Essential Research: sports rorts, ICAC, Australia Day

The latest from Essential finds majority support for removing Bridget McKenzie, but with a third saying they haven’t been following the issue.

Essential Research has not allowed the long weekend to interrupt the fortnightly schedule of its polling, which continues to be limited to attitudinal questions. Conducted last Tuesday to this Monday from a sample of 1080, the most interesting question from the latest poll relates to Bridget McKenzie, whom 51% felt should have been stood down by the Prime Minister. Only 15% felt he was right not to do so, while a further 34% said they had not been following the issue. The question included an explanation of what the issue involved, which is always best avoided, but the wording was suitably neutral (“it is claimed she allocated $100million to sporting organisations in marginal seats to favour the Coalition”).

The poll also finds overwhelming support for the establishment of a federal ICAC – or to be precise, of “an independent federal corruption body to monitor the behaviour of our politicians and public servants”. Fully 80% of respondents were in favour, including 49% strongly in favour, which is five points higher than when Angus Taylor’s troubles prompted the same question to be asked in December. Also featured are yet more findings on Australia Day, for which Essential accentuates the positive by framing the question around “a separate national day to recognise indigenous Australians”. Fifty per cent were in favour of such a thing, down two on last year, but only 18% of these believed it should be in place of, rather than supplementary to, Australia Day. Forty per cent did not support such a day at all, unchanged on last year.

Note that there are two threads below this one of hopefully ongoing interest: the latest guest post from Adrian Beaumont on Monday’s Democratic caucuses in Iowa, and other international concerns; and my review of looming elections in Queensland, where the Liberal National Party has now chosen its candidate for the looming Currumbin by-election, who has not proved to the liking of retiring member Jann Stuckey.

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.

2,092 comments on “Essential Research: sports rorts, ICAC, Australia Day”

Comments Page 3 of 42
1 2 3 4 … 42

  2. Sounds to me like PvO is following good journalistic standards.

    He has a document that, he says, contradicts Morrison’s claim that he had no involvement beyond constituency representations and he is trying to confirm other information with a second source before he publishes his story.

    The only difference here is that most of the time we don’t have journalists tweet about the process of writing a story. 🙂

  3. C@t ”Yes. So it would also be interesting to analyse whether the seats the Indies hold that the Coalition were trying to win back have received their money yet?”

    Yes. That’s surely a project for a journalist, or maybe the Opposition.

  5. PVO has forged a reputation of making misleading announcements like “Wow!” for any just about to be released Newspoll which end up being anything but. He also seems to be trolling the PM with regular pieces about the latest Government or personal stuff up but always with the line Ï’m sure Morrison will recover and be be re-elected”.

    These Sportrorts reports seem to be following the same drip feed process of all breathtaking announcement and not much of substance to back it up.

    I’m on the fence about whether he’s a serious journalist or a poncy presenter paid to entertain.

  6. C@tmomma
    “Yes. So it would also be interesting to analyse whether the seats the Indies hold that the Coalition were trying to win back have received their money yet?”

    It seems so long ago now, but this entire Sports Rorts scandal only came to light because a Lib candidate (one Georgina Downer) donated a giant novelty cheque to a bowling club in Mayo. This sparked an uproar, which prompted an audit, which….

  9. Kakuru,

    It’s like any new highway construction that gets many openings (such as a new Stop Sign or similar) as a section is completed. This is so the glory and the funding can be spread over years and any project can be re-announced as a new happening thing.

  10. Peter van Onselen will always follow the lines of his bosses at Newsltd, in a week time it will not surprise to see van onselen attacking Labor.

  12. Kakuru @ #106 Thursday, January 30th, 2020 – 10:46 am

    C@tmomma
    “Yes. So it would also be interesting to analyse whether the seats the Indies hold that the Coalition were trying to win back have received their money yet?”

    It seems so long ago now, but this entire Sports Rorts scandal only came to light because a Lib candidate (one Georgina Downer) donated a giant novelty cheque to a bowling club in Mayo. This sparked an uproar, which prompted an audit, which….

    …which seemed to prompt, now known to be untrue rumours even parlayed by certain contributors on PB (and you’ve got to wonder WHY they did it and WHERE they got the information from and for WHAT purpose they chose to retail the lie on PB?), that the devastatingly-effective Mark Dreyfus, who called for the investigation, was going to pull the pin and cause a by-election so soon after the federal election.

    I think it was nausea-inducing nath or LvT who first introduced that lie to PB, from memory.

  13. Barney, in the Tibetan villages I came across it, it wasnt rancid. Perhaps that is what you refer to? When they use rancid butter?

  15. GG:

    I’ve often thought his articles are pitched in some subtle communication at the govt, but I reckon his ‘he’ll recover/learn’ predictions are more in hope than anything.

  16. Yep. The Mooch is spot on

    See new Tweets
    Conversation
    Anthony Scaramucci
    @Scaramucci
    Acquittal of
    @realDonaldTrump
    will destroy the final remnants of the
    @gop
    .
    6:41 AM · Jan 30, 2020·Twitter for iPhone

  17. Simon Katich @ #113 Thursday, January 30th, 2020 – 7:55 am

    Barney, in the Tibetan villages I came across it, it wasnt rancid. Perhaps that is what you refer to? When they use rancid butter?

    The only positive thing I can think of in regards to yak butter was that I found it an excellent appetite suppressant.

    Great if you want to loose weight. 🙂

  18. A 2015 sample from one female humpback dolphin from the Fitzroy River estuary had concentrations of PCBs among the highest ever recorded in the scientific literature.

    While the study was not designed to find a cause, researchers wrote that flooding in the regions and nearby port developments were likely to be behind the rising levels of contaminants.

    Associate Prof Guido Parra, a co-author of the study at Flinders University, said the build-up of contaminants “could have implications on the long-term survival of entire dolphin populations in Queensland”.

    He said the threat from the chemicals added to existing problems faced by dolphins, including climate change, habitat destruction, underwater noise and fishing bycatch.

    Tooni Mahto, the threatened species campaign manager at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said: “These dolphins are a unique and vulnerable species and they exist in very small populations. They need protecting.

    “These animals are still paying the price of these chemicals that we stopped using almost half a century ago. They are silent killers in the water.”

    Dr Liesbeth Weijs, of the Australian Rivers Institute at Griffith University, who was not involved in the study, said the results were indicative of findings around the world. Her own work had found the same rising levels of contaminants in dolphins in South Australia.

    She said the contaminants accumulate in the fatty tissues of dolphins through the food they eat – mainly fish.

    “These substances were engineered to be persistent – they don’t break down and they were designed to hold on for decades.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/30/ddt-and-other-banned-chemicals-pose-threat-to-vulnerable-dolphins-on-great-barrier-reef

    Reading this, I’ve gone all Shakespearean.
    “The evil that men do lives after them.”

  19. Morrison is making Abbott look good. It’s no wonder Scotty From Marketing has gained currency.

    Couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery. Christmas Island already being attacked as an option by the AMA from a report I heard on NewsRadio.

    Having the Attorney General of a State writing to the Governor General to revoke an Australian Day honour makes Knights and Dames look sensible.

    That’s just a few.

  21. Amazing that instead of the politically engaged calling for McKenzie to hit the road (and not at taxpayer expense), that the nation is not bellowing for the removal of S.Morrison, a proven shyster, backed up by the multitude of indiscretions, dishonesty and obscuration in his first six months as PM.
    I believed Morrison’s next hurdle was to be the upcoming budget in May however he’s scuttled that out of the water before the end of January.
    This is all happening as parliament isn’t sitting and Morrison’s LNP has begun governing by decree, ably assisted by a deficit of experience within the ABC, the atrociously misnamed News Corp and as the Essential polling suggested, a good 30% of disengaged voters.
    Another 30% are attached to the gravy train, 30% wanting anyone but Morrison’s shambolic “Adventurers” and the remainder with their heads planted firmly.
    “with courage let us all combine” aclaims the anthem, which should be followed by ‘Advance Australia unfair’.
    The only person laughing at the moment is T.Abbott, not believing that this galoot has come along to embellish his rather ordinary attempts at leadership and snatch away the crown of incompetence from his smirking lop-sided head and placed the crown on an impossibly more lop-sided smirking head.
    Well done S. Morrison, you have marked your place in history in a euphoric frenzy of misplaced self-awareness and incompetence.

  22. Holden Hillbilly

    Just a note.

    The whole Latte Slipper Elite line is a right wing trope. Designed to divide and dismiss credible views they don’t like.

    It’s today’s there are communists hiding under your bed.

  23. If we had had a federal integrity commission, those involved in the sports’ rort saga would be facing serious time. And even though according to William, ‘there turns out to be no correlation whatsoever between the amount of funding they received and how much they swung to or against the Coalition’, McKenzie, her minions, and Morrison conspired to achieve the end of bribing selected sections of the electorate. An alternative hypothesis is that given the polls, the Tories thought they’d hand out largesse to their mates before Labor took the tiller. Wherever the truth lies, this is a major scandal involving at best maladministration; at worst, serious corruption going to the heart of the democratic process.

  25. It’s interesting doing a carve up of the approved sports grants to see what sports and bodies get the bacon and which ones get red-carded…
    Cycling (9 clubs): $0.9M
    Golf (33 clubs): $2.6M
    Bowls (19 clubs): $2.1M
    Dressage, Horse, etc (5 clubs): $0.25M
    Baseball (5 clubs): $0.42M
    Tennis (90 clubs): $7.32M
    Local Councils/city/towns/shire (129): $31.3M
    Netball (23 Clubs): $3.87M ($1.8M to Football/Netball Clubs)
    Rowing (5 clubs): $1.66M
    Athletics (4 clubs): $0.4M
    Shooting, Rifle, Field and Game, Gun clubs (6 clubs): $0.8M
    Football+Rugby ($1.8M to Football/Netball Clubs) – 99 clubs: $20.7M
    Soccer (16 Clubs): $2.6M
    Sports/Youth Clubs: $3.2M
    Calisthenics/Gymnastics (7 clubs): $0.77M
    Surf Lifesaving (4 clubs): $0.3M
    Swimming (8 clubs): $0.45M
    Lacrosse (1 club): $0.15M
    Rowing (5 clubs): $1.7M
    Yacht (3 clubs) $0.3M
    Sailing (5 clubs) $0.1M
    Cricket (30 clubs): $3.3M
    Hockey (16 clubs): $3.3M
    Ball Clubs (2 clubs) $0.3M
    Squash (3 clubs): $0.4M

    The following sports seem to have done very well:
    Bowls, Tennis, Rowing, Hockey, Shooting, Football+Rugby.

    The following would look to have been red-carded:
    Athletics, Soccer, Netball, Swimming, Cricket, Cycling.

  27. Great if you want to loose weight.

    Hotan pigs ears did that for me. I was sick for a week…. the first 2 days of it on a sleeper bus through the desert to Urumchi. I went from ‘traveller thin’ to gaunt.

    I blame the pigs ears because they said it was fungi. Very f’ing funny. But it could have been anything…. the hygiene in the ‘restaurant’ was… well, it wasnt. And there were Han Chinese there who, in those areas at that time, had a bad habit of flushing their noses onto restaurant floors. When I eventually made it to Chengdu there were posters all over the place reminding people of how disgusting that habit is.

    I then went into the Tibetan areas of Gansu…. and Tibetan butter tea was alright to my recovering gut. I seem to remember everything smelt of yak butter. It was wholesome.

  28. Alpha Zero @ #125 Thursday, January 30th, 2020 – 8:27 am

    It’s interesting doing a carve up of the approved sports grants to see what sports and bodies get the bacon and which ones get red-carded…
    …
    Netball (23 Clubs): $3.87M ($1.8M to Football/Netball Clubs)
    …

    The following sports seem to have done very well:
    Bowls, Tennis, Rowing, Hockey, Shooting, Football+Rugby.

    The following would look to have been red-carded:
    Athletics, Soccer, Netball, Swimming, Cricket, Cycling.

    There’s Morrison’s girl’s change rooms! 🙂

  29. Roller-derby got a red card and a lengthy suspension.

    My eldest has started roller blading. She saw some roller derby girls practising and her eyes lit up – ‘I wanna do THAT!’. AFL on wheels.

  31. SK,
    Most importantly, what will your daughters Roller Derby name be?
    It’s got to be Feminine, Powerful & Sassy.
    Note that Cherry Rockette, Betty Bamalam, Toxic Judy, Denim Destructor and Hidden Magenta are all taken.
    Shaming CatWitch could be a goer 😉

  32. Simon Katich @ #127 Thursday, January 30th, 2020 – 8:31 am

    Great if you want to loose weight.

    Hotan pigs ears did that for me. I was sick for a week…. the first 2 days of it on a sleeper bus through the desert to Urumchi. I went from ‘traveller thin’ to gaunt.

    I blame the pigs ears because they said it was fungi.

    The fungi was the outer layer! 🙂

    Very f’ing funny. But it could have been anything…. the hygiene in the ‘restaurant’ was… well, it wasnt. And there were Han Chinese there who, in those areas at that time, had a bad habit of flushing their noses onto restaurant floors.

    Did they have any wet floor signs advising you to “slip carefully”?

    When I eventually made it to Chengdu there were posters all over the place reminding people of how disgusting that habit is.

    I then went into the Tibetan areas of Gansu…. and Tibetan butter tea was alright to my recovering gut. I seem to remember everything smelt of yak butter. It was wholesome.

    Yep, they even use it to keep the candles burning in the monasteries. 😆

  36. I think it was nausea-inducing nath or LvT who first introduced that lie to PB, from memory.
    ___________________________________

    When it comes to introducing lies, that’s always a good bet!

  40. Greensborough Growler @ #109 Thursday, January 30th, 2020 – 7:51 am

    Kakuru,

    It’s like any new highway construction that gets many openings (such as a new Stop Sign or similar) as a section is completed. This is so the glory and the funding can be spread over years and any project can be re-announced as a new happening thing.

    Bob Carr used to be a master of announcing some new project, then 2 years later when it still hadn’t happened, announcing it again. I’m still not sure whether any of these announced projects ever came to fruition.

  41. @antfarmer
    · 15h
    Morrison on his party’s #sportsrorts
    Laura Tingle: ‘What’s the point of guidelines if they’re not followed?

    Morrison: ‘The rules were followed, the guidelines are a separate matter’

    Wut?

    No wonder Morrison doesn’t get follow up questions. How can you when you’re breathless with shock?

  42. At least two thirds of all instances of the deadly coronavirus have been deliberately started by arsonists, the country’s national newspaper says.

    In a lengthy editorial today, The Australian used historical figures from suburban house fires to provide irrefutable evidence of the virus’s cause.

    “When you look at the house fires data, overlay it with fuel load statistics, then change the y-axis label to ‘coronavirus’, it’s very clear that there’s a strong historical link between arson activity and this epidemic,” the editorial read. “What’s more, when you turn the graph upside down, the link is even stronger”.

    The editorial said claims that the virus was spread through coughing, sneezing or bodily contact were dubious. “We’ve had coughing and sneezing for millennia, but we’ve never had coronavirus. That theory simply doesn’t hold weight. But since the increase in arson over the Australian summer, coronavirus infections have skyrocketed. Coincidence? No”.

    https://www.theshovel.com.au/2020/01/30/most-coronavirus-cases-caused-by-arson-the-australian-claims/

  44. It seems the Kiwi’s aren’t too enamoured with the idea of having their citizens held on Xmas Is.

    On Thursday, New Zealand foreign minister Winston Peters offered assurances that New Zealanders would not be quarantined on Christmas Island – better known as Australia’s most infamous off-shore asylum processing centre – but would instead be quarantined somewhere in New Zealand.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/30/new-zealand-citizens-in-coronavirus-outbreak-wont-be-kept-on-christmas-island

  45. [Nicola Gobbo demanded a $30m payout from Victoria Police to enter witness protection and once threw a “hissy fit” when the topic was brought up on the four-year anniversary of her becoming a registered police informant.
    The royal commission into the management of police informants heard on Wednesday that Victoria Police held concerns for Ms Gobbo’s mental health while her suitability for appearing as a witness was being assessed. On one occasion, the gangland lawyer stabbed herself with a pen, which she claimed was an accident.]

    What were the Vic police proposing to call evidence on which would not involve an impermissible breach of privilege?

  48. As a bonus, it looks like Morrison didn’t consult China either over his evacuation plan. He’s not broken his habit of delivering brainfart after brainfart.

    Yet another demonstration that Morrison is psychologically incapable of handling a national emergency.

    —
    Re Q&A from memory the mayor of Bega Shire Council is also a Lib and was the one that called the residents of Cobargo a bunch of ferals after their less than enthusiastic reception of the PM. I’m guessing the audience is going to be well vetted, because its going to be either an LNP love in, or an all-in brawl. I don’t think the ABC is doing itself a service showing either.

  49. SK,
    Most importantly, what will your daughters Roller Derby name be?

    More importantly, will they debrief at the Wheatsheaf hotel? Seems to be the local pub of choice for roller derby teams…. and whiskey and craft beer drinkers alike.

  50. Danama Papers @ #147 Thursday, January 30th, 2020 – 9:11 am

    The latest from The Shovel:

    …

    Most Coronavirus Cases Caused By Arson, The Australian Claims

    http://www.theshovel.com.au/2020/01/30/most-coronavirus-cases-caused-by-arson-the-australian-claims/

    According to my “well informed” colleague this is kind true.

    Apparently it was deliberately released by China to test its effectiveness as a biological weapon.

    Some people are very sad.

Comments Page 3 of 42
1 2 3 4 … 42

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *