Essential Research and Roy Morgan: more coronavirus polling

Two new polls suggest early skepticism about the threat posed by coronavirus is fast disappearing.

As reported by The Guardian, Essential Research has unusually conducted a new poll just a week after the last. This effectively replicates last week’s suite of questions on coronavirus to tie in with an online forum later today involving The Guardian’s Katharine Murphy and Essential Research’s Peter Lewis.

The results show a sharp rise in concern since last week, with 53% now saying they are very concerned, after the three previous fortnightly polls had it progressing from 25% to 27% to 39%. Only 18% now say they consider there has been an overreaction to the thread, down from 33% last week, while 43% now think the threat has been underestimated, up from 28%. These results imply little change to last week’s finding that 39% thought the response about right, though we will presumably have to await publication of the full report later today for a complete set of numbers. The poll also finds overwhelming support for the restrictive measures that have been taken. The rise in concern appears to have been matched by a decline in skepticism about media reportage, which 42% now say they trust, up from 35% last week.

Also out today is a Roy Morgan SMS poll on coronavirus, showing 43% support for the view that the federal government is handling the crisis well with 49% disagreeing — a rather weak result by international standards (it is noted that a similar poll in the United Kingdom a bit under a fortnight ago had it at 49% and 37%). This poll finds an even higher pitch of public concern than Essential, in that only 15% believed the threat to be exaggerated, with fully 81% disagreeing. Relatedly, 80% said they were willing to sacrifice some of their “human rights” to help prevent the spread of the virus (evidently having a somewhat different conception of that term from my own), with only 14% disagreeing. The poll was conducted on Saturday and Sunday from a sample of 988.

UPDATE: Full report from Essential Research here. The recorded increase in concern about the virus is not matched by a change in perceptions of the government’s handling of it, which 45% rate as good, unchanged on last week, and 31% rate as poor, up two. There is also a question on concern about climate change, which refutes the hopes of some conservative commentators in suggesting it has not been affected by the coronavirus crisis: 31% say they are more concerned than they were a year ago, 53% no more or less so, and 16% less concerned. However, the number of respondents saying Australia is not doing enough to address climate change is down from 60% in November to 55%, with doing enough up one to 23% and doing too much up one to 9%. The poll was conducted Thursday to Sunday from a sample of 1086.

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.

2,376 comments on “Essential Research and Roy Morgan: more coronavirus polling”

Comments Page 5 of 48
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  4. “Any damn fool can dish out the cash but who are the poor sods who will pick up the cost in the next 1-3 years?”

    Pay it off over the next 100 years.

    Borrow the money from the RBA, make it a 1oo year repayment term with a balloon payment at the end.

    MMT really, but dresses it up as “normal” economics.

  5. As far as the cruise liners are concerned have a talk to good Senator Molan………..Better still, send a gunboat, board and scuttle them…We will decided who come into our country! A cry from the past which the electorate seemed to like. One thing we can do is lock up people on islands. Must be something to do with our ancestors coming here from the prison hulks on the Thames…in the DNA I suppose…..

  6. Tricot @ #198 Tuesday, March 31st, 2020 – 1:08 pm

    With squillions of dollars being dolled out by governments – not just conservative ones…I would like to parrot that well-known Liberal ………………..(We know how to manage the economy better than Labor) Party refrain and ask….”Where is the money coming from?”
    We were all told Shorten was the “Bill we could not afford”…..but Ad Man Morrison seems to have found a lot of money in the petty cash jar. He is now being lauded as finding a “game changer” and local radio has it as “saving our bacon”. Any damn fool can dish out the cash but who are the poor sods who will pick up the cost in the next 1-3 years?

    Albanese and Chalmers should be constructing a policy framework for the next election around the response to the current economic situation. They have the opportunity to greatly differentiate from the inevitable austerity budgets the LibNats will introduce.

  7. Boerwar

    *A stretch of footpath or perhaps a lean-to in the vast slums.

    The ‘lock down” in India is the stuff of nightmares . With or without a ‘lockdown’ If the virus gets into the super poor god help the buggers as nothing on this earth will.

  8. SK
    International laws are not worth a pinch during the Siege of the Virus.

    Yes, well, it is exactly these occasions when these laws are of most use. A rules based society is no society at all if it ditches the most important and fundamental rules when times get tough.
    Doctors havent ditched their oath.

    Having said that, the article goes into some detail about what a coastal state will take into account when dealing with a boat claiming distress.

  9. Rex ”Think I’ll plan a cruise holiday next year – gonna be super cheap I reckon”

    Certainly dirt cheap but I wouldn’t take one if they were giving them away.

  12. Josh Butler
    @JoshButler
    ·
    41m
    new NSW coronavirus stats out:
    – 2032 cases
    – 164 being treated: 35 in ICU, 16 require ventilators

    Ruby Princess cases now at 211 – total linked to cruise ships now 324 – that’s 16% of NSW’s total cases

    Women aged 20-29 still biggest group of cases

  14. Looking for cruise ships offshore. Using “Marine Traffic” app on phone
    Quickly located off Sydney/ Port Kembla
    Spectrum of the Seas
    Ovation of the Seas
    Voyager of the Seas
    Carnival Splendor
    Celebrity Solstice
    Seabourn Sojourn – Underway Melbourne to Honolulu

  15. I wonder how much this businessman has benefitted from government benefits such as negative gearing and charging high rents to his commercial tenants? He sounds just like Scrooge McDuck.

    A self-made billionaire, who is one of Australia’s biggest private landlords, has defended asking some of his commercial tenants to keep paying rent, saying he should not be made a “scapegoat” for the coronavirus-driven economic crisis if those tenants have been successful.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-31/coronavirus-queensland-business-landlords-small-business-rents/12101808

  18. “Any damn fool can dish out the cash but who are the poor sods who will pick up the cost in the next 1-3 years?”

    – Cancel the tax cuts
    – Tax the income portion of super pensions, as we did before 2007. Generally undo the vandalism of Howard and Costello
    – Wind back negative gearing
    – Get serious about corporate tax evasion
    – close tax loopholes that no longer (or never) serve(d) any purpose
    – Stop sending free money to wealthy retirees (franking credits)
    – Reintroduce the carbon tax
    – no doubt lots of other stuff

    Don’t know about 1-3 years but this should do it in under 10.

  21. And in the WTF moment of the day, SmearStralian columnists calls for introduction of a death tax, to pay off Morrison’s profligacy..

    “Other options might include a significant inheritance tax imposed, say, for the next 20 years to help defray the gargantuan tax burden that has just been put on everyone who is not going to die in that period.”

    https://t.co/BuETPnbc4m?amp=1

    Good column from Comrade Creighton today

  23. If the Libs take up Newscorp’s initiative for an inheritance tax they will be out of government until they drop it. I think a majority of Australians have decided that this is the system they prefer.

  25. What a modest little chap is our wee Ghunt.
    —————————————–
    In 50 and 100 years’ time, I suspect people will look back on this National Cabinet as being one of the most amazing achievements of the federation in Australia’s first 200 years. That’s my honest view
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/mar/31/coronavirus-australia-update-live-nsw-queensland-victoria-subsidise-wages-jobkeeper-scott-morrison-covid19-fines-latest-news

  26. There’s a whole Japanese line of “Corona” bulk carriers.
    Two are moored off the Central Coast – “Corona Queen” and “Corona Princess”
    Anyone superstitious?

  27. C@tmomma:

    She has also been stood down from her job at the local store because she is battling breast cancer and her boss thought that she might be extra susceptible to contracting COVID-19 and possibly spreading it to others. As she has been a ‘Casual’ there for about 20 years, she has no Sick Pay or any other type of money owing to her, but still has all the normal bills to pay and a mortgage etc.

    Can she put in an unlawful termination claim with the Fair Work Commission? She should take notes about everything her boss said while it’s still fresh in her mind, it may come in useful…

  29. caf @ #256 Tuesday, March 31st, 2020 – 1:45 pm

    C@tmomma:

    She has also been stood down from her job at the local store because she is battling breast cancer and her boss thought that she might be extra susceptible to contracting COVID-19 and possibly spreading it to others. As she has been a ‘Casual’ there for about 20 years, she has no Sick Pay or any other type of money owing to her, but still has all the normal bills to pay and a mortgage etc.

    Can she put in an unlawful termination claim with the Fair Work Commission? She should take notes about everything her boss said while it’s still fresh in her mind, it may come in useful…

    Won’t happen because she lives in hope of getting the job back PC (Post Coronavirus). As she has said to me, there’s not much available around here for a 55 year old woman and it’s better than nothing.

  30. Rex and P1 taking the boringly predictable “If he wasn’t guilty he wouldn’t be defending himself” line.

    Apparently their targets have to be noble, stay above the fray and just put up with their crackpot allegations and snarkery. If the target protests, then Shakespeare is trotted out, every single time.

    P1 should go back to her bushland B&B and whinge about losing money from the vacationers she fleeces every summer. She’s never said anything she didn’t hear someone else say first. She’s a human cliche, without imagination or style, who makes up for her intellectual deficiencies by uttering lofty nonesuch she doesn’t understand, and instructing others as to fatal flaws in their characters.

    A phoney in the company of phonies who, along with Rex, has never offered this blog any insight or entertainment, wit or wisdom, other than a not very fascinating window into the mind of the chronically bland: living, breathing exemplars of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, both of them.

  33. phylactella @ #213 Tuesday, March 31st, 2020 – 12:32 pm

    Looking for cruise ships offshore. Using “Marine Traffic” app on phone
    Quickly located off Sydney/ Port Kembla
    Spectrum of the Seas
    Ovation of the Seas
    Voyager of the Seas
    Carnival Splendor
    Celebrity Solstice
    Seabourn Sojourn – Underway Melbourne to Honolulu

    Thanks. Searching for “Marine Traffic” I found this. Not an app, but maybe OK for bigger screens.

    https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:151.1/centery:-33.6/zoom:9

    Ovation of the Seas: drifting…

  35. Bushfire Bill @ #229 Tuesday, March 31st, 2020 – 1:50 pm

    Rex and P1 taking the boringly predictable “If he wasn’t guilty he wouldn’t be defending himself” line.

    Apparently their targets have to be noble, stay above the fray and just put up with their crackpot allegations and snarkery. If the target protests, then Shakespeare is trotted out, every single time.

    P1 should go back to her bushland B&B and whinge about losing money from the vacationers she fleeces every summer. She’s never said anything she didn’t hear someone else say first. She’s a human cliche, without imagination or style, who makes up for her intellectual deficiencies by uttering lofty nonesuch she doesn’t understand, and instructing others as to fatal flaws in their characters.

    A phoney in the company of phonies who, along with Rex, has never offered this blog any insight or entertainment, wit or wisdom, other than a not very fascinating window into the mind of the chronically bland: living, breathing exemplars of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, both of them.

    Lashing out now ..?

    Deary me…

  36. Mos def they are going to invent a whole new category of trolling after these 2 and their supercilious ways:

    Rex and P1 taking the boringly predictable “If he wasn’t guilty he wouldn’t be defending himself” line.

  38. As of 12pm today – 192,558 businesses have applied for the government’s JobKeeper payment #7NEWS #auspol— Jennifer Bechwati (@jenbechwati) March 31, 2020

    I’ve just added one to that number, for a small not-for-profit. I’m really not expecting much.

    The tweet is incorrect. You register to be put on the ATO’s list to receive information down the track. Applications come later.

    For anyone interested, this is the page on the ATO website:

    https://www.ato.gov.au/Job-keeper-payment/

  39. Shellbell:

    Dealing with these cruise ships off the coast is one of those exquisite dilemmas.

    Sending them away is a likely death sentence for some. Are we duty bound to bring thousands of non-Australians onshore with the concomitant risks?

    Yes

  40. The Spud has gone underground for safety reasons to continue mutating into something else. What that something else is, we will just have to wait and see.

    Player One says: Tuesday, March 31, 2020 at 1:12 pm
    “As does his companion in crime! ”

    Care to elaborate on your humorous line that means little to anyone else but you and Rex? I’m sure it will amuse and delight us all no end.

  41. The term “vessel not under command” means a vessel which through some exceptional circumstance is unable to manoeuvre as required by these Rules and is therefore unable to keep out of the way of another vessel.

  43. Todays Rexology…

    Really feel sorry for Adam Goodes for the vicious pile on he copped for pointing out racism.

    ‘Playing for frees’ – yeah right… :rolls eyes:

    Such a deserved Australian of the year.

  44. E. G. Theodore @ #238 Tuesday, March 31st, 2020 – 12:59 pm

    Shellbell:

    Dealing with these cruise ships off the coast is one of those exquisite dilemmas.

    Sending them away is a likely death sentence for some. Are we duty bound to bring thousands of non-Australians onshore with the concomitant risks?

    Yes

    How would we like Australians trapped on other cruise ships to be treated?

  45. Ovation of the Seas: drifting…

    So, if we put asylum seekers now on Nauru and in PNG, on it, they’ll be allowed to come ashore at last! 😀

  46. Bushfire Bill @ #229 Tuesday, March 31st, 2020 – 1:50 pm

    P1 should go back to her bushland B&B and whinge about losing money from the vacationers she fleeces every summer. She’s never said anything she didn’t hear someone else say first. She’s a human cliche, without imagination or style, who makes up for her intellectual deficiencies by uttering lofty nonesuch she doesn’t understand, and instructing others as to fatal flaws in their characters.

    And you are an offensive twit, who (whether it was right or wrong to do so) doesn’t like the fact that someone dared to call you out.

    You will never let it rest.

  47. Shellbell:

    As a time when Government is spending a lot of money, it is within its rights to pass laws affording itself immunity from these anticipated actions which have a history of meaning very modest sums to individuals and whopping sums to lawyers and overseas funders (who are no doubt looking for places to invest).

    My understanding is that the normal Foreign Investment rules have been varied for the duration of the crisis – “overseas funders (who are no doubt looking for places to invest)” might get nothing from their (illegal?) investment, and perhaps someone should point this out.

  49. It will be interesting to see, once all the noise and backslapping washes through, the reaction to the inbuilt inequality in the announced wage subsidy.

    It will also be interesting to see the reaction of business owners, big and small, once the detail emerges re the paperwork required and the scrutiny involved in actually accessing the wage subsidy from the ATO.

    It will also be interesting to see how many of the actual 100,000 plus businesses which have applied for the subsidy will rehire staff and or how long it is going to take those businesses to actually start paying those staff members.

    It must be remembered that the subsidy is backdated to March 1. How many of those businesses which have registered and laid of staff from March 1 will backpay staff out of their own pocket and wait for the ATO to reimburse them some time in the “near future.”

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