sure Obama was a moderating influence but under his watch the US invaded (bombed) Syria ,Libyan, Somalia many other parts of Africa. He could not even close Guantanamo.
“And it is also should be noted that complaints have been made to police.”
The standard of proof in these complaints and the legal system systematically protecting sexual offenders means this is almost irrelevant. Craig’s best strategy is to hope that no charges are laid and then sue the hell out of a few media organisations successfully. Then proclaim innocence, but of course, we do not have a legal system that determines innocence, we have a legal system that determines only ‘so bloody guilty no one could ever doubt it’.
So Trump has no brains and no German rocket scientist … no wonder the place is stuffed.
daretotread @ #2810 Sunday, January 21st, 2018 – 7:50 pm
So, Trump is a Braun Flake?
Wendy_Bacon: After beg’y yr by attacking poor, @Channel7 @AustralianOpen spend Jan marketing betting, McDonalds, sexism & their own shows to #AUS public – stories tax avoidance? No #7SummerofNazi twitter.com/michaelwestbiz…
MichaelWestBiz: Note to #7SummerofNazi Gina Rinehart’s Hope Downs Marketing Pty Ltd paid 56k tax on $12 billion revenue over past three years (ATO data) twitter.com/sunriseon7/sta…
sunriseon7: Working Aussies are forking out three hours of their weekly wage to fund the nation’s welfare bill.
The average taxpayer hands over $83 a week to prop up welfare recipients. pic.twitter.com/PeBRO7u1iO
https://twitter.com/sunriseon7/status/946452699154849792
CTar1 @ #2823 Sunday, January 21st, 2018 – 8:05 pm
If the rumours are true, he’s a racket scientist!
Diogenes @ #2816 Sunday, January 21st, 2018 – 7:58 pm
As long as he says he is an Ozzie, then redemption is never far away if you win.
Oi! Oi! oi!
Equal or not
Your point that the US is decidedly different to most countries we would describe as’western’ is an interesting one.
Ctatr1
I don’t think Craig and Vanessa are married. Craig’s behaviour is about power not about sex. “I’m a star and can do what I want, and there is nothing you can do about it.”
GG – re: Nick K – he has definitely been one of our biggest public tools, although he seems to have been well overtaken by Tomic now, but … he does actually seem to be trying not to be a complete dick these days.
If he can win and prove to not be a total prat he will definitely win the public’s affection back, no question.
Who doesn’t love a bad boy turned ‘good’? Who wins stuff.
Jackol @ #2830 Sunday, January 21st, 2018 – 8:13 pm
Me!
WWP
The relevance of the police investigation is that McLachlan said he could not comment on specific allegations on legal advice.
His legal advisors should also have told him not to give interviews, no matter how “friendly” he thinks it will be.
Ctar
“Your point that the US is decidedly different to most countries we would describe as’western’ is an interesting one.”
————–
I have always observed that the USofA culture is like a religion.
The worship of the flag, the childish “hands over hearts” when the national “hymn” is played, the belief in “exceptionalism”, the propaganda of holywood that using violence is the way “good” triumphs over “evil”, the re-writing of history as essentialy a USofA enterprise; the amnesia of USofA continous expansion, genocides and aggressions.
AdamSpenceAU: @bergs____ @crk5 A Neenish Tart is playing a Liquorice All Sort… what a match.
Guytaur
They are wearing the colours of the Palermo football club. It was pretty unique until now.
roweafr: congressional colonoscopy @FinancialReview #trump #TRUMPSHUTDOWN pic.twitter.com/UVBh1qeuWS
e or n
As far as the Middle East is concerned USA IS the West. And it is betraying the Kurds.
Excommunicating the USA from the West because it does not meet your standards of what the West ought to be is an interesting move. The US is not, as you imply, a monolith. It still generates the vast bulk of the world’s popular culture. It is still the single biggest engine of technical invention. Its artistic output is staggering. Its universities are the best. The dissent elements of its culture are thriving… hundreds of thousands of people get on the streets. In China they would shot. The tensions between different strains of Western thought are immense. Its sarcasm industry is the world’s biggest.
Since WW2 it has been the main driver for destroying the west’s colonial empires and promoting representative democracy.
For all its failings the US is far, far superior to Russia and China. I am not sure how to rate India. I would mark Japan down for its pathological inability to deal with its history. The EU I would rate above the US. Unfortunately the luddite brexiteers seem to be hell bent on wrecking that.
When the whole meaning of life is hitting a ball around a confined space, again and again and again, then, IMO, we must make allowances for individuals like Mr K.
T.E.N.N.I.S!
Kyrgios for the world!
And, yes, he is a reformed gentleman. He now has a girlfriend, and the NK Foundation for kids with cancer and other underprivileged children. He has found his niche.
Boerwar @ #2839 Sunday, January 21st, 2018 – 8:40 pm
The game never ends when your whole world depends on the turn of a friendly card!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgY7qYaoMWQ
Bubbling, bubbling, bubbling…
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/21/china-vows-action-after-us-warship-sails-near-south-china-sea-island
Just huff and puff so far…
David Attenborough is reporting on some grey kangaroos kicking the shit out of each other on channel one if you wish to avoid the sport
shellbell
droll
Boerwar
“As far as the Middle East is concerned USA IS the West. And it is betraying the Kurds.”
—–
Of course the USA is betraying the Kurds.
When it is convenient the USA will “betray” Australia. Most imperial countries will do that.
But for some reason the Australian ruling class (libLab) with its gaga lapdogism make Neville Chamberlain seem a forward thinking and perceptive statesman.
First they wanted to sack a scientist for telling the truth about the Reef and now they want BOM to stop talking about rain.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-tourism-industry-council-asks-bureau-of-meteorology-for-sunnier-disposition/news-story/f4d92f7870f249901fb412137c5d2372
e or n
‘When it is convenient the USA will “betray” Australia. Most imperial countries will do that. ‘
All states consult the national interest first and foremost.
The problem for Australia is that the Post WW2 order is crumbling. If not the US, whom? If no-other, what, and how?
Another 100 fighters? What? Nuclear capability?
David Attenborough is reporting on some grey kangaroos kicking the shit out of each other on channel one if you wish to avoid the sport
The Kangaroo Channel…
Steve777
You think the White House might have a use for the kangaroo show?
Boerwar @ #2846 Sunday, January 21st, 2018 – 6:01 pm
Very funny. Local tourism operators here often joke about photographing or filming only on sunny days so promotional material doesn’t reflect the reality: overcast, mild and sometimes drizzling.
But I doubt any of them would petition the BOM to change its forecasts!