Essential Research: bushfires, climate change and asylum seekers

A new poll finds respondents clearly of the view that not enough is being done to tackle climate change, but with opinion divided as to whether it appropriate to debate the matter in the context of the bushfire emergency.

The Essential Research poll series continues to chug along on its fortnightly schedule without offering anything on voting intention, with this week’s survey mainly relating to bushfires and climate change. Support for the proposition that Australia is not doing enough to address climate change have reached a new high of 60%, up nine since March, with “doing enough” down five to 22% and “doing too much” down three to 8%.

However, perceptions of climate change itself are little changed, with 61% attributing it to human activity (down one) and 28% opting for “a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate”. On the debate as to whether it was appropriate to raise links between climate change and bushfires, opinion was evenly divided – out of those who considered such a link likely, 43% felt raising the matter appropriate compared with 17% for inappropriate, while another 30% rated the link as unlikely.

A further question related to the issue of medical evacuations for asylum seekers, and here the situation is murkier due to the need to provide respondents with some sort of explanation of what the issue is about. As the Essential survey put it, the relevant legislation allows “doctors, not politicians, more say in determining the appropriate medical
treatment offered to people in offshore detention”. Put like that, 62% were opposed to the government’s move to repeal it, including 25% who believed the legislation didn’t go far enough. That left only 22% in favour of the pro-government proposition that “legislation will weaken our borders and result in boats arriving”.

The poll was conducted Thursday to Sunday from a sample of 1083.

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.

1,314 comments on “Essential Research: bushfires, climate change and asylum seekers”

Comments Page 16 of 27
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  3. Tricot

    The Senate vote…………as the old song goes……….”Who can explain it, who can tell it why?” “Fools give you reasons, wise men never try!” What a fiasco for Morrison……

    The Cormannator was looking across to Poorlene and sang some Righteous Brothers.
    —————————————
    You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’

    Now there’s no welcome look in your eyes when I reach for you
    And now you’re starting to criticize little things I do
    It makes me just feel like crying
    ‘Cause baby, something beautiful’s dyin’

    You lost that lovin’ feelin’
    Whoa, that lovin’ feelin’
    You lost that lovin’ feelin’
    Now it’s gone, gone, gone, woh

  6. Jacqui Lambie has now released a statement on ensuring integrity:

    I’ve been very clear from the start. Thugs like John Setka should not be allowed to hold office in their union. He has to go. I’ve always said he has to go. I said I’d vote for a bill that would get rid of John Setka and put the CFMEU on notice. The Government didn’t want to work with me to get the bill to that final form.

    If the Government really wanted to get rid of Setka they wouldn’t have drafted the bill like this. They would have backed amendments that would have lined him up and taken him down. They would have supported my amendments. They had the chance to. But they didn’t because they were too cocky that they’d get their win without me. Well, guess what. Look where that gets you.

    Let me be crystal clear – the decision to not get rid of John Setka wasn’t mine. It was the Government who decided to let him off with a warning.

    The government amendments would have left him there with a clean slate and a blemish-free record. They would have given him a ten-year window to just play nice and go with grace.

    That’s not something I am going to abide by.

    And without my amendments, I had to decide whether to support a bill that both wouldn’t remove Setka and would throw every other well behaved union under the bus.

    I had to make a call whether to support a bill that makes out like teachers, nurses and firies are as bad as the CFMEU. It puts the bloody Musicians’ Union of Australia in the same camp as the ETU for goodness sake! There’s no need to put everyone in the firing line.

    My amendments would have applied serious penalties to serious conduct. The bad guys would have been taken out. But the good guys would be spared.

    I gave the Government the chance to support amendments that protect good unionists and line up bad ones. They said no, we’ll go it alone, and they lost. Now there’s nothing. And thanks to the Coalition’s bloody-minded arrogance, they have nothing to show for their work.

    Criminal officials bring their union into disrepute. These people don’t deserve to have a leadership role in a union. By being there, they undermine the union movement and they actually hurt union members.

    I’m the only person in this place who had proposed realistic solutions to address these problems.

    I gave the government a chance. I put together amendments that hit the worst offenders and spared the overwhelming majority of union members and officials who aren’t big bloody thugs.

    They said no. They didn’t want to bother. They lost out.

    Finally, I have a message to the broader union movement that I stood up for today – it’s time they cleaned house!

    (Courtesy of The Guardian)

    I told you it was all about John Setka for her.

  7. David Shoebridge referring the NSW Police commissioner to the integrity commission regarding the call about Angus is why it’s important to have Greens representation in state parliament. Labor aren’t game to cast aspersions on the police.

  8. OMG sense from Roberts AND now Poorlene .

    She says it is all about the workers.

    “Especially this week, when Westpac had 23m breaches…and Scott Morrison said ‘this is not for us to deal with’…it wasn’t good enough.”

  9. Abbott is baaaack! Telling Morrison to shirtfront Xi.

    Now both Turnbull and Abbott giving gratuitous advice to Morrison. Keep it up!

    Abbott says ‘it’s time’ for naval exercises in the South China Sea

    The former prime minister also says Australia should consider trade sanctions if Beijing steps up interference in Hong Kong.

    1 hour ago by Michael Koziol (Nine/Fairfax headline)

  11. Watermelon @ #757 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 6:25 pm

    David Shoebridge referring the NSW Police commissioner to the integrity commission regarding the call about Angus is why it’s important to have Greens representation in state parliament. Labor aren’t game to cast aspersions on the police.

    Are you as dumb as a watermelon as well!?! It was the Labor Party, long before The Greens saw an opening to insert themselves into the issue, that referred Angus Taylor to the NSW Police in the first instance! If they hadn’t done that, The Greens would have had nothing.

  12. poroti………..Think your song is better than my suggestion………I am blown away by it all…………..Was this a case of Morrison’s prayers not being listened to this time? I don’t think Morrison is that stupid to call a DD over this……………he will try to cling to power for its own sake rather than any real or perceived principle. The Murdoch outlets will go troppo one supposes……

  13. C@tmomma @ #761 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 6:27 pm

    Watermelon @ #757 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 6:25 pm

    David Shoebridge referring the NSW Police commissioner to the integrity commission regarding the call about Angus is why it’s important to have Greens representation in state parliament. Labor aren’t game to cast aspersions on the police.

    Are you as dumb as a watermelon as well!?! It was the Labor Party, long before The Greens saw an opening to insert themselves into the issue, that referred Angus Taylor to the NSW Police in the first instance! If they hadn’t done that, The Greens would have had nothing.

    Read and re-read Watermelon’s comment and it’s perfectly valid. I can’t see why any rational person would have a problem with it.

  20. Bellwether @ #763 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 6:30 pm

    C@tmomma @ #761 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 6:27 pm

    Watermelon @ #757 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 6:25 pm

    David Shoebridge referring the NSW Police commissioner to the integrity commission regarding the call about Angus is why it’s important to have Greens representation in state parliament. Labor aren’t game to cast aspersions on the police.

    Are you as dumb as a watermelon as well!?! It was the Labor Party, long before The Greens saw an opening to insert themselves into the issue, that referred Angus Taylor to the NSW Police in the first instance! If they hadn’t done that, The Greens would have had nothing.

    Read and re-read Watermelon’s comment and it’s perfectly valid. I can’t see why any rational person would have a problem with it.

    So, you agree with Watermelon, that ‘Labor aren’t game to cast aspersions on the Police’? You believe that is a ‘rational’ statement?

  22. Danama Papers says:
    Thursday, November 28, 2019 at 6:42 pm

    Is it too early (or perhaps too late) to start a sweep on Libspill Mk IV?

    Do you really think they would go for Dutton?

  23. “How soon before Murdoch moves against Morrison in favour of Dutton?”

    And on the subject of foreign interference in Australian political processes…

  24. It was interesting to note that, in her press conference, Pauline Hanson made a point of singling out the Free Trade Agreements which allow foreign workers into Australia, and foreign students, to work for less than Australian wages as short term casuals, as one of her bugbears.

  25. C@tmomma @ #756 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 6:25 pm

    Jacqui Lambie has now released a statement on ensuring integrity:

    I’ve been very clear from the start. Thugs like John Setka should not be allowed to hold office in their union. He has to go. I’ve always said he has to go. I said I’d vote for a bill that would get rid of John Setka and put the CFMEU on notice. The Government didn’t want to work with me to get the bill to that final form.

    If the Government really wanted to get rid of Setka they wouldn’t have drafted the bill like this. They would have backed amendments that would have lined him up and taken him down. They would have supported my amendments. They had the chance to. But they didn’t because they were too cocky that they’d get their win without me. Well, guess what. Look where that gets you.

    Let me be crystal clear – the decision to not get rid of John Setka wasn’t mine. It was the Government who decided to let him off with a warning.

    The government amendments would have left him there with a clean slate and a blemish-free record. They would have given him a ten-year window to just play nice and go with grace.

    That’s not something I am going to abide by.

    And without my amendments, I had to decide whether to support a bill that both wouldn’t remove Setka and would throw every other well behaved union under the bus.

    I had to make a call whether to support a bill that makes out like teachers, nurses and firies are as bad as the CFMEU. It puts the bloody Musicians’ Union of Australia in the same camp as the ETU for goodness sake! There’s no need to put everyone in the firing line.

    My amendments would have applied serious penalties to serious conduct. The bad guys would have been taken out. But the good guys would be spared.

    I gave the Government the chance to support amendments that protect good unionists and line up bad ones. They said no, we’ll go it alone, and they lost. Now there’s nothing. And thanks to the Coalition’s bloody-minded arrogance, they have nothing to show for their work.

    Criminal officials bring their union into disrepute. These people don’t deserve to have a leadership role in a union. By being there, they undermine the union movement and they actually hurt union members.

    I’m the only person in this place who had proposed realistic solutions to address these problems.

    I gave the government a chance. I put together amendments that hit the worst offenders and spared the overwhelming majority of union members and officials who aren’t big bloody thugs.

    They said no. They didn’t want to bother. They lost out.

    Finally, I have a message to the broader union movement that I stood up for today – it’s time they cleaned house!

    (Courtesy of The Guardian)

    I told you it was all about John Setka for her.

    Brilliant from Lambie. Good on her.

  26. C@tmomma

    I’d be the first to say that Labor have had an excellent week and have prosecuted the case well against Morrison and Taylor. However, yes it would take extraordinary events before Labor would criticise the NSW Police Commissioner, so I would agree that it’s perfectly rational to suggest that the Greens have a certain freedom in that area that Labor don’t have.

  27. Bellwether @ #763 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 6:30 pm

    C@tmomma @ #761 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 6:27 pm

    Watermelon @ #757 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 6:25 pm

    David Shoebridge referring the NSW Police commissioner to the integrity commission regarding the call about Angus is why it’s important to have Greens representation in state parliament. Labor aren’t game to cast aspersions on the police.

    Are you as dumb as a watermelon as well!?! It was the Labor Party, long before The Greens saw an opening to insert themselves into the issue, that referred Angus Taylor to the NSW Police in the first instance! If they hadn’t done that, The Greens would have had nothing.

    Read and re-read Watermelon’s comment and it’s perfectly valid. I can’t see why any rational person would have a problem with it.

    I agree Watermelons post is perfectly valid.

    About time these cosy relationships between Government and Law enforcement HQ are looked at.

  30. Extraordinary. Has the Cormannator lost the ability to count or did he think he was calling someone’s bluff? After all that stage management in the last parliament to avoid losing parliamentary votes, they finish off their year like this.

  31. Given Labor in New South Wales wants to apologise to Michael Gallacger for supposed mistreatment at the hands of ICAC , then you can bet your bottom dollar that they are not gonna criticise the New South Wales police commissioner

  32. Bellwether @ #776 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 6:54 pm

    C@tmomma

    I’d be the first to say that Labor have had an excellent week and have prosecuted the case well against Morrison and Taylor. However, yes it would take extraordinary events before Labor would criticise the NSW Police Commissioner, so I would agree that it’s perfectly rational to suggest that the Greens have a certain freedom in that area that Labor don’t have.

    Which is the sensible political way to look at the situation, as opposed to the immature jab Watermelon took at them.

  33. Calling Fuller, emitting a series of misleadings of the House, fucking up the Senate vote… Turnbull telling him off, Abbott urging him to begin a trade war with China…

    How good is all this?

  34. Labor playing hard ball over giving Taylor a pair to attend IEA conference in Paris:

    Labor has raised the political stakes in the Angus Taylor imbroglio, denying the besieged minister a pair to attend energy and climate events in Europe next week, while the Greens in New South Wales have referred the police commissioner to the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC).

    The opposition has rebuffed Taylor’s request for pairing to attend the International Energy Agency’s conference in Paris, and then United Nations-led climate talks in Madrid, telling him it is it inappropriate that he leave parliament for the final sitting week of the year when there is a live police investigation into the origins of a doctored document the minister used to attack the lord mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/28/labor-rebuffs-angus-taylors-request-for-parliamentary-cover-to-attend-un-climate-talks

  35. I am grateful for Shoebridge’s intervention and I trust that it will lead to rather more information seeing the light of day than would otherwise have been the case.

    Well done, that Greens!

    And good on Labor for refusing a pair for Taylor to attend climate events. He is a climate wrecker and he shouldn’t be stood down right now.

  36. C@tmomma @ #782 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 7:12 pm

    Bellwether @ #776 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 6:54 pm

    C@tmomma

    I’d be the first to say that Labor have had an excellent week and have prosecuted the case well against Morrison and Taylor. However, yes it would take extraordinary events before Labor would criticise the NSW Police Commissioner, so I would agree that it’s perfectly rational to suggest that the Greens have a certain freedom in that area that Labor don’t have.

    Which is the sensible political way to look at the situation, as opposed to the immature jab Watermelon took at them.

    To be honest I think you overreacted to Watermelon’s pretty innocuous comment, probably because it had the triggering ‘Greens’ word in it.

  39. The IEA event isn’t about climate, it’s about fuel security.

    We are a few weeks short of our required fuel reserves.

    Rather than fix the problem, the Govt want to change the international agreement. Lazy bastards.

    This was related to me by an IEA rep last week.

  41. C@tmomma @ #771 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 3:44 pm

    Danama Papers @ #768 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 6:42 pm

    Is it too early (or perhaps too late) to start a sweep on Libspill Mk IV?

    I’ll take the 12th of Never. Scott Morrison changed the rules for changing Liberal leader horses in mid-stream and you can bet your bippy that he will enforce them to the letter.

    All it would take to overturn that is a vote in the Party Room. After a few more weeks like this one, I can see that happening.

  43. Danama Papers @ #791 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 7:28 pm

    C@tmomma @ #771 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 3:44 pm

    Danama Papers @ #768 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 6:42 pm

    Is it too early (or perhaps too late) to start a sweep on Libspill Mk IV?

    I’ll take the 12th of Never. Scott Morrison changed the rules for changing Liberal leader horses in mid-stream and you can bet your bippy that he will enforce them to the letter.

    All it would take to overturn that is a vote in the Party Room. After a few more weeks like this one, I can see that happening.

    🙂

    The way he has gone about restricting how often parliament sits I wouldn’t be surprised if he stopped the Liberal Party meetings! 😀

  45. Bellwether @ #786 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 7:21 pm

    C@tmomma @ #782 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 7:12 pm

    Bellwether @ #776 Thursday, November 28th, 2019 – 6:54 pm

    C@tmomma

    I’d be the first to say that Labor have had an excellent week and have prosecuted the case well against Morrison and Taylor. However, yes it would take extraordinary events before Labor would criticise the NSW Police Commissioner, so I would agree that it’s perfectly rational to suggest that the Greens have a certain freedom in that area that Labor don’t have.

    Which is the sensible political way to look at the situation, as opposed to the immature jab Watermelon took at them.

    To be honest I think you overreacted to Watermelon’s pretty innocuous comment, probably because it had the triggering ‘Greens’ word in it.

    Possibly, but he started it with a silly comment about Labor. 🙂

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