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 7 of 42
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  4. Lizzie
    When is someone on Sky not a weirdo.

    Sky does serve one good purpose of showing how the other half live or think. It gives an insight into Liberal Party branch meetings without needing to go to the trouble of going to one.

  6. Greensborough Growler @ #289 Thursday, January 30th, 2020 – 5:58 pm

    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.

    Yes, you’ve resorted to this maxim a bit lately. However, I feel a bit of perspective is needed. Sure, NSW State Labor did some pretty egregious things, after certain individuals came to believe they were invulnerable and they have thus paid the ultimate price, some of them, and ended up in jail. In general, the party continues to lose elections in NSW. There are valid reasons for this.

    And, yes, Liberal State governments in NSW have been pretty crook too.

    I’m just not sure you can isolate NSW from Victoria and innoculate your home state in the way that you have. I seem to remember that Matthew Guy as Planning Minister, and then as putative Premier, as only one recent example wanting to make a fortune for various individuals via Planning Rezoning, along with various examples in the Building and Major Road Construction industries in Victoria, and also when it comes to federal Liberal counterparts from Victoria working hand in glove with Victorian State Liberal governments to feather their nests, that leads me to conclude that, at the end of the day there’s only about a cigarette paper’s worth of difference between our states when it comes to political corruption. Rum Corps, or no.

  8. nath

    C@tmomma says:
    Thursday, January 30, 2020 at 10:53 am
    …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.
    ________________
    I believe it was WB who first raised on PB the possibility of Dreyfus going by linking to an AFR article. But by all means, don’t let the known facts intrude upon your delusions and fantasies.

    ——————-

    One has to be forever vigilant around PB re attempts at character assassination.

    My memory indicates you are indeed correct.

    There were several articles about it to which WB linked to one of them. One of the AFR articles:

    https://www.afr.com/rear-window/justice-mark-dreyfus-and-the-isaacs-by-election-20191006-p52y3z

    Speaking of parliamentary passengers, speculation is now positively feverish that Labor’s shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus will announce his departure from federal parliament within weeks, causing a by-election in his Melbourne seat of Isaacs.
    :::
    Dreyfus also threatened to resign in 2016 if Kimberley Kitching was selected to fill Stephen Conroy’s vacancy in the Senate. She was, but cruelly, he didn’t.

    Also Bernard Keane in Crikey: https://www.crikey.com.au/2019/10/07/mark-dreyfus-parliament-rumours/

    Who is trying to push Mark Dreyfus out of parliament?

    There are rumours swirling about Mark Dreyfus’ exit from parliament — rumours he’s categorically denied. So who’s benefiting from leaving the question open?

    Is Labor’s shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus about to leave parliament for a gig at the Victorian Supreme Court? If you believe the Financial Review, yes he is.

  9. Simon Katich @ #302 Thursday, January 30th, 2020 – 3:32 pm

    This might be interesting to some…
    ————
    The ‘anti-woke’ backlash is no joke – and progressives are going to lose if they don’t wise up

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/30/anti-woke-backlash-liberalism-laurence-fox?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

    It reminds me of the period immediately following the election of the Howard govt when everyone derided political correctness.

    The smug, judgemental superiority is what turns people off.

  10. C@T
    Maybe I’m misreading your comment but Guy wasn’t Premier thanks to Dan Andrews. Planning in Victoria will be one of the big issues come next state election.

  11. Mexicanbeemer @ #310 Thursday, January 30th, 2020 – 6:39 pm

    C@T
    Maybe I’m misreading your comment but Guy wasn’t Premier thanks to Dan Andrews. Planning in Victoria will be one of the big issues come next state election.

    Yep, you did. I said ‘putative Premier’. With, I should add, big plans. Not all of them for the benefit of Victoria as a whole. 🙂

  13. lizzie @ #301 Thursday, January 30th, 2020 – 6:31 pm

    There’s a weirdo on Sky, says he’s a biologist, says all nat parks are wastelands. Duh?

    I take that as they think the parks have had shite management that has seen their biodiversity and ecology in the toilet.

  16. Pegasus @ #308 Thursday, January 30th, 2020 – 6:37 pm

    nath

    C@tmomma says:
    Thursday, January 30, 2020 at 10:53 am
    …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.
    ________________
    I believe it was WB who first raised on PB the possibility of Dreyfus going by linking to an AFR article. But by all means, don’t let the known facts intrude upon your delusions and fantasies.

    ——————-

    One has to be forever vigilant around PB re attempts at character assassination.

    My memory indicates you are indeed correct.

    There were several articles about it to which WB linked to one of them. One of the AFR articles:

    https://www.afr.com/rear-window/justice-mark-dreyfus-and-the-isaacs-by-election-20191006-p52y3z

    Speaking of parliamentary passengers, speculation is now positively feverish that Labor’s shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus will announce his departure from federal parliament within weeks, causing a by-election in his Melbourne seat of Isaacs.
    :::
    Dreyfus also threatened to resign in 2016 if Kimberley Kitching was selected to fill Stephen Conroy’s vacancy in the Senate. She was, but cruelly, he didn’t.

    Also Bernard Keane in Crikey: https://www.crikey.com.au/2019/10/07/mark-dreyfus-parliament-rumours/

    Who is trying to push Mark Dreyfus out of parliament?

    There are rumours swirling about Mark Dreyfus’ exit from parliament — rumours he’s categorically denied. So who’s benefiting from leaving the question open?

    s Labor’s shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus about to leave parliament for a gig at the Victorian Supreme Court? If you believe the Financial Review, yes he is.

    *golf clap*, Pegasus.

    Nice to know your, and nath’s, obsession with me continues unabated.

    It was mere speculation, as I made obvious. But, thank you for wasting a part of your life doing the research I couldn’t be arsed doing. 🙂

  17. Whatever Victorian minister (Pallas?) signed off on the Westgate Tunnel Project needs the biggest kick up the arse of all time. Forget Bridgets 100m, that will be peanuts compared to what this project is going to cost Victorians.

  19. Industry superannuation funds want end to super tax breaks that favour the rich

    Exclusive: The powerful industry lobby says the super system unfairly benefits high-income earners and men

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/30/industry-funds-want-end-to-super-tax-breaks-that-favour-the-rich

    Tax concessions for superannuation that overwhelmingly favour the rich need to be overhauled, the powerful industry super fund lobby has told Treasury.

    In a submission to a review of the super system being conducted by the department, peak body Industry Super Australia says the imbalance also means men get an outsized share of super tax breaks.

    ISA said a person earning more than $124,000 a year – putting them in the top 10% of taxpayers – gets an average tax advantage on their contributions to super of $3,677 a year, 75 times the $49 a year reaped by someone on $22,000.

    The body, which represents funds run by employers and unions to benefit members, said the gender gap exploded from age 35, when women often take time off work to have children.

  22. Taylormade @ #317 Thursday, January 30th, 2020 – 6:46 pm

    Whatever Victorian minister (Pallas?) signed off on the Westgate Tunnel Project needs the biggest kick up the arse of all time. Forget Bridgets 100m, that will be peanuts compared to what this project is going to cost Victorians.

    Have the Coalition started construction on Sarah Henderson’s promised pools for Corangamite yet, despite Labor winning the seat? 🙂

  23. C@tmomma, you have made a fool of yourself. If you “couldn’t be arsed” finding out whether it was true or not, you should not have asserted that the Mark Dreyfus rumour, which was reported twice on this blog, was a “lie” concocted by Nath and LVT.

  24. Cat

    lol Not an obsession, far from it, as I ignore much of your commentary of like nature.

    Just highlighting your predilection to throw out yet another generalised smear without substantiation.

    For someone supposedly focused on ‘facts’ you fall far short of your own standards.

  25. sprocket_ says:
    Thursday, January 30, 2020 at 6:51 pm

    Is PVO still sitting on the pot, absent pissing?
    ____________
    How about your own pot? Where’s that Cabinet reshuffle you mentioned ‘hearing’ about from your friends in PM&C?

  26. Liberal MP Sam Duluk will attend Parliament when it resumes, despite an ongoing investigation into his conduct at a Christmas party last year.

    Liberal MP and Parliament Speaker Vincent Tarzia has launched an investigation
    SA’s Opposition has called for Mr Duluk to be stood down

    Mr Duluk has faced the media for the first time since he allegedly slapped SA Best MP Connie Bonaros on the behind, and acted inappropriately towards staffers at the December Parliament House event.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-30/liberal-mp-returns-to-parliament-despite-investigation/11915182

  28. Chewer

    And you repress the lizard brains by making them feel socially isolated. Labor needs to do this in a thorough, professional, calculated way.

    Social isolation might in some cases be causal of lizardly brains. In any event it is separately a problem, and a deliberate policy to increase it is independently reprehensible and should not be pursued.

  29. Australians will need to pay $1000 to be evacuated from Wuhan

    https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/australians-will-need-to-pay-1000-to-be-evacuated-from-wuhan-20200130-p53w71.html

    According to evacuees, they will have to pay $1000 and sign a waiver allowing them to be quarantined at the Christmas Island detention centre for up to 14 days.

    After their stay on Christmas Island, they will be dropped off in Perth and have to pay their own way to their city of residence.

  30. William Bowe @ #323 Thursday, January 30th, 2020 – 6:53 pm

    C@tmomma, you have made a fool of yourself. If you “couldn’t be arsed” finding out whether it was true or not, you should not have asserted that the Mark Dreyfus rumour, which was reported twice on this blog, was a “lie” concocted by Nath and LVT.

    Sorry, but I don’t know how to go back in the archives and find such things out without spending all day going through page after page and thread after thread. If you could let me know how to do a word search I would appreciate that. If it is possible, that is.

  32. C@tmomma @ #306 Thursday, January 30th, 2020 – 6:35 pm

    Greensborough Growler @ #289 Thursday, January 30th, 2020 – 5:58 pm

    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.

    Yes, you’ve resorted to this maxim a bit lately. However, I feel a bit of perspective is needed. Sure, NSW State Labor did some pretty egregious things, after certain individuals came to believe they were invulnerable and they have thus paid the ultimate price, some of them, and ended up in jail. In general, the party continues to lose elections in NSW. There are valid reasons for this.

    And, yes, Liberal State governments in NSW have been pretty crook too.

    I’m just not sure you can isolate NSW from Victoria and innoculate your home state in the way that you have. I seem to remember that Matthew Guy as Planning Minister, and then as putative Premier, as only one recent example wanting to make a fortune for various individuals via Planning Rezoning, along with various examples in the Building and Major Road Construction industries in Victoria, and also when it comes to federal Liberal counterparts from Victoria working hand in glove with Victorian State Liberal governments, that leads me to conclude that, at the end of the day there’s only about a cigarette paper’s worth of difference between our states when it comes to political corruption. Rum Corps, or no.

    Your moral equivalence argument is rubbish.

    The Rum Corps went backTto the first Settlement in NSW. It’s imbedded and part of your culture. The key ingredients in NSW were Grog and Land development.

    Nothing has changed.

  33. Sorry, on the Sky fella, I got called away.

    I gathered that he thinks that eucalypts are no good for anything at all, and create a wasteland where nothing lives. And then they burn. I didn’t hang about long enough to find out whether he wants to rid the whole country of gums.

    But as someone said, only weirdos go on Sky. 😉

  34. >Don’t get the problem with Christmas Is, its only for observation and if treatment is needed then that can be doubt with.

    I think the problem is that if treatment is needed it will be a medical emergency, having to take a multi-hour emergency flight to Perth may contribute to complications and if there wasn’t some risk of that they wouldn’t need to be in quarantine.

  35. Where’s the Wombat who said there’s nothing to worry about and – by deft use of medical jargon – proved that anyone who contradicted the AMO was just stirring?

    10,000 cases admitted, and probably hundreds of thousands more to come; Australian citizens about to be locked up in a refugee concentration camp; and still the stories about the virulence and infectiousness of the disease contradict each other.

    Yeah sure, everything’s hunky-dory.

  38. This Xmas Island proposal is a crackpot back-of-the envelope concoction cobbled together without thought, without consultation and without consideration, with the intention of it providing a week or so breathing space for that creature we call a Prime minister.

    It didn’t even accomplish that.

  39. Sprocket:

    Is PVO still sitting on the pot, absent pissing?

    Maybe he’s going for the metaphorical equivalent of a “trick shot”, like that appalling Rugby League player!

  40. That doctor complaining about using Xmas island is an idiot. We don’t have nearly the capacity to look after 400 patients to Ebola standards without massive disruption to our public hospital system. And we don’t need to as probably none of the 400 have anything wrong with them.

  43. Fulvio
    It’s isolated and contained and is big enough for 500 people. There probably aren’t many other places like that. There might be some army barracks.

  46. This Xmas Island proposal is a crackpot back-of-the envelope concoction cobbled together without thought…

    “Crackpot” yes, “without thought” not so much.

    Christmas Island is Morrison’s lucky charm, his security blanket. It will forever be associated with Labor humiliation and Coalition triumphalism, in particular with Scott “I Stopped These” Morrison’s finest hour. It’s where he goes when he feels threatened. Whatever the journey, for ScoMo “Christmas Island” is the ultimate destination.

    Yes “crackpot”. Yes “back of the envelope”. But definitely “thought out”, in that ScoMo kind of way.

  47. Has the WHO called a global emergency on global warming yet? Hardly makes the coronavirus seem like a credible threat if they haven’t.

  48. There are huge areas of bushland around Sydney, mostly in National Parks. Had the land been of any use for European style agriculture, grazing or logging, it would have been logged, settled, cleared, and farmed or grazed during the 19th century. Ditto if gold had been discovered there. Instead, the early settlers crossed the Blue Mountains and settled in what we now call the “Central West” of NSW.

    The same goes for much of what are now National Parks.

  50. Nath
    C@T wasn’t far off, Fishersman Bends is in easy walking distance to Docklands and just across the bay from Williamstown.

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