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”

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  1. A big number..

    1,200,000,000,000 Chinese Yuan equals
    172,992,912,000.00 United States Dollar

    This is how much liquidity the Chinese Central Bank is injecting into the market tomorrow.

  2. McKenzie to be the new Drought Envoy? The Coronavirus Envoy? The Envoy for Bushfire Recovery? The Envoy for Girls Changing Sheds? The Envoy for Indigenous Australians?
    Something with three or four staff and a couple of hundred thousand extra in the kitty?
    What?

  3. Oh, good lord.

    Our esteemed local MP has just pasted a video of herself — talking to camera whilst driving up the Hume…

  5. Greensborough Growler @ #1998 Sunday, February 2nd, 2020 – 6:31 pm

    P1 went to an ALP meeting once.

    Didn’t like it.

    Apparently, no one had any interest in wha she had to say.

    A bit like PB, really!

    Actually, I went to many meetings. The things I learned about the ALP might surprise you.

    No, on second thoughts, they probably wouldn’t 🙁

  7. Boerwar @ #1998 Sunday, February 2nd, 2020 – 6:35 pm

    McKenzie to be the new Drought Envoy? The Coronavirus Envoy? The Envoy for Bushfire Recovery? The Envoy for Girls Changing Sheds? The Envoy for Indigenous Australians?
    Something with three or four staff and a couple of hundred thousand extra in the kitty?
    What?

    She will fork them all over at her leisure.

    She’s got nothing to lose.

  8. PhoenixRed:

    E. G. Theodore says: Sunday, February 2, 2020 at 4:11 pm

    Ms. Clinton was not a terrible candidate but instead ran a terrible and incompetent campaign, based very poor information, originating from a combination of bad intelligence and hangers on who just made things up

    ********************************************************

    …… and if there was no Cambridge Analytica ????? …….. and possible ‘foreign’ interference ?????

    Both were facts, known to the Clinton campaign and hence risks. They failed to manage the risks due to incompetence, and still only just lost due to bad luck.

    Fight in the arena of the (known) facts as they are, not “facts” as you would hope them to be.

    Not to put too fine a point on it: I have advanced cancer, and that is a fact. That means I fight every day on the facts as they become known, (and do so immediately); not on “facts” I would prefer to have.

  14. “Candidates would be Matt Canavan, David LittleProud, Darren Chester, and yes, the BeetRooter.”

    the same sky report from this morning that predicted Bridgette would quit today also said that Littleproud was already a shoe-in for dep. leader

  15. Player One @ #2001 Sunday, February 2nd, 2020 – 6:37 pm

    Greensborough Growler @ #1998 Sunday, February 2nd, 2020 – 6:31 pm

    P1 went to an ALP meeting once.

    Didn’t like it.

    Apparently, no one had any interest in wha she had to say.

    A bit like PB, really!

    Actually, I went to many meetings. The things I learned about the ALP might surprise you.

    No, on second thoughts, they probably wouldn’t 🙁

    Here’s the song all about you.

    https://www.pollbludger.net/2020/01/30/essential-research-sports-rorts-icac-australia-day/#comments

  16. Calling for the Gov to sack Morrison is fairytale stuff. There’s no way this government will fall. They have set up all the mechanisms to sustain them until the next election and the media might get more critical but really has no power. Australia isn’t into assassinations, and Morrison isn’t into ethical behaviour. Substitute Dutton for Morrison? No difference but possibly more jackboots. At this time of crisis on several fronts, they are only concerned with their own salaries.

  17. JimmyD @ #1907 Sunday, February 2nd, 2020 – 2:13 pm

    C@tmomma
    ‘Ministerial Discretion’ is all well and good according to Morrison.

    As if he and the rest of Cabinet weren’t complicit to their eyeballs in approving and organising this rort!

    As far as Morrison is concerned, McKenzie’s only crime will have been in getting caught.

    The investigation was triggered by Princess Georgina of Mayo handing out novelty cheques despite never having been a member of parliament.

  19. Peter Harden – @hardenuppete
    ·
    7m
    Obviously Phil Gaetjens is not worried about his professional credibility as a senior treasury adviser to Liberal Governments as his retirement looms. With a salary of $975k +benefits he will and is duly rewarded for his service to the party. #auspol

  22. nath:

    I wonder if the flagrant nature of these grants had something to do with the fact that the government assumed they were getting turfed out and now it has come back to bite.

    Correct in my view – flogging the silverware to deserving electorates whilst in the getaway car speeding from the heist (in the expectation of being turfed out) rather than trying to influence the election. Basher Bowe’s analysis demonstrates that it did not influence the election, suggesting the different motive (I said something like this at the time, perhaps even on PB). Patronage not politics.

  25. E. G. Theodore @ #2021 Sunday, February 2nd, 2020 – 6:56 pm

    nath:

    I wonder if the flagrant nature of these grants had something to do with the fact that the government assumed they were getting turfed out and now it has come back to bite.

    Correct in my view – flogging the silverware to deserving electorates whilst in the getaway car speeding from the heist (in the expectation of being turfed out) rather than trying to influence the election. Basher Bowe’s analysis demonstrates that it did not influence the election, suggesting the different motive (I said something like this at the time, perhaps even on PB). Patronage not politics.

    When, in actual fact you are both wrong. It has been credibly reported after the May election that the Coalition held tight their tracking polling which indicated they were on course for the win they duly got.

    I’m still not credibly convinced that those Sorts Grants in Marginal seats didn’t play a part in that win.

  26. Morrison knew exactly what the outcome of mate Gaetjen’s very tightly defined inquiry would be with Bridget being found guilty of a relatively minor conflict over a relatively minor grant, forced to resign and then being out of QT firing line.
    As for the big stuff – the colour coded spreadsheet for the last round before the election – that would be conveniently agglomerated with the previously two rounds and whitewashed.

  27. Morrison tries to make it sound like McKenzie was busted for not returning a library book. These sleazebags will keep going on this way until the house of cards finally collapses.

    “I want to thank Bridget McKenzie for the outstanding job she has done in serving both in my cabinet and my predecessor’s cabinet.

    “I particularly want to thank Bridget for the amazing work she has done in regional Australia, and the incredible application she has shown and dedication to Australians in rural and regional areas who have been doing it tough through drought. She has been a drought champion for these farming and rural communities around the country.

    “This is Federal Cabinet, there are standards that must be upheld and she understands that and so do I.

    “But I don’t think that that in any way takes away from the outstanding work that she has done as a minister both in my government and my predecessor’s government.”

    https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/prime-minister-scott-morrison-addresses-bridget-mckenzies-sports-grants-report/news-story/25f7f2615d4ebe605038747ad6bde1ec

  28. “But I don’t think that that in any way takes away from the outstanding work that she has done as a minister both in my government and my predecessor’s government.
    ______
    And what particular outstanding work would that have been ?

  29. The plantations being referred to are of Tasmanian Blue Gum (eucalyptus globulus) which are single species row farms on former farmland. They are clear fell harvested for woodchips. The timber is completely useless for anything else. They were the preferred vehicle for the tax avoidance scams that went broke, like Great Southern and Timbercorp. Koalas love the leaves.

  32. Player One @ #2013 Sunday, February 2nd, 2020 – 6:49 pm

    Greensborough Growler @ #2015 Sunday, February 2nd, 2020 – 6:47 pm

    Here’s the song all about you.

    https://www.pollbludger.net/2020/01/30/essential-research-sports-rorts-icac-australia-day/#comments

    That link leads you nowhere useful.

    Much like you, really.

    It’s all about you, champ.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmxOUIddBm0

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmxOUIddBm0

  33. Note that Scott Morrison has bowed to the advice of a public servant in defending a minister’s right to decline the advice of the public service.

  36. Morrison tries to make it sound like McKenzie was busted for not returning a library book. These sleazebags will keep going on this way until the house of cards finally collapses.

    __________________________

    The whole lot of them set fire to the library. Then they scapegoated her for not returning a library book and hope that nobody notices the library is now a smouldering ruin.

  38. BK @ #2026 Sunday, February 2nd, 2020 – 7:02 pm

    “But I don’t think that that in any way takes away from the outstanding work that she has done as a minister both in my government and my predecessor’s government.
    ______
    And what particular outstanding work would that have been ?

    Helping to win votes of course! You think LNP Ministers have other ambition?

  39. Player One @ #2032 Sunday, February 2nd, 2020 – 7:29 pm

    Greensborough Growler @ #2032 Sunday, February 2nd, 2020 – 7:18 pm

    It’s all about you, champ.

    No, it’s not all about me. It’s all about people like me. People who are concerned about their future.

    It doesn’t surprise me that you can’t understand the difference.

    All you’ve got is Yabber, haven’t you?

    Imagine the world if you engaged people respectfully and honestly.

  43. E. G. Theodore @ #1746 Sunday, February 2nd, 2020 – 1:17 pm

    As a (possibly extreme) example, I’d even like to be able to rent business attire during trips to major cities so as to avoid having to both store it and carry it as luggage, provided of course it is of appropriate standard, delivered to, moved between and collected from hotels as I travel etc. This is by far the most efficient way to operate that economic system, and will materially reduce energy use and hence emissions (e.g. a business clothing service provider can both move clothes much more efficiently and can also reduce the movements required, including eliminating long distance movements).

    Surely it would be most efficient to drop the conceit that doing business requires elaborate clothing, altogether?

    There’s no actual reason for it. Anything that can be done in a suit and tie can also be done in a T-shirt and shorts. Which is more comfortable (especially in the heat), and saves you the hassle of producing all of those aesthetically nice but otherwise useless ‘appropriate standard’ outfits in the first place. 🙂

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