Essential Research and BludgerTrack deluxe

Introducing a bigger and better BludgerTrack. Also featured: a status quo result from Essential Research, at least so far as the major parties are concerned.

First up, BludgerTrack has proudly moved into the twenty-first century with a new fully interactive feature, offering hitherto hidden detail on state-level primary votes and the seat result probability estimates that are used to calculate the final result. Also included are the leadership rating trends, and there’s a facility for viewing raw opinion data throughout the current term.

The results as shown are updated to include the ReachTEL and Essential Research results, and the former has had a particularly big impact on voting intention, the primary numbers being even worse for the Coalition than the headline two-party result suggested. However, despite the 1% lurch to Labor on two-party preferred, there is little change to the seat projection, as the Coalition has had some stronger numbers lately from all-important Queensland, and Labor was largely punching into thin air with its gains in New South Wales and Victoria this week.

Then there’s the regular fortnightly result for Essential Research, which is notable in having both major parties at the low ebb of 35% on the primary vote, with the Coalition down one on a fortnight ago and Labor down two. This helps One Nation recover two points to 8%, with the Greens steady on 10%. Also unchanged is Labor’s two-party lead of 53-47.

Further questions relate mostly to the Barnaby Joyce situation, with a question conceived before his resignation on Friday finding 34% wanting him to leave parliament, 26% thinking he should resign as leader but stay in parliament, and only 19% thinking he should remain leader of the Nationals. Forty-four per cent expressed approval of “media reporting on politicians’ private affairs”, with 41% disapproving.

The poll also finds more respondents than not in favour not only of the ban on sex between ministers and their staff, but also on politicians having extra-marital sex altogether, and between managers and staff in the workplace. Twenty-two per cent even favoured a “ban on sex between workmates in general”, with 55% opposed. A rather particular question on health insurance policy finds 48% supporting removing the subsidy on private health insurance premiums and using the funds to include dental care in Medicare, with 32% opposed.

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.

3,634 comments on “Essential Research and BludgerTrack deluxe”

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  1. Greens really are the new pixies at the bottom of the garden aren’t they? Who believes that even a government can pass legislation to limit rents, less two HOR members. Caps on power bills? I thought Greens supporters were meant to be super sophisticated and educated. That voting card is an embarrassment.

  2. [Labor completely deserve this albatross around their neck, including Shorten who continues to dither, and refuse to stop supporting it.]

    Incorrect.

    The Greens are doing the work of the Liberals here, nothing more, nothing less.

    A Shorten Labor majority is the only way to effect real change. Anything else will just prop up a rag bag Coalition, stuffed with anti-environmentalists, sex pests and ill-gotten glitterati .

  3. Rex Douglas @ #3525 Sunday, March 4th, 2018 – 4:10 pm

    Rossmcg @ #3300 Sunday, March 4th, 2018 – 7:59 pm

    To be hit three times suggests there is something wrong with his technique.

    Yes, and the bowlers know it and and are trying to exploit it.

    The aim was achieved. He wasn’t out but retired hurt. As good as wicket.

    It’s time for a change.

    I think a 5 run addition to the batters score for a ball that goes above the shoulders is appropriate.

    You never played or batted high in the order.

    I would prefer someone bowling at my head any day over someone bowling short at my body.

    Much easier to avoid or play something high.

    When a ball is between waist and shoulder height there are so many more decisions and judgements that you need to make.

    One thing that has certainly changed with the introduction of helmets is that everyone is considered fair game to receive bouncers.

    Back before helmets lower order batsmen were exempt from this treatment and the umpires would even have a word if a bowler started transgressing.

    This seems to be a perfectly reasonable condition to still apply but if you are playing as a batsman or all-rounder then that suggests you have the ability to deal with such bowling or you shouldn’t be out there at that level.

  4. Sprocket, Im not dismissing the political connundrum labor finds themselves in, which requires nuance and compromise in all manner of policy areas. But thats not the green’s problem, nor can they be expected to sympathise with this. They have a very clear agenda vis the mine, and they surely cannot be blamed for attacking the party who is probably most responsible for letting the mine plan get as far as it has today.

  5. Fess
    It doesn’t matter if there are 150 Greens, the Commonwealth does not have the constitutional power to contol rents.

    I guess they mean they are going to have a referendum to gain the power. I am so old I handed out HTVs the last time the question was asked and lost

  6. Big A

    If Labor in Queensland had taken the attitude you suggest in 2015, the re-elected Newman government would have fast tracked the mine and the rail line. If they needed some money to do so they would probably have started selling off hospitals and schools or such.

    As it is, the mine has been forced to go through all the approval procedures which have delayed it to the point where economics will defeat it.

  7. Here’s a challenge for all out Kermit the Frog coloured friends. Explain HOW the Greens will legislate to cap energy prices and rents?

  8. Big A Adrian says:
    Sunday, March 4, 2018 at 7:58 pm

    …”The Qld *labor* government could have done the right thing and killed it off from the beginning.
    Labor’s Adani mine” is an absolutely accurate and appropriate description”…

    .
    The Environmental Impact Statement for the Adani mine was conducted between 2011 – 2013 and it was recommended for approval in 2014.
    Do you have any idea who was in government in Queensland during this period?

    The outrageous lie is calling it Labor’s mine, and you know it.

  9. imacca @ #3150 Sunday, March 4th, 2018 – 10:31 am

    “I wasn’t told to ‘naff off’. ”

    Damn…… forgot! Distracted by rex bullshit.

    Naff off bemused. 🙂

    I will take your advice – naffing off now to have a great day with granddaughters. 😀

    PeeBee @ #3381 Sunday, March 4th, 2018 – 3:21 pm

    Poroti,

    Exactly. Get rid of the bloody things. It is one of Jeff Kennets lasting legacy (apart from selling off many of the school sites) was to introduce them into Victoria.

    Much as I hate Kennett, you can’t pin that on him.
    It was the Cain Govt which first allowed poker machines in Victoria.

  10. Dio
    I had major ENT surgery in that hospital 1 year ago(different surgeon) I thought it a bit Mickey Mouse

  11. AOE: “The Environmental Impact Statement for the Adani mine was conducted between 2011 – 2013 and it was recommended for approval in 2014.
    Do you have any idea who was in government in Queensland during this period?”

    Do you have any idea how long ago that was? Do you have any idea what the labor government did since they won government 3 years ago?- support the mine to the hilt, is what they did. They could have run on a platform of opposing the mine in 2015, then worked to stop it altogether. They didn’t, instead they cheered it on the whole time since. Shorten meanwhile has done nothing to dissuade it. And because of that, Adani still has a chance of getting up – and if, God willing, the mine doesn’t go ahead, it will be in spite of labor, not because of it.

  12. Cat

    I notice The Greens candidate is wearing her pearls. Just like the Liberal women do.

    Look what we have here: https://preview.tinyurl.com/yag86jk8

    Election campaign poster with Julia Gillard wearing a string of pearls around her neck against a royal blue background – how very tory of her.

  13. Bemused,

    Had lunch today with friends who are all union organisers from several different unions.

    Re Garrett, the prevailing view is she has been shafted and is justified in giving Andrews the finger.

  14. ajm “If Labor in Queensland had taken the attitude you suggest in 2015, the re-elected Newman government would have fast tracked the mine and the rail line. If they needed some money to do so they would probably have started selling off hospitals and schools or such.

    As it is, the mine has been forced to go through all the approval procedures which have delayed it to the point where economics will defeat it.”

    goodness ajm, is that an attempt to credit labor for stalling the mine since 2015? You even seem to be suggesting the approval procedures were actually some cunning plan of labor’s to thwart and ultimately stop the mine.

    Hillarious. On planet earth, the Paluzcuik government have been nothing but the most vocal of cheerleaders for the mine. Just face it, if labor trully wanted, they could have stopped the mine dead in its tracks 3 years ago. Instead they’ve been bending over backwards to get it up, and ignoring economic realities that says the mine is unviable all along the way. Hell, they only made the (panicked) decision to rule out government subsidies when they feared an electoral backlash on the eve of the election.

  15. Pegasus @ #3566 Sunday, March 4th, 2018 – 8:49 pm

    Cat

    I notice The Greens candidate is wearing her pearls. Just like the Liberal women do.

    Look what we have here: https://preview.tinyurl.com/yag86jk8

    Election campaign poster with Julia Gillard wearing a string of pearls around her neck against a royal blue background – how very tory of her.

    Yes, as I remember they were a present to Prime Minister Gillard. It would have been rude for her not to wear them. 🙂

  16. Big A Adrian says:
    Sunday, March 4, 2018 at 8:47

    …”Do you have any idea how long ago that was?”…

    Not Long?

    …”Adani still has a chance of getting up.”…

    No, it doesn’t.

    The rest of what you have written on the subject is simply deluded claptrap and not worth wasting time on.
    But please, keep living that ineffectual, impotent dream.

  17. Oakeshott Country @ #3554 Sunday, March 4th, 2018 – 5:40 pm

    Fess
    It doesn’t matter if there are 150 Greens, the Commonwealth does not have the constitutional power to contol rents.

    Of course not, it’s just bullshit campaign sloganeering that will be forgotten about in an instant should the Greens win Batman.

  18. Big A Adrian says:
    Sunday, March 4, 2018 at 8:55 pm

    …”On planet Earth”…

    .
    I suspect you’ve never even visited.

  19. The Adani mine is only alive because Labor refuses to kill it. They could kill it very cleanly by stating that a Shorten Labor Government would invoke the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to block the project. Such a promise would guarantee that nobody will finance this bad project. There is a compelling national and global security interest in stopping new thermal coal mining projects. Labor ought to be using its influence as the likely next government to help Australia and the world to accelerate the shift to carbon neutral economies.

    Therefore, it is reasonable and fair to describe this as Labor’s mine. They are just too gutless to do the right thing.

  20. Absence of Empathy @ #3574 Sunday, March 4th, 2018 – 8:58 pm

    Big A Adrian says:
    Sunday, March 4, 2018 at 8:47

    …”Do you have any idea how long ago that was?”…

    Not Long?

    …”Adani still has a chance of getting up.”…

    No, it doesn’t.

    The rest of what you have written on the subject is simply deluded claptrap and not worth wasting time on.
    But please, keep living that ineffectual, impotent dream.

    Yes, Big A Adrian hasn’t even bothered to address the perfectly reasonable points I made which laid out the very logical reasons that point to Adani likely not getting up. Also what Labor in Queensland have done to veto the NAIF loan for Adani.

  21. Clem Attlee @ #3536 Sunday, March 4th, 2018 – 5:16 pm

    Grimace you were campaigning for a state election against a very long standing and un popular government, not the present federal government, so your thesis is very simplistic. Also look at the history, since when has Labor ever won that many federal seats in WA? Also, the polls merely record what is happening now, when the federal election is 16 months away. Local enthusiasm is great, so long as it doesn’t turn to delusion. Also, even William voiced some reservations about the WA situation a couple of weeks ago. I’m a devotee of Gramsci,” Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.”

    I know when I was campaigning Clem, and who I was campaiging for.

    WA Labor has preselected its candidates for the winnable seats and their election campaigns, including door knocking, started a few weeks ago. I think it best if you inform yourself properly and address the points raised before calling someone else’s post simplistic, particularly as you’ve got basic facts wrong.

    Given the last 10 or so years of Australian politics, using long past results to make assessments in the current political environment is a very risky proposition. We’ve got the collapse of the authority of the media, the dominance of social media and an electorate which is much more erratic and intolerant of shortcomings.

  22. victoria,

    As reported: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/victoria/labor-stability-deal-torn-up-as-unions-somyurek-turn-tables-on-factional-warlords-20180202-h0srgj.html

    Victoria’s left faction sensationally split up two months ago when Brunswick MP Jane Garrett, who was the Industrial Left’s preferred candidate for a vacant spot in the Victorian upper house, missed out to Ingrid Stitt, the Socialist Left’s pick, despite winning the local vote.

    These two halves of the Labor left appear destined to clash again over control of the new federal seat that will be created in Melbourne’s north-west, as Victoria gains an extra seat due to its rapid population growth.

    What people in the room think of Stitt is less than flattering, some opinions are unprintable.

  23. Rent-controlled Melbourne.

    Does Bhathal think she woke up in an episode of Sex and the City where the show’s star lives her forever happy life in a rent-controlled hipster apartment not in Manhattan, but in cheery downtown Brunswick?

    Funnily enough when you Google ‘richard di natale rent control’ all you get are those awkward stories of au pair worker abuse. Oops.

  24. My understanding is that the seat of Batman is in Victoria and not Queensland.

    AEC website should be able to confirm this.

  25. When your candidate’s HTV card causes guffaws across the land….start shit-stirring about the Labor Left faction in Victoria.

  26. “Pray tell when Labor became the federal government and could stop the Adani mine?”

    Too funny.

    The line run at every opportunity here is everything is the fault of the Greens. This is despite the party having never been in government and you know, being just a fringe / protest group with no relevance.

    Apparently, it’s okay to run this defence for Labor who has been in government many times over the decades.

    Too funny.

  27. Adani will not proceed. Even the Qld Premier has distanced herself from the project.

    Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has declined to offer her personal support for the Adani Carmichael coal mine, insisting investors wanted to back renewable energy projects.

    Ms Palaszczuk, who was once a strong supporter of Adani’s mine, saying it would create vital jobs for regional Queensland, today declined to restate her personal support for the project.

    Asked to state whether she, as Premier, hoped the Adani project goes ahead, Ms Palaszczuk did not.

    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/annastacia-palaszczuk-declines-to-offer-her-support-for-adani-coal-mine/news-story/1917e635ef42740f024726b1fe1e5826

  28. “Freo is impossible for the Gs…too many true-blue working class voters in the interior”

    Lol. People remember the disaster at state level that was the Carles / Buswell axis of sleaze.

  29. Darren Laver @ #3584 Sunday, March 4th, 2018 – 9:14 pm

    My understanding is that the seat of Batman is in Victoria and not Queensland.

    AEC website should be able to confirm this.

    Exactly. As a friend of mine dryly observed, “I didn’t know the Adani Mine was in Victoria. I thought it was in Queensland? So funny thing to base a Victorian campaign around.”

  30. C@tmomma @ #3583 Sunday, March 4th, 2018 – 6:15 pm

    When your candidate’s HTV card causes guffaws across the land….start shit-stirring about the Labor Left faction in Victoria.

    I’m not in Victoria but I’m still chuckling over Bhathal’s statement that she would regulate electricity prices if she wins in Batman. 😀

  31. Big A Adrian says:
    Sunday, March 4, 2018 at 8:22 pm
    Don…”So, after all the argy bargy, the ALP and the Greens have swapped preferences.”

    Its immaterial, as they will both finish up in the 2pp race. So they may as well…

    Agreed, but it’s the thought that counts!

    Though I must say I missed the rest of the ticket, which bags Labor, and suggests that the Greens can do something about a wide range of issues, when they have no hope of doing so, even if elected.

    And as another poster pointed out, many are State issues anyway, when it is a Federal by-election.

  32. Fess

    I was thinking the same re: rent control!

    The only time anyone speaks of it is in the context of a 1990s TV series based in New York City — I was thinking “Friends”, but yes, “SATC” is probably more in keeping with the Greens in Melbourne!

    Good grief.

  33. C@tmomma says:
    Sunday, March 4, 2018 at 9:09 pm

    …”Nicholas,
    Pray tell when Labor became the federal government and could stop the Adani mine?”…

    Unfortunately for Nicholas and his ilk, they are yet to understand that the Green’s are of little if any use to an ascendant Federal Labor Party.
    It will be a harsh and painful lesson when it comes.

  34. @clem altee.

    Legislated price caps on electricity are easy.

    Regional qld and the act both have them. I think the NT does too, but don’t quote me.

  35. What’s so funny about running a campaign on an environmental issue around what could be the world’s biggest thermal coal mine, a mine which would impact on global warning.

    But apparently the consequences of global warming are only limited to Queensland.

  36. Pegasus

    You were the one posting comments from persons unknown that They believed Garrett has been shafted. You obviously thought it worthwhile, otherwise you wouldn’t have mentioned it. So it follows, you must have a view yourself. Otherwise what is the point.

  37. The Greens promise anything because they know they will never be in a position to provide it.
    Certainly not in the foreseeable future.

  38. [Lol. People remember the disaster at state level that was the Carles / Buswell axis of sleaze.]

    My goodness, yes.

    Barnaby has not yet been accused of sniffing recently-used chairs — that Buswell character was quite gross. How quickly we forget elsewhere.

    Perhaps this is why the WA Nats wanted to speak out against Joyce? They’ve seen where these sorts of things end, and it is not pretty.

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