Essential Research coronavirus latest

Confidence in the federal government and other institutions on the rise, but state governments in New South Wales and Queensland appear to lag behind Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia.

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.

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.

1,133 comments on “Essential Research coronavirus latest”

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  7. So far, with seven states and territories reporting their cases, we stand nationally at a net 3 new cases today (adjusted for Victoria dropping two cases that were being doubled-counted).

    How many will my home state report? Could Australia achieve a single digit daily increase for the first time since early March?

    We’ll know around 9pm.

  8. “lizziesays:
    Wednesday, April 22, 2020 at 4:18 pm
    Explanation: Antony is being a bit slow and wordy and PK gets impatient.”

    That always shits me with journo’s, particularly the “serious” ones. One minute they’re “we don’t like soundbites, why do politicians use slogans”

    As soon as a pollie takes their time and gives a nuanced answer, they jump all over them and demand a sound bite.

  10. a r says: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 at 4:22 pm

    BK @ #345 Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020 – 4:07 pm

    Angry
    White
    Males
    For Trump

    **************************************************

    Some of those obese looking guys are said to be logical candidates for C-19

  13. CC: “New Zealand is close to one person in 50 having been tested.”

    And we’re currently at around 450,000 tests for a population of around 25 million, so not too far behind them. NSW is approaching 1 in 40 people tested.

  14. meher baba @ #905 Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020 – 4:24 pm

    So far, with seven states and territories reporting their cases, we stand nationally at a net 3 new cases today (adjusted for Victoria dropping two cases that were being doubled-counted).

    How many will my home state report? Could Australia achieve a single digit daily increase for the first time since early March?

    We’ll know around 9pm.

    It’s a fantastic response by the majority of Australians.

    Being subjected to home detention and suffering the loss of many livelihoods has been really challenging and the measured response by the vast majority has been very heartening.

  15. From the Guardian

    “In case you were ticking these events off on your apocalyptic bingo card, there is a locust plague in western New South Wales.

    It’s only a low-density plague at the moment but Robynne Wells-Budde, a senior biosecurity officer at the NSW Department of Primary Industries, told the ABC: “Even a low-density swarm has the potential to grow into something much bigger”.

    So that’s drought, fire, flood, a pandemic, and a plague of locusts, all in the past 12 months.”

    I wonder if that fed into Morrison pondering the ‘end of days’

  18. “More interested in the two wearing protective masks. What’s their thought process, exactly?”

    It is inexplicable isn’t it? I guess they’d say they have no problem with people doing anything, as long as the government isn’t forcing them to.

  21. Here’s one bit of fallout that’s going to be coming. With a large increase in unemployment, states are going to have to deal with an influx of students into the state system. It happened a bit with the GFC, but this is going to be much worse.

    I can see a cash handout going to some private schools.

  22. Player One: “Regarding a possible post-Easter “second wave”, these charts seem to show a small – but discernible – secondary peak around April 17 (NSW), April 18(Vic, Qld) & April 19 (Tas). The other states as well, but the total numbers are too small to be of any real significance.”

    When you look at the stats, I agree that the “trend” is too small to be of any significance. The numbers of tests in most of these states fell a bit over Easter, and then picked up again afterwards. If you do a week by week average, the upward trend was negligible, except in Tassie: and the surge there was coming from a hospital and not, as far as we know, from Easter social gatherings.

    The more striking trend is the significant drop pretty much everywhere in the last 3 days. If that continues, then the weekend of 18-19 April is going to look like having been a bit of a pivot point.

  23. Albanese told Karvelas that he supported the WHO having universal powers to inspect records.

    Prime Minister Scott Morrison is seeking to build an international coalition to give the World Health Organisation (WHO) — or another body — powers equivalent to those of a weapons inspector to avoid another catastrophic pandemic.

    Key points:
    The leaders of the US, Germany and France are understood to be open to the idea
    Mr Morrison is pushing for a body with inspection powers to monitor disease outbreaks
    The Australian Government is unsure if the WHO is the best option, as each of the 194 member states have veto power over reforms
    Mr Morrison has pitched the proposal to several world leaders in recent days, including United States President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.

    Australia is keen to ensure the lessons from the COVID-19 outbreak are not forgotten, especially the WHO’s tardy declaration of the coronavirus pandemic.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-22/morrison-to-push-for-anti-pandemic-inspection-powers/12173806

  25. “Rex Douglas says:
    Wednesday, April 22, 2020 at 4:23 pm
    Why are those people carrying assault rifles ..?”

    To shoot the virus?

  27. “The ABC’s political editor Andrew Probyn (yes, the one that doesn’t run the press conference) is reporting that Prime Minister Scott Morrison is seeking to build an international coalition to give the World Health Organisation (WHO) — or another body — powers equivalent to those of a weapons inspector to avoid another catastrophic pandemic.”

    I’m actually a bit astounded. Rather than following the Trump line, it sounds like our proposal for reforming the WHO is to strengthen it.

    This, to me, is a pretty positive sign that we just might not go down the Trump crazy path.

  28. Christopher Pyne

    I’m sure there are elements of fact that are disputed. Who cares? Dispute them. Write columns. Speak on the record in disagreement. But expelling a Liberal Party member for having a different opinion is surely a nadir, even for the more extreme elements of politics.

    It wasn’t that long ago that the Turnbull Government initiated a review and an attempt to alter Section 18 of the Racial Discrimination Act because sections of the community and Liberal Party regarded it as too restrictive of their right to offend other people. How ironic that there are now members of the Liberal Party who want to expel Malcolm Turnbull because his views offend them!

    https://10daily.com.au/views/a200420pfnam/christopher-pyne-calls-to-expel-malcolm-turnbull-from-the-liberal-party-are-beyond-farce-20200420

  29. Even in the land of the loons the one with the backwards cap might be at risk of being brought in for brandishing. Open-carry doesn’t necessarily mean you can stand around in public caressing the trigger like that.

  30. Protection against the virus. If that doesn’t work then protection against the people who would protect them against the virus.

  33. I don’t understand this. I thought the drug had already been proved ineffective by American research.

    “While the World Health Organization considers both drugs used in this trial to be promising treatments for Covid-19, more research is needed to ensure they are safe and effective in humans,” said associate professor Steven Tong, the co-lead of the Doherty research.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/22/fears-australian-military-personnel-will-be-harmed-by-coronavirus-drug-trials

  34. a r @ #927 Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020 – 4:47 pm

    Even in the land of the loons the one with the backwards cap might be at risk of being brought in for brandishing. Open-carry doesn’t necessarily mean you can stand around in public caressing the trigger like that.

    If that is accepted practice, then any Australian politician who says we have shared values with the US is not to be voted for.

  35. What happens when you don’t jump on the virus quickly ? For those that moan we ‘over reacted’ .
    ……………………………………………………………………………………..
    New York paramedics ordered not to resuscitate cardiac patients

    ….paramedics were told earlier this month not to transport cardiac patients to hospital if they couldn’t revived at the scene.

    The new rules mean that paramedics are being urged to not even try to revive patients.
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12326732

  36. Be nice if this was Fake Noos.

    Frank Davies
    @Frank__Davies
    ·
    27s
    Covid-19 mutations underestimated, Chinese scientists warn, as DEADLIEST strains grip Europe & US. Comment: Very disturbing, especially now the clinically brain dead MAGA’s/GOP extremists are demanding an end to the lockdown. Mutations 270 times stronger.

    https://www.rt.com/news/486425-covid-19-mutations-deadlier-strains/

    Chinese scientists have found that Europe and America’s East Coast have been infected by some of the most aggressive Covid-19 strains, as they discovered dozens of virus mutations. These destroy a host’s cells faster than others.
    The ability of the novel coronavirus to mutate has been previously vastly underestimated, a team from China’s Zhejiang University, led by Professor Li Lanjuan, says in a new study. The group found as many as 33 virus mutations in just 11 coronavirus patients they examined in the city of Hangzhou.

    The researchers say that 60 percent of the strains they discovered turned out to be entirely new. In a worrying development, they also discovered that the virus’s mutations directly affect its deadliness. Their research revealed that the most aggressive type of Covid-19 could create a virus load 270 times greater than the least potent one.

  37. “Why are those people carrying assault rifles ..?””

    Because their little flesh gun is only a one shot wonder with a long ammo build up time while the assault weapons are already hard and can fire off multiple shots with a bit of stroking?

  38. Smoko and Dotard leading the world to a grand new medical coalition of the willing?
    It seems covid19 is definitely infecting some people’s sense of reality, or perhaps covid19’s greatest asset is human idiocy.

    The continual industrial scale degradation of the world’s natural environment and the carbon emissions causing climate change is driving the growth and risk of pandemics and zoonotic diseases, among many other problems. Addressing these issues is the only long term way to address the matter, even if we find a treatment for covid19. Nature itself does not rest.

    Who really believes the idea that either the US or China or many other countries would welcome without question Scotty from Marketing’s global medical cops at the slightest whiff of a viral epidemic in their borders? Of which there are likely to be more and more as ecological and climate systems break down.

    A new low in so-called effort from Albo it seems. Not even looking or sounding like an opposition, Labor seem to have less to say after all this than ever. Useless. Pandering to idiotic schemes that distract from the real problems.

    Seems he can barely even raise the partisans here to register their support.

  39. @a r says: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 at 4:30 pm

    It could be they are thinking that you should be able to go out and about, and masks are enough to protect everyone.

  42. The researchers say that 60 percent of the strains they discovered turned out to be entirely new.

    If true that’s probably bad news in terms of ever developing a vaccine.

    Could possibly explain the ~1% mortality rate in AU/NZ versus the ~10% in Europe (and ultimately, I suspect, the US).

  43. “Who really believes the idea that either the US or China or many other countries would …”

    Well, if you think there’s no chance of that, you might as well forget anything happening on any environmental issues

  46. “Could possibly explain the ~1% mortality rate in AU/NZ versus the ~10% in Europe (and ultimately, I suspect, the US).”

    I suspect most of the difference can be explained by:

    1. Lack of testing meaning there are actually a lot more cases overall
    2. Higher rates of death resulting from an overtaxed health system (plus the US has all kinds of access issues – it sucks to be poor)

  48. I think there’s a couple of blokes in there with masks who might not have their hearts in it. Infiltrators?

    – Trying to avoid identification?
    – Because they don’t have beards like all their mates?

  49. Lizzie and ar

    The RT news site is run by Russian State Propaganda – RT stands for Russia Today

    RT has been described as a propaganda outlet for the Russian government[12] and its foreign policy.[13][14][15][16][17][18] RT has also been accused of spreading disinformation[18][19][20] by news reporters,[21][22] including some former RT reporters.[23][24][25] The UK media regulator, Ofcom, has repeatedly found RT to have breached its rules on impartiality and on one occasion found it had broadcast “materially misleading” content.[26][27][28][29] RT’s editor-in-chief compared it with the Russian Army and Defence Ministry and talked about it “waging the information war against the entire Western world.”[5] In September 2017, RT America was ordered to register as a “foreign agent” with the United States Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Under the act, RT is required to disclose financial information to the U.S.[30]

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)

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