The Guardian reports Essential Research’s latest weekly reading of concern about coronavirus finds satisfaction with the government’s handling of the crisis up two points to 65%, its best result yet out of the five such polls that have been published (no sign yet of the poor rating, which hit a new low of 17% – the full report later today should reveal all).
Last week’s question on state governments’ responses was repeated this week, and with due regard to sample sizes that run no higher than around 320 (and not even in triple figures in the case of South Australia), the good ratings have been 56% last week and 61% for New South Wales; 76% and 70% for Victoria; 52% and 63% for Queensland; 79% and 77% for Western Australia; and 72% and 66% for South Australia. Combining the results gives New South Wales 58.5% and Victoria 73% with error margins of about 3.7%; Queensland 57.5% from 4.6%; Western Australia 78% from 5.5%; and South Australia 69% from 6.9%.
Also included are Essential’s occasion question on trust in various institutions, which suggests that all of the above might be benefiting from a secular effect that has federal parliament up from 35% to 53% and the ABC up from 51% to 58%. The effect is more modest for the Australian Federal Police, up two points to 68%. In other coronavirus-related findings, the poll finds “half of all voters think it’s too soon to even consider easing restrictions“, with a further 14% saying they are prepared to wait until the end of May; that 38% said they would download the virus-tracing app, with 63% saying they had security concerns and 35% being confident the data would not be misused.
UPDATE: Full report here.
I think Rupert left us years ago. What we see now is just a stand in and we’ll never be rid of it.
Andrew_Earlwood @ #835 Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020 – 2:19 pm
“ People famous for referring to themselves in the third person:
George Costanza
Billy Ray Cyrus
The Hulk
Richard Nixon
Jesus
Mundo”
Caesar
Et tu Andrew
Having small children often has one referring to oneself in the third person (Daddy would like you to ..etc)
Barney in Tanjung Bunga
They were following PB’s Green v Labor fight and developed terminal ennui ? 🙂
meher baba @ #846 Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020 – 2:38 pm
Oh, I didn’t see the start of the thread. I’m reading Riders in the Chariot now!
citizen says: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 at 2:36 pm
There was mention of that shyster Hinze sometime earlier.
**************************************************************************
Often reported story – One story that gained circulation was of his being pulled over by a traffic cop on the outskirts of Brisbane. The policeman informed him that he had been exceeding the speed limit and was about to be booked.
Russ. It was alleged, looked at the traffic policeman quizzically, leaned over, opened the glove box and withdrew a road map of Queensland. Then he slowly extricated himself from the car, opened the map and spread it across the bonnet.
“Now,” he was reported to have said, pointing at the map, “which particular outback country town would you like to be posted to?”
No charge …..
It was discovered that the story was true when Russ was asked on a television current affairs program whether he had been guilty of such outrageous behaviour. He looked amazed that anyone would see anything wrong with what he had done.
“Well,” he replied, “you’d think he’d have enough bloody brains to know his own Minister, wouldn’ya?”
When Rupert finally shuffles off the mortal coil, rolls up the curtain and joins the Choir Invisible, the reaction will could well be similar to that to the passing of Maggie Thatcher.
Of course the hagiographies and paeans of praise from the Right will be positively nauseating.
So if Easter was as bad as some feared, should we be seeing an uptick in hospital admissions now?
Probably still a bit early. I guess we should be seeing the start of an increase in people with symptoms.
When I was in year 8, my mate and I interviewed Rusty Hinze as part of an English project ( mates dad was high up in the National Party ).
Can’t remember any of our interview except that he brought out cakes, biscuits and soft drinks at the start to soften us up from our potential hard hitting questions…
Lizzie,
I figure that Talc’s publisher will just go the single source who stole the book. Going after the recipients maybe just to shame them a little but im not sure if someone emails you something illegal and you don’t initiate requests for that content you’d be in the clear.
It;s going to be hard for the publisher because i expect if they request the staffers email logs then PMO will probably redact it all. And that’s the same for all the other government recipients.
Now here are a bunch of optimists, shameless ones.
.
Ruby Princess flogs cheap cruise deals departing in July;.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/coronavirus-updates-live-donald-trump-suspends-immigration-to-us-australian-death-toll-stands-at-72-as-covid-19-cases-near-2-5-million-worldwide-20200421-p54lvm.html
Was that the correct link?
Blobbit @ #857 Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020 – 3:00 pm
I’ve been wondering that myself. But in our area, the people who were not isolating over Easter have tended to be young (mostly rough campers). I am hoping this may mean fewer of them had it to spread than in the general populace. It may also affect how infectious they are, and how long it takes to incubate – and, of course, many young people won’t show any symptoms at all even if they had it. This means that we might have to wait until the people they infect – once they go home – start showing up in the stats 🙁
CC
It is the link for the headline .
go to
…………………………………………………
1.02pm
Ruby Princess will be back at sea by early July, cruise operator says
Does anyone know what happened to the much publicised vendetta a while ago against people who were downloading ‘pirated’ videos?
I seem to remember that this action was driven chiefly by the LNP government and Murdoch – the same characters who have been caught dealing in pirated downloads of Turnbull’s book.
Lizzie
“I do feel a bit sorry for Angus Taylor…”
Unless the remainder of the sentence is about capital punishment for conflicts if interest we will have to disagree. Like BK said, this is a cynical move. The fuel reserves requirement is an IEA requirement that signatories should have several months supply stored in their country. Storing in the USA does not meet that requirement. It would take a week to ship it here. And as with PPE for medicos when supply is scarce, what confidence do we have that we will receive it?
Cud Chewer @ #778 Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020 – 12:52 pm
Shall do, Cud. I WAS thinking about the antibody test anyway, this far down the track.
citizen @ #864 Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020 – 3:16 pm
Yep. That’s correct. There’s even quotes by Scott Morrison getting all stern about it. 🙂
Barney in Tanjung Bunga @ #301 Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020 – 2:40 pm
Things that may result in sudden death and which aren’t typically associated with a serious C19 infection but are speculated by some to maybe arise as side-effects of a C19 infection?
lizzie @ #857 Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020 – 3:03 pm
Even Patricia Karvelas? Though I guess you would have to.
More WA news. Interesting numbers on PPE
“Health Minister Roger Cook said private and public hospitals would return to elective surgeries at 25 per cent capacity for three weeks at which point the situation will be reviewed.
…
Mr Cook said about 3000 procedures had been deferred during the five-week elective surgery restriction period and the rate at which they were performed would partially be determined by the supply of PPE.
…
“Safety glasses had increased from just over 3000 to now more than 19,000; surgical masks have increased from just over 300,000 to now more than 1.5 million, including over five weeks supply of n95 masks; swabs have increased around 45,000 to more than 112,000,” Mr Cook said.”
poroti says:
Wednesday, April 22, 2020 at 3:07 pm
Now here are a bunch of optimists, shameless ones.
.
Ruby Princess flogs cheap cruise deals departing in July;.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/coronavirus-updates-live-donald-trump-suspends-immigration-to-us-australian-death-toll-stands-at-72-as-covid-19-cases-near-2-5-million-worldwide-20200421-p54lvm.html
This is a perfect opportunity for Trump’s followers to thumb their nose at all those restrictions and prove that covid-19 is just a hoax invented by the Democrats.
Perhaps someone in the legal fraternity might comment on this and how it might relate to the theft of Malcolm’s tome.
http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/ca190082/s188.html
Hillsong has finally bowed to the inevitable and postponed its Sydney conference in July to 2021.
Morrison will disappointed that he’ll miss out on the spectacle.
https://hillsong.com/conference/sydney/
Blobbit: “So if Easter was as bad as some feared, should we be seeing an uptick in hospital admissions now? Probably still a bit early. I guess we should be seeing the start of an increase in people with symptoms.”
According to what I’ve read, the majority of cases have symptoms coming on 5 days or fewer after initial infection. In which case, the uptick should have happened by now.
There are two preconditions for an upsurge of cases taking place due to so-called “bad behaviour”:
1) that this behaviour truly does generate a higher risk of transmission (and I’m not convinced that this is actually the case with some of the photos I’ve seen of supposed “crowding” on beaches and in other public places); and
2) there would need to be a significant number of infected but unidentified people in the community at risk of transferring the virus to each other (and, if you look at the data for “Source Unknown-Local Contact”, it is clear that there were never very many of these outside NSW and Vic and, even in those two states, not many new such cases have been recorded in the past couple of weeks, and the sources of transmission for some of the older ones keep being identified).
So I don’t expect to see an upsurge of cases due to people congregating at beaches or in parks. Nor do I expect to see lots of people catching the virus from touching handrails or supermarket trolleys: it’s not clear that this form of transmission has even happened yet in Australia.
I think the main risk of upsurges comes from one or two individuals spreading the virus in a workplace (including hospitals) or at an “illegal” social function which is either indoors or in a closely-packed space like a backyard.
Reading the available information about the spread of the virus globally, significant outdoor spread seems to be thought to have occurred predominantly at large public gatherings where people are closely packed together and yelling or singing (eg, the Valencia-Atalanta football game and perhaps the Cheltenham Races). Otherwise, the greatest spread seems to be occurring indoors among families, friends, workmates and fellow worshippers in religious gatherings.
citizen
Brian Houston all fired up in the last 24 hours saying Morrison isn’t a member of Hillsong and people should stfu. That may be true, but it’s not as if there’s absolutely no connection.
I have just purchased the complete Aubrey – Maturin series by Parick O’Brian. All twenty novels. Really looking forward to getting stuck into them, but will try to go oh so slowly.
lizzie @ #875 Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020 – 3:38 pm
Nope. None. 😐
“meher babasays:
Wednesday, April 22, 2020 at 3:37 pm
So I don’t expect to see an upsurge of cases due to people congregating at beaches or in parks. Nor do I expect to see lots of people catching the virus from touching handrails or supermarket trolleys: it’s not clear that this form of transmission has even happened yet in Australia.”
Me too. I pretty much agree with all your points. The only thing I wasn’t sure about was the 5 day period. I’m not sure there’s any evidence that those methods are significant (putting aside arguments from common sense, which of course isn’t evidence).
“Reading the available information about the spread of the virus globally, significant outdoor spread seems to be thought to have occurred predominantly at large public gatherings where people are closely packed together and yelling or singing (eg, the Valencia-Atalanta football game and perhaps the Cheltenham Races). Otherwise, the greatest spread seems to be occurring indoors among families, friends, workmates and fellow worshippers in religious gatherings.”
Again, as a complete non-expert, that supports what I’ve read as well. I still think one of the biggest bits of luck we had was that football season hadn’t started. Maybe that’s why flu is a bigger issue in winter – football crowds.
Have to agree with this. What can Australia gain?
lizzie says: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 at 3:38 pm
citizen
Brian Houston all fired up in the last 24 hours saying Morrison isn’t a member of Hillsong and people should stfu. That may be true, but it’s not as if there’s absolutely no connection.
***************************************************************
Scott Morrison’s Hillsong sermon was a deeply political moment
The Prime Minister insists he has no ‘political agenda’ when he speaks about his faith.
https://www.crikey.com.au/2019/07/15/scott-morrison-hillsong/
Blobbit: “I still think one of the biggest bits of luck we had was that football season hadn’t started. ”
Certainly with AFL. With NRL, it wouldn’t have mattered so much: for the most part, they struggle to get significant crowds. To be harsh but accurate, it’s actually a better game to watch on high definition TV than at the ground: you have a much better idea what’s going on.
citizen @ #873 Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020 – 3:35 pm
There’ll be plenty of spectacle at Comrade Morrison’s coronation where he’ll be named the bestest eva wartime Prime minister and general knockabout bloke who singlehandly delivered Straya from the clutches of da plague. Oh, and how did that journalist put it last week….., that’s right, I remember, ‘father of the nation’
phoenixRED @ #881 Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020 – 3:51 pm
The baby behind Scrootah is doing a nazi salute.
phoenixRED: “The Prime Minister insists he has no ‘political agenda’ when he speaks about his faith.”
And, on the whole, I think he’s quite genuine about this. (Although many would see his attempt to invite Houston to the White House as a bit of a slip.)
The guy’s perfectly entitled to have religious views. Thanks to high migration levels in recent years, a growing number of voters are believers in one faith or another.
The shocking story of the pastor Scott Morrison considers a major influence
Brian Houston is one of the world’s most powerful pastors.
With his wife Bobbie, he founded the Hillsong empire, which pulls 100,000 people around the world into mega-churches each weekend to sing, dance and speak in tongues.
Last year in Australia alone, the church raked in $80 million of tax-free revenue.
Mr Houston rubs shoulders with the rich and famous – from John Howard to Justin Bieber, he has friends in high places.
In his maiden speech to Parliament in 2008, Mr Morrison thanked Mr Houston for his “great assistance”, describing him as a mentor.
In July, he stood with his wife Jenny beside the pastor as they led a 1000-strong congregation in prayer – calling for more love and less judgment.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2019/09/23/hillsong-brian-houston-scott-morrison/
If Morrison is the “Father of the Nation” then it’s about time he started paying his Child Support.
ItzaDream @ #853 Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020 – 2:51 pm
Mundo often dips into Marr’s White letters. facinating stuff.
It seems Turnbull’s {edit} publisher has reached a settlement with Louw but no details are given. If dollars are involved, they had better not be taxpayers’ dollars whether directly or indirectly.
Albanese on Karvelas criticising Taylor’s arrangements. “Not in our national interest.”
Was listening to AM regarding Western Australia now moving to targeted testing of people without symptoms, including teachers, students and health care workers.
I was raving on about this weeks ago…
It would be nice to see this in NSW as well. One thing I think would make good sense, beyond blanket testing of teachers and students, is testing of people who travel more than 50km. Blanket testing of anyone who drives into/out of Sydney would be good.
Cud Chewer @ #894 Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020 – 4:09 pm
Barricades would be even better! 🙂
Albo on Karvelas.
I can’t help but feel sorry for the bloke. Looks pretty flat. Who can blame him though looking at his backup.
lizzie @ #791 Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020 – 1:07 pm
I’ve just finished – “Pale Rider The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World” by Laura Spinney.
Very good book.
She says the ancients believe it was the result of the Influence of distant Stars upon people – hence the name ‘Influenza’.
Who knows ?
Albanese and Karvelas not really in tune today.
SA premier Steven Marshall says there have been 10,000 tests for coronavirus in the state in the past two weeks. People who test negative are now being informed via text message. But still, no restrictions being eased, Marshall says.
“There will be no lifting of restrictions today in South Australia. We will still be sticking to the time frame put in place by the prime minister. There is another national cabinet meeting, which will meet on Friday, but I don’t envisage there will be any further changes to the restrictions in South Australia.”
1 new case in SA today.
Explanation: Antony is being a bit slow and wordy and PK gets impatient.