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. Boerwar

    One of the key drivers of national wage stagnation, IMO.

    It sure is. Last two places i have worked have used them. The first lot were high skilled but paid a lot less than they should have been worth .They put up with crap as they all wanted to gain permanent residency eventually. Current one uses low skilled labor on god knows what visa as none of the jobs done require any special skills. I suspect “student” ones. Either way companies are paying less than they should which means locals have to ‘compete’ with underpaid staff.

    I imagine the situation in the 2 companies , both very reputable, would be pretty common across Australia.

  3. Just fooling around, but Morrison is encouraging this kind of mockery.

    @StrayMutts
    ·
    1h
    Think I’m getting the hang of Morrispeak.

    “Labor left a damp towel on the bathroom floor so obviously we’re meeting and beating the resilient rejection of adapting to the premise of climate change being nothing but fuel loaded gossip so I’ve answered that question already . . .”

  4. Thanks for that Ross Leigh article, lizzie. I thought this comment was very apt:

    Speaking of urgency, how long do you think it’ll take for that report on whether Bridget McKenzie breached ministerial standards to reach the PM’s desk? It’s been a week and nothing yet. I mean, it’s not like they need to wait for DNA samples to come back from the lab.

    But I guess it’s hard to convince someone to take one for the team when everyone else is playing for themselves.

  6. poroti

    People who are focussed on keeping their job and not being deported are less likely to argue about wages and have no particular interest in becoming part of the community. Can’t blame them.

  8. Coronavirus deaths will surpass SARS in the next 24 hours — as global virus fears mount

    China reported its biggest single-day jump in novel coronavirus deaths on Thursday, as confirmation that three Japanese evacuated from the outbreak’s epicentre were infected deepened fears about a global contagion.

    The World Health Organization, which initially downplayed the severity of a disease that has now killed 170 nationwide, warned all governments to be “on alert” as it weighed whether to declare a global health emergency.

    The number of confirmed new cases also grew steadily to 7,711, the National Health Commission said. Another 81,000 people were under observation for possible infection.

    The fact that two of the three new confirmed Japanese cases showed no symptoms underscored the scale of the challenge for health workers.

    The WHO has come under fire after it last week declined to declare a global health emergency.

    https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/coronavirus-deaths-will-surpass-sars-in-the-next-24-hours-as-global-virus-fears-mount/

  9. Morning Joe Scarborough unleashes on the morons on Donald Trump’s legal team

    “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough didn’t get his fill of attacking the impeachment absurdity on his morning show, and took to the pages of the Washington Post editorial section to lament that the president has collected a cadre of clowns to deliver a confounding case against a presidential con.

    “This misfit band of lawyers brought with them arguments so stunningly stupefying, logic so fatally flawed and a cynicism so brazenly transparent that one suspects Baghdad Bob was viewing the entire spectacle with grudging respect,” wrote Scarborough, who once served in Congress.

    “The same holds true of the other attorneys on the president’s defense team, who sullied their reputations this week defending a shameless huckster, and whom history will judge harshly as those whose dunce routines continued to enable this dangerously unbalanced man.”

    Trump’s confederacy of dunces
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-confederacy-of-dunces/2020/01/29/6616c4fa-42e5-11ea-aa6a-083d01b3ed18_story.html

  10. Who has the most spin? According to a report by the Auditor-General, the Australian Taxation Office has the largest number of media spinners in the public service: 493 people employed in communication and marketing, or 2.83 per cent of its 17,417 staff as of December 2018. But the issue-plagued National Disability Insurance Agency takes the prize for Top Spin, with almost one in 20 of its staff members looking after media. That’s 152 people, or 4.84 per cent of the NDIA’s 3138-strong team. Honourable mentions go to the Department of Human Services and its 286 spinners (1.04 per cent); Home Affairs with 214 (1.51 per cent); Foreign Affairs and Trade’s 79 (1.41 per cent); 60 at Agriculture and Water Resources (1.29 per cent); another 60 at Social Services (2.88 per cent); Health, with an even 100 (2.46 per cent); and Energy and Environment’s 80 (4.01 per cent). Strewth’s Back Spin award goes to Defence. Despite employing 168 media officers (1.05 per cent of its 16,010 staff) the Australian National Audit Office report, tabled in parliament on Tuesday, found the department’s spinners “are not fully effective” and managed to meet deadlines to respond to journalists only 23 per cent of the time last year.

  11. quarantine (Chinese) Australian coronavirus evacuees from China on Christmas Island?

    I wonder what the locals thinks of Morrison’s thought bubble.

  12. The future of the Victorian native timber industry has been dealt a further blow after the Supreme Court ordered a halt to logging due to the impact of this summer’s bushfires.

    The Supreme Court granted an interim injunction on Wednesday preventing logging in three coupes — areas to be harvested in the forests {near Healesville}— ahead of a full hearing next month.

    Justice Kate McMillan said there was “a real threat of a serious or irreversible damage to threatened species and their habitat should harvesting operations continue in the coupes”.

    “The recent bushfires have caused extensive environmental damage, the severity of which is only beginning to be understood,” Justice McMillan said.

    Well, thank heaven for that.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-30/court-halts-logging-due-to-impact-of-gippsland-bushfires/11913528

  13. BW
    The Chief Medical Officer seems to have dramatically altered his advice from round the Wuhan kids up and send them to school to send them into isolation for two weeks.
    His performance will need to be looked at. Perhaps not exemplary¿

  19. Fears are growing for the spread of the coronavirus in Australia after a tourist infected with the deadly disease caught a domestic flight with 200 other passengers.

    The 44-year-old Chinese man is in a stable condition in Gold Coast Hospital. But four others from his tour group, among them children, are being tested for the lethal virus.

    Authorities are trying to contact almost 200 other people who shared the sick man’s Tiger Airways flight from Melbourne to the Gold Coast on January 27.

    The sick tourist came from Wuhan – the Chinese city where the coronavirus outbreak started – and landed in Melbourne on January 22. There were eight people in his tour group.

    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/2020/01/30/australia-coronavirus-tiger-flight/

  21. ‘Diogenes says:
    Thursday, January 30, 2020 at 4:30 pm

    BW
    The Chief Medical Officer seems to have dramatically altered his advice from round the Wuhan kids up and send them to school to send them into isolation for two weeks.
    His performance will need to be looked at. Perhaps not exemplary¿’

    I was not impressed at the time. But not an expert!

  22. I wonder if the quarantinees on Xmas Isl will have access to their phones and internet? Could be a challenge to keep conditions a secret as this government is want to do.

  24. I wouldn’t put it past this government to confiscate comm devices for ‘national security’ reasons esp if it will still be an active detention centre in the future…

  26. NE Qld says:
    Thursday, January 30, 2020 at 4:59 pm
    I wonder if the quarantinees on Xmas Isl will have access to their phones and internet? Could be a challenge to keep conditions a secret as this government is want to do.

    The place will still be controlled by Dutton’s goons. It’s quite likely they will treat the people from Wuhan the same as they have been trained to deal with boat people.

  27. I may be missing something but I can’t see anything in the article that supports the headline:

    Coronavirus deaths will surpass SARS in the next 24 hours — as global virus fears mount

  28. NE Qld says:
    Thursday, January 30, 2020 at 5:21 pm
    I wouldn’t put it past this government to confiscate comm devices for ‘national security’ reasons esp if it will still be an active detention centre in the future…

    Dutton being paranoid, is dead scared that the Biloela people will try to communicate with the outside world via a Wuhan evacuee’s phone.

  31. Meanwhile, a flight to bring about 200 British nationals back to the UK is unable to take off as planned. It’s understood relevant permissions from Chinese officials have not yet come through. The flight from Wuhan – the city where the virus first emerged – had been expected to arrive at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire later this morning, with passengers placed in “supported isolation” at an NHS facility for 14 days. The Foreign Office says it’s “working urgently” to organise a flight, with several countries’ evacuation plans affected.

  32. Ash Barty will be feeling sick. Tournament on her own turf for the taking. The guarantee of greatness is winning your own slam.

    This is why Sam Stosur’s reputation was diminished. Never could win in Australia.

  33. Oh yeah? Looxury, obviously.

    Fiona Willan
    @Fi_Willan
    · 4m
    The government has released new images of the Christmas Island detention centre, where Australians evacuated from Wuhan will be kept in quarantine #Coronavirus #ChristmasIsland #wuhan #auspol

  38. lizzie says:
    Thursday, January 30, 2020 at 5:44 pm
    Oh yeah? Looxury, obviously.

    Fiona Willan
    @Fi_Willan
    · 4m
    The government has released new images of the Christmas Island detention centre, where Australians evacuated from Wuhan will be kept in quarantine #Coronavirus #ChristmasIsland #wuhan #auspol

    What a holiday paradise! Great for that stress free vacation amidst swaying coconut palms and crystal clear lagoons.

    Just the marketing tool for people smugglers I would have thought.

  39. C@tmomma @ #287 Thursday, January 30th, 2020 – 5:54 pm

    Greensborough Growler @ #275 Thursday, January 30th, 2020 – 5:25 pm

    probably, the most damning and persuasive piece on the Sportrorts affair.

    https://www.yasstribune.com.au/story/6603662/pork-barrelling-just-a-sport-for-major-parties/

    Fine…until she had to say Liberal AND LABOR parties do it. Maybe, but one is a zephyr compared to the other’s full-blown hurricane of corruption.

    If you want to live in a world of blinkered rose coloured glasses, fine.

    But, the Rum Corp ethos runs deep in NSW regardless of the ruling party’s stripes.

  40. Osman Faruqi
    @oz_f
    ·
    2m
    The Australian government treats Christmas Island the way I treat my unread emails. “This is too stressful to deal with right now, I’ll just put it there and get back to it eventually”.

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