Essential Research leadership ratings

Scott Morrison records a preferred prime minister lead for the first time this year, although his personal ratings remain in net negative territory.

Essential Research continues to disappoint on the voting intention front, but its latest fortnightly poll does include its monthly leadership ratings, which record a recovery in Scott Morrison’s personal standing after the battering it copped during the bsuhfires. Morrison now leads Anthony Albanese 40-35 as preferred prime minister after being tied 36-36 in the last poll, which his first lead out of the six sets of results published so far this year (three apiece from Essential and Newspoll). His approval rating is up two to 41% and disapproval down three to 49%, while Albanese is respectively steady on 41% and up two to 33%.

As related by The Guardian, the poll also finds 71% want investigations into sports rorts to continue, but I suspect that should actually say 51%, as 43% favoured the alternative option that the resignation of Sports Minister Bridget McKenzie should be the end of the matter. The poll also has the unsurprising finding that concern about coronavirus is growing, although we will have to wait for the publication of the full report later today to see by how much.

Other questions produce familiar findings on energy sources (71% favour further taxpayer research into renewables, compared with 57% for hydrogen, 50% for “clean coal” and 38% for nuclear energy) and economic management (the Coalition was rated better overall, but was also seen to favour big business whereas Labor was better at managing the economy to benefit workers). The poll was conducted from 1096 respondents from an online panel, no doubt from Thursday to Sunday.

UPDATE: Full report here. It turns out the poll doesn’t really find an increase in concern about coronavirus over the past month: there’s a two point increase in “very concerned” to 27%, but a five point drop in “quite concerned” to 36%, a two point rise in “not all that concerned” to 28% and a three point increase in “not at all concerned” to 9%. I’d have been interested to see breakdowns by party support on this – Democrats in the US are far more concerned than Republicans – but no such luck.

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.

3,649 comments on “Essential Research leadership ratings”

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  1. C@tmomma
    Sunday, March 15th, 2020 – 7:07 am
    Comment #2948

    My son woke up with a sore throat this morning. I took his temperature (being a former pharmacist, I had 3 digital thermometers, one broken, 2 not, thank goodness). 36.6

    Best wishes to both your sons and yourself.

    I have ordered a digital thermometer and expect it to arrive at the same time as a Covid-19 vaccine. 😻

  3. Good morning

    Wolahan has mounted a challenge to long-serving Liberal MP Kevin Andrews for the party’s preselection in the eastern suburbs seat of Menzies.
    https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/battle-for-liberal-hearts-and-minds-in-menzies-20200313-p549y1.html
    Speers. The fact that leading experts can’t seem to agree on the basics of the infection risk is a worry.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-15/coronavirus-scott-morrison-footy-next-information-campaign/12054174
    A tougher screening process for international visitors is among the next steps the government is preparing to take to slow the coronavirus pandemic, as a new national cabinet made up of Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his state and territory counterparts meets for the first time today.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/tougher-border-checks-loom-for-visitors-as-virus-cabinet-considers-mandatory-quarantine-20200314-p54a33.html
    Coronavirus experts throughout Australia have warned that the federal government’s ban on mass gatherings could last for the entire NRL season and have recommended the league “get creative” to stay afloat economically.
    https://www.theage.com.au/sport/nrl/what-s-more-important-money-or-people-health-experts-warn-lockdown-could-last-entire-nrl-season-20200314-p54a1u.html
    60 per cent of the nation’s 2.6 million casual workers earn more than $400, according to research from the Parliamentary Library commissioned by the Greens. With the recommended self-isolation period at 14 days, many of those workers stand to lose a significant percentage of their income if forced onto the welfare system.
    https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/many-casuals-to-lose-hundreds-from-coronavirus-isolation-measures-20200314-p54a2h.html
    The Observer’s science editor looks at questions such as why the disease does appear not to infect children, and whether men are really more susceptible
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/14/answering-the-coronavirus-puzzles-baby-covid-19
    Britain and the EU are facing calls to back away from a “game of chicken” and extend the Brexit transition period immediately, as both respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/mar/14/calls-to-extend-eu-transition-period-as-europe-fights-coronavirus
    Thanks to a decade of austerity, the Tories have ensured the pandemic will hit the poor the hardest
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/14/coronavirus-outbreak-inequality-austerity-pandemic
    When Trump and his allies can no longer lie or deny, we can expect them to move on to the next phase of their crisis management playbook: attacking their enemies. It is already clear that they intend to interpret the virus not primarily as an existential threat to millions of Americans, but as an existential threat to their own political power.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/14/trump-may-exploit-coronavirus-crisis
    Australian theme parks to remain open. Operator says it has advice that the ban on gatherings of 500 people or more only applies to ‘static-seated events’
    https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/mar/14/australian-theme-parks-to-remain-open-as-coronavirus-closures-mount
    Murphy. I get that pandemics are fast moving, and complex to manage, but why is the messaging sometimes clear and sometimes confusing and seemingly contradictory, and could somebody perhaps fine tune that?
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/mar/13/can-coronavirus-be-the-crisis-to-shake-us-out-of-our-alternate-reality
    Doctors have been baffled by a transformation in the 21-year-old student’s new hands, which have changed to match their new owner’s arms. The transplanted hands have become dramatically lighter, hairless and more slender.
    https://www.theage.com.au/world/asia/doctors-mystified-as-transplanted-man-s-hands-turn-female-20200314-p54a10.html

  4. From SMH. I guess this will be appearing all over.

    I’ve seen a Gummint add re Covid-19 and am suitably impressed.

    Muriel – book me on the first available seat to Mars. 🚀

  5. Newsltd along with Morrison and his cronies, are playing politics with the Corona virus seems to be dragging the chief medical officer into their game and putting people’s lives into a dangerous situation.

  6. Why are three Labor Premiers giving credence to this imbecile’s “Corona Cabinet” by meeting with him?

    Labor leaders, just get on and protect your people the best way you can.

    Laying down with dogs has only one result.

  7. FS,
    In a time of national emergency they’d be seen as feckless political opportunists playing with people’s health and wellbeing if they didn’t.

  8. Some cartoons to lighten the mental load before we have to listen to Greg the Lying Hunt on Insiders this morning 😆

    Matt Golding with Kevin ‘I’m here to help’ and Scotty from Marketing:

  9. The Morrison government has quietly mothballed an inquiry which would have paved the way for long-promised laws to protect gay students and teachers from being expelled or sacked from religious schools.
    …
    The review has now been delayed for a second time, with an indefinite deadline of “12 months from the date the Religious Discrimination Bill is passed by Parliament”. That bill has itself been delayed and reviewed multiple times, with no guarantee it will ever pass. The discussion paper’s due date is now “TBA”.

    Even if the Religious Discrimination Bill becomes law this year, if the ALRC reports by late 2021 it is highly unlikely its recommendations would be legislated before the next election, due in 2022.

    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/morrison-government-quietly-mothballs-laws-to-protect-gay-students-and-teachers-20200312-p549m3.html

  10. They’ll be seen as clueless irrational half wits if they do, with the added burden of having cost even more people their lives.

    This is not a time for playing political charades.

  12. Thanks Lizzie for your morning roundup – mildly depressing as it is.

    I believe I am in the same boat as you are – no not the barbed wire canoe.

    I have the Beauty Bars and the Anti Bacterial Hand Wash and will just have to soldier on hoping for the best, secure in the knowledge that the Gummint wot some other bastards elected will have the welfare of all citizens in mind. 😇

  13. KayJay

    I have decided to ditch any pretence at being a fashionista and may appear in public wearing white latex gloves.

  14. Each Labor State Premier should announce some big and effective steps, and send a junior bureaucrat to play slap doodle with Morrison.

  15. The current Cabinet member are so trained in secrecy that they are a danger to themselves and the public.

    @BelindaJones68
    2m
    “But Mr Frydenberg’s office said, “the testing had nothing to do with Minister Dutton”

    So, that would lead one to suspect Josh Frydenberg has come into contact with someone else with #coronavirus if it wasn’t Spud

    Who?

  17. Cartoons Take 2:

    Reg Lynch always has a unique way of looking at things:

    Matt Golding looks ahead to the Olympic Games in Tokyo:

    Matt Golding has the Earth as a universal pariah:

    Matt Davidson seems to think we will get a V-shaped rebound in the stock market:

    Matt Golding thinks only a Wally would go to these countries:

    Dionne Gain obviously hopes the Australian $ will rise:

    Glen Le Lievre on gettingAustralians in the stock market back from the precipice:

    Finally, Jon Kudelka from The Saturday Paper on the Morrison/Frydenburg Stimulus Package:

  18. Outrage erupts over White House not releasing Trump’s coronavirus test results: ‘What is he hiding?’

    President Donald Trump told the nation that he was tested for coronavirus Friday evening, but claimed that he would not receive test results for “a day, or two days.”

    Virologist and epidemiologist Joseph Fair told MSNBC anchor Alex Witt that the results should already be known.

    “Yeah, I mean, typically a test like this, what we call a RTP-CR [reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction] takes around two hours completely,” Fair explained. “And I would think if the president was tested, it would be a two-hour turn around on the assay.”

    https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/outrage-erupts-over-white-house-not-releasing-trumps-coronavirus-test-results-what-is-he-hiding/

  20. On further consideration, perhaps the State Premiers should just shy off, citing their exposure to people potentially carrying the Corona Virus (at the recent meeting with Morrison and his cronies) as the justification.

  22. KayJay

    There is a large, usually pretty empty waiting room with a sofa, TV and coffee machine. If I wear gloves and take cleaner for the steering wheel/handbrake/door handles after the car service is finished, I’m hoping to escape with my confidence intact.

  23. I notice that Indonesia is showing 96 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 5 deaths. How good is the power of prayer!

  24. Fulvio Sammut @ #2970 Sunday, March 15th, 2020 – 7:14 am

    On further consideration, perhaps the State Premiers should just shy off, citing their exposure to people potentially carrying the Corona Virus (at the recent meeting with Morrison and his cronies) as the justification.

    Dutton is phoning in so why not a video conference? Oh, NBN…

  25. Speers’ piece in the ABC News was not very inspiring. I hope he’ll come up with something more interesting for his interview this morning.

  27. PVO tweets..

    In the green room waiting to do Insiders….the chief medical officer walks in and shakes the hand of one of the people here. Leading by example… #auspol

  28. lizzie @ #2972 Sunday, March 15th, 2020 – 8:20 am

    KayJay

    There is a large, usually pretty empty waiting room with a sofa, TV and coffee machine. If I wear gloves and take cleaner for the steering wheel/handbrake/door handles after the car service is finished, I’m hoping to escape with my confidence intact.

    Mechanics very often clean their hands with degreaser which should kill just about any germ likely to be lurking.

    Make sure that the TV is not showing Bolt and the “Fat Fool” and she’ll be right mate ❗

  29. Australian confirmed cases increased from 156 to 247 (+91)
    New South Wales 112 (+ 34 )
    Victoria 49 (+ 22 )
    Queensland 46 (+19 )
    South Australia 19 (+7 )
    Western Australia 14 (+5 )
    Tasmania 5 (+ 3 )
    Northern Territory 1 (+0 )
    Canberra (ACT) 1 (+ 1 )

    https://ncov2019.live/data
    Scroll almost to the bottom for Australian data

  33. What on earth is going on in Italy?

    Coronavirus cases in Italy rose by roughly 20 percent Saturday, as the already hard-hit country saw its biggest daily rise in infections yet.

    Italian health officials reported 3,497 new cases, a little more than half of which came from the northern region of Lombardy, Europe’s most affected area, the Associated Press reported.

    Another 157 people also died between Friday and Saturday.

    Italy has now reported a total of 21,157 cases, with authorities predicting that the numbers will continue to rise despite a national lockdown in place since March 9.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/14/coronavirus-latest-news/#link-O2OGJMWJWZHTHBMGBLJSRRDFPI

  37. Are Insiders really surprised that government ministers are saying one thing to Australians and doing another themselves? Only PvO is incredulous at the advice from CMO and ministers refusing to self isolate having been exposed.

  41. I reckon a lot of people are going to be finding out soon how inadequate Newstart is. Maybe then the impetus for increasing it might get up speed?

  44. Coorey is definitely the odd one out on the panel. Middleton and PvO are using critical thought to interrogate the PM’s statements against expert advice from relevant authorities. Coorey just point blank accepts it all from the govt without question.

  46. Coorey mostly running interference for Morrison, so far… although there was sense ‘of (the Government) losing control’.
    Middleton picking the messaging apart.
    PvO sinking the slipper.

  48. And I’m sorry to say this, as I know he’s an official not an elected member, but I can’t recall ever seeing a less authoritative CMO ever. He really does not give off a confident aura, one that conveys he knows his stuff and is willing to put the health of the nation above the political ideology of the government.

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