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”

Comments Page 5 of 23
1 … 4 5 6 … 23

  2. @Late Riser

    Agreed, I could be proven wrong and right now I see a second wave COVID-19 being not very likely for Australia. However in America it is likely IMO this will occur, with the inland states being the epicentre.

  3. Rick
    @colonelhogans
    ·
    1m
    Think a $34,000 a month rugby union player receiving $750 a week from the taxpayer is ridiculous? Highly paid BARRISTERS are claiming $750 a week too!! No wonder it’s costing $130B!!! Why oh why isn’t there a cut off point? This is bloody insane!
    @JoshFrydenberg @ScottMorrisonMP

  4. There will be no second wave in America. The wave they have got now will just keep breaking over new areas until such time as the federal government of Donald Trump takes COVID-19 seriously enough to call off the dogs of war which he has let loose against his political opponents and the state governments they lead.

  5. @C@tmomma

    Some of my American online friends believe that this will occur, because so far the inland states have not been particularly hard hit. So far it has been the states on both of the coasts that have been hit hardest. It is noteworthy many of these inland states have Republican governors who often are lackeys of Donald Trump who has managed to entrance a lot of Republican state.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/health-news/when-will-a-second-wave-of-the-coronavirus-hit-and-what-will-it-look-like/ar-BB12Swym?li=BBnb7Kz&fbclid=IwAR2FMpLZGxlT_ztjF_W1fTMLkASQYnxnPIPepm7AWROe9wyTj2K4JsJ1TyA

  6. He can’t call them off. They’re not loyal, or disciplined; they do what he says because he tells them to do what they already want to do. As soon as those things stop coinciding they stop listening.

  7. Tristo,
    Check out South Dakota’s per capita numbers. Simply horrendous because their Republican Governor is a libertarian and religious nutjob. That is a state in the middle of America that is already experiencing the Coronavirus wave breaking over it big time.

  9. a r @ #206 Tuesday, April 21st, 2020 – 1:25 pm

    He can’t call them off. They’re not loyal, or disciplined; they do what he says because he tells them to do what they already want to do. As soon as those things stop coinciding they stop listening.

    I was going to put something in about the loyal dogs and their handlers but I thought that a bit demeaning. However, that’s the way it is, if Fox and the facebook group leaders decide to change their tune, then the mindless morons on the front lines, baying at the moon, will too. The original order to stand down will come from Trump though.

  10. Cud Chewer @ #208 Tuesday, April 21st, 2020 – 1:29 pm

    C@t

    There may be second waves in the big US cities that shut down and quite likely will restart too soon.

    Yes, absolutely predictable isn’t it? A world full of loudmouth libertines unable and unwilling to stay at home and just do their knitting. So they try the old force majeure move against their duly elected leaders.

  12. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/20/oil-prices-sink-to-20-year-low-as-un-sounds-alarm-on-to-covid-19-relief-fund

    You know, with all the talk in recent months about Australia’s low level of onshore oil reserves / storage maybe now is a good time to buy a few super tankers worth, park them in Botany or Pt Phillip Bay, and as an infrastructure project, employ a few people to build onshore storage to fill up?? Get us up to the 90-100 days reserves we should be at??

  14. imacca @ #212 Tuesday, April 21st, 2020 – 1:35 pm

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/20/oil-prices-sink-to-20-year-low-as-un-sounds-alarm-on-to-covid-19-relief-fund

    You know, with all the talk in recent months about Australia’s low level of onshore oil reserves / storage maybe now is a good time to buy a few super tankers worth, park them in Botany or Pt Phillip Bay, and as an infrastructure project, employ a few people to build onshore storage to fill up?? Get us up to the 90-100 days reserves we should be at??

    How about gutting the Ruby Princess and using that? 🙂

  15. Elective surgery – I think it’s a good idea, but I’m not in the area.

    I guess PPE is the issue, now that we haven’t seen the need for private hospitals to treat Covid cases.

  17. Think a $34,000 a month rugby union player receiving $750 a week from the taxpayer is ridiculous? Highly paid BARRISTERS are claiming $750 a week too!! No wonder it’s costing $130B!!! Why oh why isn’t there a cut off point? This is bloody insane!
    @JoshFrydenberg @ScottMorrisonMP

    If we can have an asset test which reduces pensioner payments and we have many unemployed needing to use funds/savings etc before they can access Newstart, why can’t we have an asset test for JobKeeper?

    cheers

  18. Nationalising virgin will not save all the jobs. What they need is for a way through the current travel restrictions. The government can only do so much.

  20. “why can’t we have an asset test for JobKeeper”

    Because the idea is to keep people in jobs; it’s not an unemployment benefit.

    Though I think there’s a worthwhile discussion to have about stopping the asset test for unemployment benefits for the moment.

  21. Because the idea is to keep people in jobs; it’s not an unemployment benefit.

    Good point for employees but what about for sole traders? The Jobkeeper is not to keep them in a job, but to sustain them while there is no work, much like unemployment benefit

    Cheers

  22. First, many happy returns to our Minister of Information, BK. He’ll always be just a whippersnapper whilst I continue subscribing to Pollbludger.

    Having listened to the first 6 chapters of Malcom Turnbull’s memoir (at the point in which he, Neville Wran and Nick Whitlam have partnered in their investment bank), I feel it my duty to apprise about the ubiquity of a phrase which had been reiterated by Bludgers over the years: “Lucien Eye”. 🙂

  24. “The Jobkeeper is not to keep them in a job, but to sustain them while there is no work, much like unemployment benefit”

    True. The only thing I can offer there is that these not being normal times, it’s a lot harder for them to go out and find alternative work. You could try to justify it as trying to allow them to stay in the industry that they serve.

  25. Even if Covid 19 had not come along, Virgin would probably have reached this point some time in 2020.
    It was already losing a lot of money over several years. It’s share register was also looking decidely sick with the exception of Singapore Airlines. HNA has too much debt and is/ was about to implode and its airline assets have been taken over by state owned carriers in China, Nanshan had sold off its one airline asset in China, and Etihad was also losing a lot of money and had shown a real talent in picking airlines duds to invest in (Alitalia and Air Berlin).
    They were looking for an excuse to close Tiger – it was never coming back post Covid 19 anyway as they had made their pilots redundant.
    Besides Tiger, they would probably start by dumping their NSW and Victorian regional routes – does there really need to be 3 way competition to Albury and Mildura.
    A tight network based on the capital cities, Gold Coast, Cairns and Townsville would be a good place for them to start again.

  26. The thing to scrap from JobKeeper is the requirement that a business prove a 30% drop in turnover before any of its employees can get the benefit.

  27. Juliane Samara
    @jsam_1967
    In the queue @Centrelink waiting to be let in. Man ahead has service dog. Staff would not let him in, then totally breached his privacy and confidentiality by making him answer questions from a distance.
    ***
    I now know his CRN, full name and DOB, and why he was here.
    ***
    Not enough that the website keeps crashing. Not enough that there is more than a two hour wait on phone lines. Not enough that queues go for a km around the block.
    ***
    @Centrelink just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?
    Just add in the poor man’s humiliation and frustration as the icing on the cake.

  28. C@tmomma @ #207 Tuesday, April 21st, 2020 – 1:28 pm

    Tristo,
    Check out South Dakota’s per capita numbers. Simply horrendous because their Republican Governor is a libertarian and religious nutjob. That is a state in the middle of America that is already experiencing the Coronavirus wave breaking over it big time.

    ??? Showing 8 deaths per M. One of the lowest rates in the US. And testing rate seems to be middling. US average is 128 deaths per M. I know the governor is an idiot but doesn’t seem to affect the data. Am I missing something?

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

  29. I wonder which of his PR guys thought up this response?

    @michaelkoziol
    ·
    3m
    Asked about Turnbull’s memoir, called A Bigger Picture, Morrison says he’s “focused on the actual bigger picture” (the coronavirus) #auspol

  30. Ingrid M
    @iMusing
    ·
    8m
    heh and it’s a wrap. Coorey usually bores me to tears but that Q about re-opening the economy and therefore lowering the hit to the budget sent Morrison packing

  31. lizzie
    says:
    Tuesday, April 21, 2020 at 1:58 pm
    No doubt I’m being unfeeling, or something, but aren’t there any other operations more important than IVF?

    Lizzie, there are plenty of more important uses for medical resources, but very few as lucrative for the provider. Desperate people encouraged to spend multiple 1000’s for low success rates, where the solution to failure is more 1000’s to try again

    Removing the subsidies via medicare should be considered also (clearly there is no medical necessity)

  33. ar: “The thing to scrap from JobKeeper is the requirement that a business prove a 30% drop in turnover before any of its employees can get the benefit.”

    It seems that the prevailing view on PB today is that taxpayers should be very generous to businesses. If a company hasn’t experienced a significant drop in turnover, then it really shouldn’t need to lay too many staff off, should it?

  35. May i say as a mainly lurker, I do enjoy the BK roundup as my morning pick-me up/get me into the day/caffeine substitute.

    Have a happy birthday BK and as we greeks traditionally say, may you live to 100 (although this age limit probably needs to be updated and increased with improvements in medicine and life expectancy)

    Cheers

  37. lizzie @ #227 Tuesday, April 21st, 2020 – 2:04 pm

    Juliane Samara
    @jsam_1967
    In the queue @Centrelink waiting to be let in. Man ahead has service dog. Staff would not let him in, then totally breached his privacy and confidentiality by making him answer questions from a distance.
    ***
    I now know his CRN, full name and DOB, and why he was here.
    ***
    Not enough that the website keeps crashing. Not enough that there is more than a two hour wait on phone lines. Not enough that queues go for a km around the block.
    ***
    @Centrelink just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?
    Just add in the poor man’s humiliation and frustration as the icing on the cake.

    If the dog was a guide or hearing dog they are acting illegally and should be reported for that alone

  39. Talking of South Dakota: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/14/politics/south-dakota-governor-kristi-noem-coronavirus/index.html

    South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is facing increased scrutiny over her refusal to issue a stay-at-home order as a coronavirus outbreak at a major pork processing plant in her state raises new concerns about the nation’s food supply.
    Noem is one of seven governors — all Republicans — who so far have not issued statewide stay-at-home orders. “South Dakota is not New York City,” she said in early April.

  43. C@tmomma @ #207 Tuesday, April 21st, 2020 – 1:28 pm

    Tristo,
    Check out South Dakota’s per capita numbers. Simply horrendous because their Republican Governor is a libertarian and religious nutjob. That is a state in the middle of America that is already experiencing the Coronavirus wave breaking over it big time.

    Speaking of middle America, I’m reading that the admission rate to ITU in the under-60s doubles with obesity (BMI>30).

    There’s a lot of fat people in middle America.

  44. There was some talk a few weeks ago of Kim’s sister being elevated in the hierarchy, so there may be something in it.

  46. Turnbull: “Politicians are NOT rational.”

    I’m watching the 7.30 interview on Iview. A lot of it is nothing we didn’t know, but the statement above is the truth for the majority of the two major parties.


  49. I want to be clear about a couple of things. The app only collects data and puts it into an encrypted national store which can only be accessed by the states and territories. The Commonwealth cannot access the data, no Commonwealth agency at the national level, not government services, not CentreLink, not Home Affairs Committee not the Department of education, nothing. The Commonwealth will have no access to that data.

    Very telling comment from the prime minister. He has accepted that people have a higher level of state government trust.

Comments Page 5 of 23
1 … 4 5 6 … 23

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *