Newspoll: 51-49 to Labor

Newspoll has both major parties up on the primary vote, Scott Morrison’s standing recovering somewhat, and generally positive results for federal and state governments on handling of coronavirus.

For all that our world may have changed over the past three weeks, Newspoll has not: The Australian reports the latest result has Labor’s lead steady at 51-49. There has, however, been primary vote movement in favour of the major parties, with both up by two points: the Coalition to 40%, Labor to 36%. The Greens are down one to 12%, One Nation unchanged on 4% and others down three to 8%.

As with Essential Research, Scott Morrison has recovered somewhat from his post-bushfire slump, with his approval rating up three to 41% and disapproval down five to 53%. He now holds a 42-38 lead over Anthony Albanese as preferred prime minister, who led 41-40 last time. Albanese’s net rating has also improved, his approval rating up one to 40% (The Australian report says down three, but I believe it has its wires crossed from the preferred prime minister movement) and disapproval down four to 40%.

In other findings, 75% support the government’s decision to abandon a budget surplus in favour of economic stimulus; 51% believe the federal government has managed preparedness for the crisis well; 66% are satisfied with federal and state government efforts to inform the public about the virus; but only 47% feel the same way about managing its economic impact.

UPDATE: The Australian’s reportage rather downplays the fact, but the poll found only 33% were satisfied with the economic response of governments (the question emphasised “both federal and state”) to the coronavirus outbreak, with 47% dissatisfied. The 75% rating in favour of stimulus did not relate specifically to the government’s policy, but to the general notion that “the Morrison government should provide a stimulus package to safeguard the economy”, with only 14% favouring the alternative option that it “should prioritise its promise to deliver a budget surplus”.

For the other questions, 76% of respondents were worried about the economic impact of the outbreak, versus only 20% for confident; 51% were worried, and 47% confident, about the preparedness of the public health system, for which 51% were satisified with the federal and state government response and 33% dissatisfied; and 63% were confident, and 35% worried, about “the amount of information available to Australians about how to protect themselves”, for which 65% were satisfied and 28% dissatisfied with the federal and state government response.

The poll was conducted Wednesday to Saturday from a sample of 1501.

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.

1,631 comments on “Newspoll: 51-49 to Labor”

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  1. What is not helping the corona virus situation
    is about isolation after people who are infected been isolated for 14days , does that mean the corona virus is out of their system and they can go back into the public ? and there is no more risk that they will infect people ?

  2. PaulTu
    The point of country bases restrictions isn’t suppose to be 100% perfect for the reasons you touched on but those same points are why those restrictions are needed.

  3. One of the reasons for offshore processing is the idea that the asylum seeker would disappear yet we are to believe we can police the self isolation period.

  4. I see the newsltd and pro coalition media hacks are using the corona virus for political propaganda claiming Morrison made a come back?

    A very slim margin being behind and now in front in the preferred PM is not a comeback , the liberal party should be concern that there was no significant bounce at all for Morrison,

    Those in the liberal party will not be sleeping well after those miserable figures for Morrison

  6. White House morale ‘bottomed out’ after aides realized Trump’s address to the nation made things worse: report

    According to a report from Politico, the White House had hoped that Donald Trump’s address to the nation last Wednesday night regarding the coronavirus pandemic would calm the rising panic in the U.S. and were dismayed when it made things worse and the stock market suffered a huge loss the next morning.

    The report from Gabby Orr and Nancy Cook notes, “In the span of 48 hours this week, from the moment markets plunged after a confusing and stiff Oval Office address to his national emergency declaration from the Rose Garden, Trump watched his own assessment of the viral outbreak transform in extraordinary fashion, forcing him into a course correction.”

    The report goes on to state that morale at the White House “bottomed out” after the speech, forcing Trump staffers to scramble to put together the president’s Rose Garden speech on Friday where he declared a national emergency — giving the markets what could prove to be a temporary boost.

    https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/white-house-morale-bottomed-out-after-aides-realized-trumps-address-to-the-nation-made-things-worse-report/

  7. For BB and others still patting themselves on their collective “backs” on their pre-emptive panic prescience. You still can’t get COVID-19 by breathing the air in Dixon St.

  8. More Republicans than Democrats will die because of right-wing coronavirus lies: conservative columnist

    Appearing on MSNBC’s “AM Joy” on Sunday morning, conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin said the daily drumbeat of misinformation coming from the White House and Fox News that has downplayed the coronavirus pandemic will likely lead to more deaths among Republicans than Democrats.

    Speaking about Fox News, Rubin offered, “Here is a particular cruelty/irony that it is their core viewers, the Republican older viewers, who are the most at risk. And when you think about it, which party immediately canceled all of their rallies? Which party immediately started having their political figures really portray and use their lies as an example? It was the Democrats.”

    So, I hate to put it this way, but there will be less Democrat deaths because there will be less mass gatherings, there will be less opportunities for people to congregate and share this horrible disease. So it is really a very short-sighted strategy,” she warned.

    https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/more-republicans-than-democrats-will-die-because-of-right-wing-coronavirus-lies-conservative-columnist/

  13. Thanks BK for the Dawn Patrol.

    Of particular interest to me is 👇👇

    Mark Pearson gives us five ways to manage our news consumption in times of crisis.
    https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-5-ways-to-manage-your-news-consumption-in-times-of-crisis-133614

    With various recommendations including “The Conversation”.

    Zo, mein freind Monsieur De BK. No more weekends away for you. Imagine getting news from “Today” or (take me now Zeus) “Sunrise”. 😎☕

  14. This seems a particularly dumb move by the US. Made back in mid January so they were on to the ‘Wuhan Flu’ being serious quite a while back.
    ———————————————————–

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified

    Staffers without security clearances, including government experts, were excluded from the interagency meetings, which included video conference calls, the sources said.

    “We had some very critical people who did not have security clearances who could not go,”
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-secrecy-exclusive/exclusive-white-house-told-federal-health-agency-to-classify-coronavirus-deliberations-sources-idUSKBN20Y2LM

  16. So, I hate to put it this way, but there will be less Democrat deaths because there will be less mass gatherings, there will be less opportunities for people to congregate and share this horrible disease. So it is really a very short-sighted strategy,” she warned.

    I have a high regard for Rubin, and can get what she’s saying, but that’s a really silly thing to say.

    The virus is not going to discriminate along party lines, regardless of which party cancels rallies. By continuing to have rallies, Republicans are not only courting the spread of infection among people who attend, but those people are then returning to going about their business after the rally and potentially spreading the infection to everyone they come into contact with, Republicans, Democrats, non voters, the politically homeless etc.

  19. Hannah Beazley was preselected unopposed last night to replace Ben Wyatt at the next election. And state executive scheduled today is cancelled due to coronavirus.

  20. Scotty from Marketing really doesn’t have facts clear in his head, which is why his communication is so unclear. He’s so used to expanding into waffle in his gaslighting speeches.

    He said “People who have symptoms, or things of that nature…”

  22. rhwombat @ #107 Monday, March 16th, 2020 – 7:33 am

    For BB and others still patting themselves on their collective “backs” on their pre-emptive panic prescience. You still can’t get COVID-19 by breathing the air in Dixon St.

    Don’t be disingenuous, rhw. You definitely could catch C-19 by walking through a droplet mist or touching an infected surface. If that happened to be in Dixon Street with its extremely high concentration of Chinese nationals, not to do with anything ‘racist’ but just because that’s where the Chinese Expats and students love to go for their meals in Sydney, and Bushfire Bill was specifically referring to the time before we really got a handle on C-19, then I don’t think, from an abundance of caution standpoint, he was being unreasonable.

  25. What on earth is going on in Italy?

    The coronavirus continued its assault on Italy, the hardest hit country outside of China, with officials on Sunday reporting the number of deaths rose to 1,809 — a 25 percent increase over the day before and the largest one-day uptick yet of any country.

    The 368 deaths Italy reported exceeds the highest single-day number China reported at the height of its outbreak. China’s highest daily toll was on Feb. 13, when the country reported 254 new deaths, according to the World Health Organization.

    The staggering caseload in Italy topped 24,700, even as the entire country has been locked down for a week, an escalation that is only likely to increase, raising urgent questions about how overloaded hospitals, particularly the hard-hit north, will cope.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/world/coronavirus-live.html#link-f8c18ef

  26. I’m an epidemiologist. When I heard about Britain’s ‘herd immunity’ coronavirus plan, I thought it was satire
    William Hanage

    Vulnerable people should not be exposed to Covid-19 right now in the service of a hypothetical future

    My colleagues here in the US, even as they are reeling from the stumbling response of the Donald Trump administration to the crisis, assumed that reports of the UK policy were satire – an example of the wry humour for which the country is famed. But they are all too real.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/15/epidemiologist-britain-herd-immunity-coronavirus-covid-19

  27. From that same epidemiologist:

    “This virus is capable of shutting down countries. You should not want to be the next after Wuhan, Iran, Italy or Spain. In those places, the healthcare systems have broken down. In Italy, the choices of whom to save and whom to allow to die are real.

    You should instead look to the example of South Korea, which, through a combination of intense surveillance and social distancing, appears to have gained some semblance of control over the virus.”

  29. lizzie @ #120 Monday, March 16th, 2020 – 5:07 am

    Scotty from Marketing really doesn’t have facts clear in his head, which is why his communication is so unclear. He’s so used to expanding into waffle in his gaslighting speeches.

    He said “People who have symptoms, or things of that nature…”

    I think he’s confusing his Sunday message with what the real message should be.

  30. They really haven’t thought this through, have they? as per SOP of the Morrison/Murphy/Hunt response to C-19:

    In a major step-up of the country’s response to the virus, all people from overseas coming into Australia will have to self-isolate for 14 days after the federal government, states and territories moved to lock down the country. Those who refuse to comply face fines or even imprisonment.

    Do they really think that prisoners are going to quietly go along with having recalcitrant travellers, who may have Coronavirus, put into our overcrowded prisons with them!?!

    I’m thinking not.

  31. Rakali

    I thought it had to be “Fake News” the go for “herd immunity” by the poms. I suppose it makes sense for the Old Etonians who run the shop. They retreat to their country estates and wait for the non-U in the cities to die or not die as the case may be. Problem solved.

  32. Morrison doesn’t like Twitter because poeple are soooo cruel 😆

    @samanthamaiden
    ·
    2m
    Twitter actually has lots of medical experts and good links to scientific articles. It’s Facebook that’s problem. I don’t think the folks fighting over toilet paper are on Twitter just quietly

    Ingrid M
    @iMusing
    · 5m
    Morrison is on ABC radio saying don’t listen to twitter. Asked if he will be speaking to social media bosses about the spread of misinformation, he babbles away in the usual fashion, but basically the answer is no.

  36. I’m wondering whether Scotty from Marketing went to church and/or the Hillsong conference over the weekend, and didn’t wear a mask? Thinking and believing that passage from the bible that Brian Houston quoted to the Hillsingsongers at their conference, would be enough to protect him?

  37. C@tmomma @ #130 Monday, March 16th, 2020 – 5:16 am

    They really haven’t thought this through, have they? as per SOP of the Morrison/Murphy/Hunt response to C-19:

    In a major step-up of the country’s response to the virus, all people from overseas coming into Australia will have to self-isolate for 14 days after the federal government, states and territories moved to lock down the country. Those who refuse to comply face fines or even imprisonment.

    Do they really think that prisoners are going to quietly go along with having recalcitrant travellers, who may have Coronavirus, put into our overcrowded prisons with them!?!

    I’m thinking not.

    Once you arrive, can you choose to turn around and leave the country rather than self isolate? I was thinking of people who were caught unaware, mid-travel last night and this morning who had only planned to come for a few days for work and can’t be away from their home for 2 weeks.

  38. Twitter like all social media can be ugly but there are people on there that are leaders in their field so if you know where to look and can ignore the nasties then its the best social media platform.

  39. ACT chief minister, Andrew Barr, was on commercial FM radio this morning. I know some people don’t like him but he clearly explained in his monotone drawl that all Australian governments, whether Labor or Liberal, were as one in tackling the coronavirus. He is in the Daniel Andrews mould when it comes to communication and competency.

    Asked about closing schools, he said that the concensus decision at the moment was no wholesale closure but individual schools might be affected.

    He said there is now a committee of all State/Territory/Federal CMOs advising governments. This is better than just Morrison and Murphy making decisions. So it looks like anything Murphy decides is subject to consideration by States and Territories, which can only be a good thing.

  41. Twitter actually has lots of medical experts and good links to scientific articles. It’s Facebook that’s problem. I don’t think the folks fighting over toilet paper are on Twitter just quietly

    It all depends on who you follow. I’ve seen absolute rubbish like coronavirus is a hoax to bring down Trump actively promoted on twitter by people who have the blue verification tick against their name. Twitter is not immune to crazy people pushing batshit insane nonsense.

  42. ‘fess,
    I honestly don’t think Morrison, Murphy and Hunt have thought things through to that extent. And what about Backpackers who usually go straight to the fruit and veggie-picking areas so they can start making money? Do they have to stay in a hostel (great breeding ground), for 2 weeks before they can move on, if they can afford it, and if there is space as they will soon fill up?

  44. C@t:

    I hadn’t thought about backpackers, and I guess that goes for any traveller. Are you supposed to self-isolate in a hotel room for 2 weeks? How would that work getting food and having the cleaners through?

  45. Scott @ #101 Monday, March 16th, 2020 – 6:21 am

    What is not helping the corona virus situation
    is about isolation after people who are infected been isolated for 14days , does that mean the corona virus is out of their system and they can go back into the public ? and there is no more risk that they will infect people ?

    Well either their immune system has had time to control and eliminate the virus or they are dead.

  47. @noplaceforsheep
    ·
    36m
    Why are cabinet ministers being exempted from the 14 day self-isolation rule, who are the doctors giving them these exemptions, and on what grounds?

  48. Confessions

    I was thinking of people who were caught unaware, mid-travel last night and this morning who had only planned to come for a few days for work and can’t be away from their home for 2 weeks.

    An idiot from Qld. was tested in Australia for the virus as he had returned from a high risk place and then flew to NZ ! Of course he arrives just before he is told he tested positive. So 2 weeks in NZ for him.

  50. I suspect Australia is going to have a hard time.

    We have underfunded the public health system and wasted public resources increasing the profits of the parasitic Profit Health Funds.

    We have an incompetent Commonwealth Government who has an ideological hatred of a good competent rational Public Service, who corrupts most public services as venal pork barrelling or gifts to supporters and views everything as a Marketing problem where propaganda is the first tool.

    Apart from the impacts caused by this long time of wasted confusion and the mixed messaging (which we are still in), no one in Australia really trusts any of the Gang that is in charge.

    Enough of the population cynically thought that some of the loot would fall their way if they re-elected the Gang but they certainly doubt the Gang has the integrity or gravity to guide a nation in a real crisis.

    I mean look at them: Peter Dutton, Michaela Cash, Scott Morrison, Bridget McKenzie, Angus Taylor, Alan Tudge, Stuart Roberts, Susan Ley, Christian Porter, ….. its not a real Government, it’s a caste from Downfall.

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