Essential Research leadership ratings and coronavirus polling

As the contours of the Eden-Monaro by-election start to take shape, a new poll finds respondents highly satisfied with antipodean governments’ handling of coronavirus, and mindful of the less happy situation elsewhere in the anglosphere.

The Guardian reports Essential Research’s latest weekly round of coronavirus polling includes the pollster’s monthly leadership ratings, which have Scott Morrison’s approval at 64%, gaining a further five points after his 18-point hike a month ago. Anthony Albanese is down two to 42% — we must await the full report later today to see their disapproval ratings. Morrison holds a 50-25 lead as preferred prime minister, out from 46-27 last time (UPDATE: Full report here; both are at 27% disapproval, which is a four point drop in Morrison’s case and a two point drop in Albanese’s).

The most interesting of the latest tranche of coronavirus questions relate to other countries’ handling of the crisis, with 79% rating New Zealand’s response very good or good, whereas (if I’m reading this correctly) the United States’ response is rated very poor or poor by 71%, and the United Kingdom is similarly rated by 48%. Another question finds 57% support for maintaining Newstart either at its current level “after the current crisis passes” or aligning it with the rate for single pensioners, with only 28% in favour of returning it to its earlier level.

The poll also finds growing appetite for easing restrictions, with 37% now saying it is too soon to do so, down from 49% a fortnight ago, and 36% wanting restrictions eased over the next month or two, but still only 10% wanting them gone as soon as possible. Respondents were also presented with a series of propositions about school closures, which found 45% sayig schools should reopen, “half” saying schools should teach students remotely until the outbreak passes, and 41% saying they would keep their children at home even if schools reopened.

The latest news on the by-election front is that NSW Nationals leader John Barilaro has announced he will not run in Eden-Monaro, and Senator Jim Molan has likewise withdrawn his intention to pursue Liberal preselection, with both allowing a clear run for Andrew Constance, NSW Transport Minister and member for the seat of Bega, most of which is within Eden-Monaro. The by-election now looms as a straightforward contest between Labor and Liberal, with the Nationals sure to be only a minor presence in Barilaro’s absence, if indeed they run at all.

Constance was the subject of sympathetic media attention after nearly losing his Malua Bay house in the summer bushfires, a particularly helpful asset given the federal goverment’s handling of the fires loomed as its main liability in the campaign. He revealed in March that he would be quitting politics when the bushfire recovery was complete, albeit without making clear when that might be. The by-election that will now be required in Bega will thus be less disruptive than one in Barilaro’s seat of Monaro would have been, and the seat is also at less risk of being lost by the government. No indication so far as I can see as to who might be in the running in Bega.

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.

3,512 comments on “Essential Research leadership ratings and coronavirus polling”

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  1. a r @ #146 Tuesday, May 5th, 2020 – 10:04 am

    Then it doesn’t matter if you can’t fly your planes for a few months; you don’t need to fly them because they’re your planes rather than the bank’s planes.

    And when “your” planes become redundant and beyond repair, with a resale value of zero, where do you get the capital to invest in new planes? What are you going to do with the old planes? Send them out to landfill?
    Sorry, but leasing them is a far better option.

  2. Put your own capital to work, not someone else’s. Then it doesn’t matter if you can’t fly your planes for a few months; you don’t need to fly them because they’re your planes rather than the bank’s planes.

    “Qantas on Tuesday said it had secured another $550 million in debt and would extend its widespread flight cancellations in response to the coronavirus shutdown.

    The fresh debt funding, secured against three Boeing 787s it owns, comes on top of $1 billion raised in March and gives Qantas sufficient liquidity to survive through to December 2021 even under current trading conditions, the airline said.”

    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/qantas-takes-on-550m-more-debt-extends-covid-19-cancellations-20200505-p54ptr.html

  3. ItzaDream says:
    Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 12:01 pm
    Apologies, this may well have been already noted, but Sydney’s Carriageworks, incorporating the old Redfern railways yards and work shops, and which has hosted a huge range of events – Sydney Festival, Writer’s Festival, Sydney Chamber Opera, Food Markets, Art and Fashion – in its uniquely fabulous bold setting, has gone into voluntary administration.

    Not a peep from the NSW Govt that I have heard of.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/05/carriageworks-goes-into-voluntary-administration-citing-irreparable-loss-of-income-due-to-coronavirus

    Gladys probably has it lined up for ‘redevelopment’ by a mate

  4. re conservative anarchist. i’ve been over this before. but, to use the example used back then: as a conservative anarchist i deplored the di natale witch hunt against rhiannon, l. & the forcible reorganisation & homogeneisation of the nsw branch against member’s & sponsor’s wishes in the name of “organisational modernization” –
    because: 1/ i strongly supported the membership control over their senator’s vote, bang: the anarchist.
    2/ i strongly supported rhiannon & the nsw branch to be differently organised & run from the other branches, because that’s *their* roots, that’s *their* history, and its a honourable history going back to the anti-springbok protests.
    rhiannon was one vital aspect of that branch’s instututional history incarnate. removing her disrespected the membership & the institutional history of the branch, bang: conservative anarchist. respect inherited instutions, make change grow out of what already exists.

    i’ve been over this before long ago.
    adding “between a man & a woman” to the marriage act, which act, in its original form, had served australia well for many years, was the act of a radical. to remove those added words from the marriage act and restore it to its original form would have been the act of a conservative. but we should all be aware by now that the australian liberals are not conservatives, but are in fact radicals, right-wing radicals. -a.v.

  5. We’re coming out of the shadows into the sunny uplands. What, already?

    Josh Frydenberg
    (@JoshFrydenberg)
    Today at @PressClubAust I’ll be speaking about Australia’s path out of the #COVID19 crisis as we move toward recovery & reform.

    While the shadow of the economic shock will be profound, Australians can be optimistic about our future.

    Tune in at 12.30 on @abcnews & @SkyNewsAust pic.twitter.com/oh4bHzA7iY

  6. lizzie @ #133 Tuesday, May 5th, 2020 – 11:59 am

    I probably won’t have the courage to listen to his rubbish, but I wonder which excuses Frydenberg will use to explain his failures today.

    Guardian

    And it is only predicted to rise.
    A reminder that the government assistance has a sunset clause of 24 September.

    Shane Wright
    @swrighteconomy
    If the ABS payroll data is spot on, the loss of about one million jobs since mid-March has taken the unemployment rate to almost 12.5%. Or about 7.4pp.

    ‘I probably won’t have the courage to listen to his rubbish, but I wonder which excuses Frydenberg will use to explain his failures today’ Dr Charlmers said.

  7. lizzie @ #159 Tuesday, May 5th, 2020 – 12:25 pm

    We’re coming out of the shadows into the sunny uplands. What, already?

    Josh Frydenberg
    (@JoshFrydenberg)
    Today at @PressClubAust I’ll be speaking about Australia’s path out of the #COVID19 crisis as we move toward recovery & reform.

    While the shadow of the economic shock will be profound, Australians can be optimistic about our future.

    Tune in at 12.30 on @abcnews & @SkyNewsAust pic.twitter.com/oh4bHzA7iY

    Wow, Mourning in Australia didn’t last long, did it?

  8. ar:

    Too generous by half. It makes strictly less sense than doing exactly the same thing except without using debt to pay for it.

    Put your own capital to work, not someone else’s. Then it doesn’t matter if you can’t fly your planes for a few months; you don’t need to fly them because they’re your planes rather than the bank’s planes.

    It still matters, because you’re foregoing the return you could have gotten investing that capital elsewhere for those months.

    Putting your own capital to work, presuming you even have enough, is a riskier option because now all your capital is tied up in a single business, whereas if you invest it in a range of other destinations you aren’t “all in” on one industry. The returns you get from investing your capital elsewhere will, depending on the relative risk profiles, roughly cancel out what you’re paying on the debt in your own business.

  9. Maude Lynne @ #116 Tuesday, May 5th, 2020 – 11:31 am

    Assantdj says:
    Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 11:19 am
    I really don’t have a problem with the level of immigration if it is for permanent workers. I do have a problem with workers being shipped into Australia on a temporary basis to allow companies, usually overseas owned, to undermine the Industrial relations pay and conditions that are currently in place. This puts Australian owned businesses at a massive disadvantage or they can replicate the actions of these companies and underpay their workers.
    Meat processing plants are one area where this has occurred, to the detriment of the local workers who all lost their jobs when the plant was sold. Not only do people lose their jobs but the money the workers make is shipped overseas, the product is often not available locally, it also doesn’t help that there have been instances were these workers have actually undermined the living standards in the local area because they don’t abide by our local customs.
    Now during this virus the warehousing of these workers in share houses after working all day in an unsafe environment increases the general publics risk.

    Well argued, Assantdj.
    This stuff needs to be stated and re-stated every time the topic of temp visa workers comes up.

    The oppositions shadow treasurer, Jim Charlmers went on to say, ‘I really don’t have a problem with the level of immigration if it is for permanent workers. I do have a problem with workers being shipped into Australia on a temporary basis to allow companies, usually overseas owned, to undermine the Industrial relations pay and conditions that are currently in place. This puts Australian owned businesses at a massive disadvantage or they can replicate the actions of these companies and underpay their workers.
    Meat processing plants are one area where this has occurred, to the detriment of the local workers who all lost their jobs when the plant was sold. Not only do people lose their jobs but the money the workers make is shipped overseas, the product is often not available locally, it also doesn’t help that there have been instances were these workers have actually undermined the living standards in the local area because they don’t abide by our local customs.
    Now during this virus the warehousing of these workers in share houses after working all day in an unsafe environment increases the general publics risk.’

  10. On The World Today just now

    An expert pointing out that a suitable vaccine may not be developed or may take a long time. She points out that 90+ percent of vaccine candidates fail in Phase 1 or 2 trials and that attempts to make a coronavirus vaccine previous failed.

    She talked about non vaccine, non drug interventions. Social distancing, masks, etc.

    And she says that we just don’t have the research to know what works. Some countries have 4 metres as a safe social isolation. Some 2. Some 1.5. She says “its all guesswork”

    That’s a grim reminder to people who’ve believe that we can ease restrictions to any large extent and that we can “live with the virus” because a vaccine will come to rescue us. The uncertainties in these basic things to do with how the virus spreads person to person make a mockery of the government pretending it can ease restrictions in a calculated way. Its all guesswork and they’re basically experimenting on the entire population without ethical approval.

  11. poroti

    Yep. WA is in my list of places that have eliminated the virus. So is NT, SA, and looks like TAS.
    And I still have good hopes for QLD.

    Amusing listening to the World Today a Qantas guy talking about a resurgence of domestic tourism and then talking about flights to WA. Without a hint of awareness of the fact that that aint going to happen from NSW unless it is virus free also.

  12. lizzie @ #170 Tuesday, May 5th, 2020 – 12:36 pm

    Sorry, I can’t bear to listen to Josh’s preachy tones. I’ll wait for the questions.

    I’m going to be listening to Katharine Murphy and Peter Lewis discuss today’s Essential instead at 1pm:

    About this Event
    Katharine Murphy and Peter Lewis pore over the weekly Guardian Essential report. Join us for the seventh week to compare the data and learn more about the public’s reaction to this crisis.

    https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/australia-at-home-the-political-geekfest-tickets-103879875504

  13. Guardian

    It took seven minutes, but we get our first “team Australia moment” mention from Josh Frydenberg as he continues to recount what the government has done.

    He’s trying to make a good story.

  14. phoenixREDsays:
    Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 7:47 am
    “America gone mad …..

    Security guard shot in the head after telling woman to wear mask inside Family Dollar store

    According to a report from CNN, a security guard at a Family Dollar store in Flint, Michigan, was shot and killed this Friday after telling a woman to wear a mask inside the store, which is required by the state.

    the woman left in an SUV, which then returned 20 minutes later. Two men exited the SUV and entered the store to confront Munerlyn. One of the men was yelling at Munerlyn for disrespecting his wife, when the other man pulled out a gun and shot him.

    https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/security-guard-shot-in-the-head-after-telling-woman-to-wear-mask-inside-family-dollar-store/

    Strange that neither your initial link or the CNN story that is linked to it show any photos of the accused – clearly they don’t match the narrative of Trump supporting right wingers – despite the photos being publicly available.

  15. Josh Frydenburg is one of those Liberal politicians who assumes the facade of ‘the nice guy’, but isn’t really.

  16. Cud Chewer

    It’s typical of this gov that they recount what they did (or promised) without also saying what the effects were, or if the results ever matched the promises.

  17. Bucephalus @ #178 Tuesday, May 5th, 2020 – 12:42 pm

    phoenixREDsays:
    Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 7:47 am
    “America gone mad …..

    Security guard shot in the head after telling woman to wear mask inside Family Dollar store

    According to a report from CNN, a security guard at a Family Dollar store in Flint, Michigan, was shot and killed this Friday after telling a woman to wear a mask inside the store, which is required by the state.

    the woman left in an SUV, which then returned 20 minutes later. Two men exited the SUV and entered the store to confront Munerlyn. One of the men was yelling at Munerlyn for disrespecting his wife, when the other man pulled out a gun and shot him.

    https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/security-guard-shot-in-the-head-after-telling-woman-to-wear-mask-inside-family-dollar-store/

    Strange that neither your initial link or the CNN story that is linked to it show any photos of the accused – clearly they don’t match the narrative of Trump supporting right wingers – despite the photos being publicly available.

    Strange that you spend so much time and energy doing the research then coming here to comment…in support of the murderer!

  18. boerwarsays:
    Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 8:04 am
    “Monbiot

    ‘We have stimulated consumption too much over the past century, which is why we face environmental disaster.’

    That, and increasing the number of consumers from 2 billion to 7.5 billion.

    Why can’t progressives be honest about population pressure?”

    Yeah, that and shit political and legal systems in developing nations. You can have very low population density and the environment gets trashed – plenty of examples of this in regional and remote towns in Australia that I wouldn’t even describe as pig sties – and you can high density populations with surprisingly good environmental outcomes like Singapore and Hong Kong and Australian Capital Cities.

  19. poroti
    says:
    Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 12:30 pm
    Yay WA, Scores of 0,0,0,0,0,0 over the last 6 days.
    _______________________
    What Happened? According to Briefly the population of W.A should have been cut in half by now! Not to mention those gunned down by Morrison death squads.

  20. porotisays:
    Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 8:24 am
    “Genius of the Day goes toooooooooo
    ………………………………………………………………………………………….
    The video shows the woman approaching the counter to pay for petrol, asking: “Hi there, can I get 10 on pump one please?”

    Samaan takes the payment, before asking: “Where did you get that mask from?”

    “Well since we have to wear them and it makes it hard to breathe, this makes it a lot easier to breathe,” the woman replies.
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12329599

    No chance people are taking the piss? They definitely got clicks.

  21. A hospital in France has discovered that it treated a man who had COVID-19 as early as December 27, nearly a month before the government confirmed its first cases.

    https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/after-retesting-samples-french-hospital-discovers-covid-19-case-from-december-20200505-p54prz.html

    This is a match with other anecdotal reports from Lombardy, where medical personnel have reported treating patients with Covid19 symptoms as early as November 2019, and from Qom, where pneumonia patients were also being seen in December. At the time, these cases were not identified as Covid 19 disease for the very simple reason that it not yet been recognised. This only occurred when an observant doctor in Wuhan recognised the pneumonia cases he’d seen in his ward were SARS-like and were not, as had been assumed, influenza-related. Very obviously, the virus in its pathogenic form must have been in circulation through human-to-human transmission at the very least for some months by late 2019.

    From the information published in the media and in academic journals the virus almost certainly originated in bats, most likely in remote inland China, possibly as early as 2013. By 2015 there were cases of bat-to-human transmission observed in Yunnan, involving humans living in close proximity to very large wild bat populations. These populations have most likely been the subject of research efforts on a number of occasions.

    These cases found in 2015 exhibited no symptoms at all, but the serology confirmed the existence of the same corona virus in both bats and humans in that location. There is a documented description of a human link between these individuals and the dense urban centre Wuhan. That is, a possible vector from a remote and isolated community to the wider human population can be seen.

    Intuitively, it makes sense that the virus has been circulating in the human population since at least 2015. We know from the sequencing that the virus has mutated during that time, and that a virus that was once benign has become both highly contagious and sometimes very dangerous, and yet also remains invisible in its new host population. This possible link should be investigated, along with others.

    Reportedly, there has been quite a lot of effort put into trying to locate corona viruses in bat populations in order to try to anticipate and prevent a new outbreak of SARS. This research involves capturing bats, sedating them and taking samples of blood, urine, saliva and faeces and then releasing them. The information collected has been validated, logged and retained. So there have been plenty of opportunities for inadvertent bat-to-human transmission of virus material to humans over many years, possibly since the SARS outbreak in 2003.

    This information all certainly undermines the claims that the virus originated in a wet market in Wuhan late in 2019. Certainly, by the time viral material was swabbed in the Wuhan market, serious illness caused by the same virus was also observed in other parts of Wuhan and in places many thousands of kilometres away.

    This also illustrates why it really is misleading – and hot-headed – to try to label this disease as ‘Wuhan Flu’ or some other Sinophobic/politically-motivated variant on the theme. To do so obscures the basic facts. These facts are, first, the virus does not discriminate on the basis of the geography or ethnicity of cases. And, secondly, though the virus most likely originated in a bat, we still do not know the path of bat-to-human transmission, nor the progress of human-to-human transmission and the mutations that have occurred while it has been circulating in the human population.

  22. Adam Spencer
    @adambspencer
    ·
    51m
    The same day as we see a profuse apology for a bizarre pack of complete lies hatchet job on Daniel Johns in @dailytelegraph , its stablemate @australian runs an article in which senior police condemn the release of a photo … and prints said photo

    The callousness beggars belief

  23. Like a coiled spring, briefly has been waiting to pounce. 🙄

    He still probably believes that there were no cases in China before China said there were cases in China.

  24. “Unleashing the power of dynamic, innovative, and open markets must be central to the recovery, with the private sector leading job creation, not government.”

    When are they getting rid of the old, reactionary markets?

  25. Whilst true, it does not exonerate the Chinese govt. They have not been truthful from the get go. There may yet be a time when the rest of the world get compensation of some sort.

    Eric Garland
    @ericgarland
    ·
    2h
    “China” “versus” “Trump and Pompeo” who “disagree” with the bullshit press release from the Acting DNI is a fake fight to cover up the failures of Trump *and* the Chinese Communist Party.

    And to cover up for starving our own healthcare system of supplies.
    Quote Tweet

    Secretary Pompeo
    @SecPompeo
    · Feb 8
    We have coordinated with U.S. organizations to transport more humanitarian relief to people in Wuhan. Personal protective equipment and other medical supplies donated by these organizations can help save lives in #China and help protect people from the #coronavirus.
    Embedded video

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