Essential Research: gender equality and Australian history

Not the Eden-Monaro by-election news: an Essential Research poll, electoral reform in South Australia and election day roll management potentially to go digital.

Three entirely unrelated bits of information that don’t involve the Eden-Monaro by-election, for which another dedicated post is assuredly not far away (the most recent, and its attendant discussion thread, is here):

• This week’s Essential Research poll looks at indigenous issues and gender equality, finding broadly liberal viewpoints prevailing in each case. On the former count, most agreed that indigenous Australians and Pacific islanders had been “forced to work in Australia in conditions that amounted to slavery”, but 42% agreed that “many of the new cases of Covid-19 in Victoria have been from people who attended the Black Lives Matter protest” compared with 37% who believed it to be false. On gender equality, majorities somehow managed to agree both that there was “still a long way to go” and that it had “already been mostly achieved”, though a lot more emphatically in the former case. Respondents were also asked who got paid too much (bankers and lawyers) and too little (nurses and teachers).

• Tom Richardson of InDaily reports on an imminent package of electoral reform in South Australia, which may include the introduction of optional preferential voting. Labor leader Peter Malinauskas has accused Premier Steven Marshall of a move to “rig the next election”, and invoked the bogey of “the polarisation of our democracy in the way we have seen in the United States”. Malinauskas’s real concern is more likely to do with Greens preferences, the system having raised no such concerns for the Labor governments that introduced them in New South Wales and Queensland, back when its main impact was to weaken intra-Coalition preference flows in three-cornerned contests. The Greens have also declared their opposition, which would leave its upper house fate in the hands of the three survivors of the Nick Xenophon disturbance. The government’s reforms may also include crackdowns on corflutes (which seem to be particularly popular in South Australia) and dissemination of how-to-vote cards at polling booths.

• Justin Hendry of IT News reports the Australian Electoral Commission is looking into a full rollout of the electronic certified list system for marking off voters, which operated at around 10% of polling places at last year’s election. This replaces the more familiar method of paper lists marked off by pencil, which offer no guarantee the prospective voter has not already voted somewhere else beyond the requisite verbal assurance. As such, it can genuinely help prevent multiple voting, unlike a lot of other supposed electoral reforms that are invoked in its name. However, it may also constitute a point of vulnerability to nefarious actors.

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.

3,724 comments on “Essential Research: gender equality and Australian history”

Comments Page 2 of 75
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  2. “Jacoby
    ·
    1h
    Someone explain to me why a television camera crew were outside the home of Guy Sebastian’s manager when they came to arrest him.

    This now common occurrence is further evidence that the police are not interested in justice and that they are part of the problem. #auspol”

  3. As an EM voter, I’m over the Liberal candidate. The huge corflutes and vomit inducing TV ads are pissing me off big-time. Also parking utes etc with advertising in prime spots in the shopping areas taking up spaces during pre-polling is getting a bit much. *rant over*

  4. Victoria @ #46 Thursday, July 2nd, 2020 – 7:17 am

    Brazil is giving the US a run for its money

    Laurie Garrett
    @Laurie_Garrett
    ·
    18h
    Terrible numbers out of #Brazil:
    – 1,271 deaths in 24 hours
    – total of 59,656 deaths
    – 1,408,485 confirmed cases
    – 37,997 new cases in 24 hours

    They have the US covered in the new death column, but the US has responded magnificently in response to the challenge on new cases. 🙁

  6. John Hewson is pleased that shareholders are helping to shift the dial towards principled profit. He calls for governments to use the bailouts to push companies into different, more socially responsible directions.

    https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/shareholders-helping-to-shift-the-dial-towards-principled-profit-20200701-p5580t.html
    ————-
    Well that’s all very worthy but it’s got no hope as it will undermine the whole National ideology underpinning “Capitalism with Australian Characteristics”, namely, to make a profit in Australia a capitalist relies on:

    a) political connections, support and favouritism;
    b) ripping off consumers wherever possible;
    c) wages and superannuation theft from your employees;
    d) importing indentured workers under temporary visa classifications kindly catered for by characteristic “a)” above;
    e) destroying priceless and unique heritage if it risks, in any way, easy profit;
    f) stealing the environmental capacity of the earth from your children;
    g) funding mass media and propaganda bodies to market your ideas and suppress opposition to your rights and privileges; and
    h) having tame politicians introduce crippling laws to criminalise any organised opposition and public access to inconvenient information.

  7. Barney in Tanjung Bunga says:
    Thursday, July 2, 2020 at 9:27 am

    “Has she gone back to straight reporting?”

    No, still making shit up.

  9. Rakali,

    Your story in the previous thread about the UK residents in the EU not understanding – it was a lovely piece of fiction.

    UK Residents in the alleged situation will just need to apply for a long-term Visa. I believe that they last 5 years. A friend of my Mum’s is Australian and is retired and lives permanently in Spain in this manner.

  12. 8 new cases in NSW. The number of active cases has fallen to 6. Probably all new cases are hotel quarantined and one of the previously reported community cases has become a false positive

  13. Lizzie,

    Don’t worry, I’ve got a power cut as well (northwest Adelaide). We seem to have one each month for upgrading. Time to go elsewhere for 8 hours.

  14. Bucephalus

    UK Residents in the alleged situation will just need to apply for a long-term Visa. I believe that they last 5 years. A friend of my Mum’s is Australian and is retired and lives permanently in Spain in this manner.
    ————-
    I gather the rules differ from country to country in Europe. (I know little about them).

    Someone said, in France: “After Jan 1 UK nationals with French property will be treated like any other ‘third nation’ country. Probably restricted to 90 days in any one year and requirements for a visa and will also have to have full private medical insurance.”

    I’m looking forward to the Idiot Son’s meeting with the Mayor!

  19. Well, that’s my Paleo Chicken with Vegetable Soup prepped for dinner tonight. Damn bland food! 😡

    Still, it should be tasty, in its own bland way. 🙂

  20. ‘Bucephalus says:
    Thursday, July 2, 2020 at 9:44 am

    Rakali,

    Your story in the previous thread about the UK residents in the EU not understanding – it was a lovely piece of fiction.

    UK Residents in the alleged situation will just need to apply for a long-term Visa. I believe that they last 5 years. A friend of my Mum’s is Australian and is retired and lives permanently in Spain in this manner.’

    Uh, not quite. The full ramifications of any Brexit remain to be seen so any arrangements that obtain now are 100% irrelevant.

    With a hard Brexit all current arrangements, including any and all reciprocal movement rights, are off the table. But one thing is 100% certain. Brits will lose their EU passports.

    The practical result may be this: it took us a full three months, many visits and a mountain of paperwork to get a 12 month visa to stay in France.

  21. Rupert’s gutter smear sheet loses the demented plutocrat $3m..

    By Michaela Whitbourn
    July 2, 2020 — 9.46am

    Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph has lost its appeal against a defamation decision awarding actor Geoffrey Rush almost $3 million in damages.

    Mr Rush, 68, set a defamation damages record last year when he was awarded $2.9 million for two Telegraph articles published in 2017, which accused him of “inappropriate behaviour” towards an unnamed co-star in the Sydney Theatre Company’s 2015-16 production of King Lear.

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/daily-telegraph-loses-geoffrey-rush-defamation-decision-appeal-20200701-p5585d.html

  24. Buce (the other Horsey?)

    ”Savva will write anything she can that will make the Morrison Government look as bad as possible. She and Van Onselen are on a unity ticket.”

    From what I’ve seen, Ms Savva is a moderate conservative who says what she thinks. This normally favours the Government but not always. Peter Van Onselen is broadly similar but more Centrist from what I can tell. Neither are culture warriors or propagandists for their “side” like certain media figures we could name.

  28. I bet the Victorian inquiry will focus on what the security companies did wrong rather than why the Victorian government outsourced its’ pandemic response to nightclub bouncers. Costing us billions now.

  30. KayJay says: Thursday, July 2, 2020 at 9:34 am
    Youse can all relax I’ve found the missing sock.

    Did you find it by putting an ad in the “Lonely sock desires another sock…” section of Kinky Apparel Magazine?

  32. I’m surprised there is no link to that story about the Daily Telegraph losing their appeal in the Daily Telegraph itself. Big story. Funny they missed it. Presumably buried near the classified ads.

  33. Maybe Lars could make a movie “Covid Guard!” or perhaps “Carry on Covid”. it could give the “Police Academy” franchise a run for its money.

  34. NZ’s Health Minister has resigned, naughty chap early in lock down was caught driving to the beach,demoted but saved by it being mid crisis at the time. Would there be any left in Australia’s cabinet if that level of ministerial behavior was enforced ? Although I suspect his fatal error was appearing to throw NZ ‘icon’ Dr Bloomfield under the bus lat week.

  35. If an electoral contest is on the razor’s edge, you often see stories designed to demoralise one side or the other’s supporters.

    The “Albo will need a miracle” yarn looks like it’s intended to put the thought into uncommitted or wavering voters’ minds that they may as well vote for the Coalition, because that’s what most people are doing anyway.

    Don’t laugh, that attitude is a thing. And when a point or two either way could be decisive to the final result, every little thing helps.

    But, just looking at it from a logical point of view you’d like to think that:

    ● after the bushfires whose ferocity and extent were exacerbated by Global Warming (effectively denied by the Morrison government),

    ● the poor response (with Morrison lying about being in Hawaii), and

    ● lacklustre recovery measures (with the Morrison government still on a go-slow),

    the voters of E-M (who were particularly affected by those fires) would be storming the barricades with torches and pitchforks to vote against Morrison.

    Additionally, the Libs and Nats are running a split ticket against each other (with both side taking sideswipes), it’s a by-election anyway (governments lose close by-elections), Labor has a good, well-recognized and locally popular candidate and Morrison is about as genuine as a three dollar bill.

  36. Kayjay @9:54.

    ”The sock is one of a matched pair.“

    Well, young people wear jeans that are in a similar fate so I assume that it’s fashionable.

  37. Bucephalus

    Some comments on the stream:

    This blesséd plot! Anchor
    @packagingman
    ·
    Jun 29
    Replying to
    @archer_rs
    On a Spanish TV programme last week they were discussing the effects of lost income from Brits post Jan 1.
    Seems like their tourist boards see it as a possible bonus. The absence of drunken Uber-Brits will now make a number of resorts more attractive to other EU holiday makers!
    66
    344
    DRMRose
    @MRD_ONE
    ·
    Jun 30
    I’m Belgian and actively avoid destinations with loads of drunk Brits. It’s a real issue for many people. Looking forward to an EU without the UK

  38. nath @ #78 Thursday, July 2nd, 2020 – 10:16 am

    I bet the Victorian inquiry will focus on what the security companies did wrong rather than why the Victorian government outsourced it’s pandemic response to nightclub bouncers. Costing us billions now.

    And the Ruby Princess debacle in NSW probably ‘cost Us billions’ as well. Didn’t seem to have harmed Gladys Berejiklian’s popularity. Maybe that’s because non self-interested adults understand how these things can get away from governments who are learning on the job and exposing flaws in the system?

  39. Blaming the contract security guards is going to blow up in someone’s face. One of the rules on outsourcing, is you can’t outsource your responsibility.

    In the past, having worked on large government funded events requiring security you had Tier1, Tier2 and Tier3 security. The guys you see doing ‘crowd control’ at the footy are Tier3 – you get them from labor hire outfits like Wilson’s Security or in Melbourne Elite Security.

    Their job is to stand the perimeter and be visible – sometimes they can be trained to do some tasks. The Tier2 guys are usually uniformed police or other highly trained/equipped people. Tier1 people are in charge of the show.

  40. Conservative Rick Wilson: People Will Piss on Trump’s Grave Because of His “Treason”

    Wilson spoke to The Daily Beast‘s Molly Jong-Fast on Tuesday. He was a guest on that news outlet’s New Abnormal podcast. Wilson didn’t pull any punches.

    “The word traitor and the word treason in this country gets abused like crazy,” Wilson said.

    Wilson is referring to reports that Trump knew perhaps as long ago as last year that Russia was offering bounties for the deaths of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

    “He met the literal definition of treason. He gave aid and comfort to the enemy and abetted the enemy. He did not take action.”

    He went on to suggest that Trump would end up being so disrespected that people would even target his final resting place.

    “This is a guy who was already going down into the dustbin of history,” Wilson said.

    “And now there’s going to be a line at his grave where they’re going to have to throw cat litter down. Because people are gonna piss on it for all time,” he said.

    https://www.politicususa.com/2020/07/01/conservative-rick-wilson-people-will-piss-on-trumps-grave-because-of-his-treason.html

  42. Socrates says:
    Thursday, July 2, 2020 at 10:23 am

    The decision has only just been delivered.

    I’m very happy for Mr Rush.

  43. Reading this headline moaning ‘It’s so arbitrary’ The Melbourne street split down the middle by Covid-19 lockdown” I could not help but think, “Easy solution to that complaint, lock the whole city down”. That and try not hiring guards from The Love Boat and the Sergeant Schultz Security Academy.

  44. people rushed to change their addresses in the hopes of getting through police checkpoints.

    Thiis proves that the Human Animal has a built in “Currupt Gene”.

  45. Steve Schmidt Hammers Trump As A Delusional Cult Leader Who’s Falling Apart

    Schmidt said on MSNBC:

    So the country’s in a lot of trouble with this president. We see it in the coronavirus. Death rates. He is falling apart. We see his enfeeblement before our eyes. We see it physically and mentally.

    And then the comments we saw in the Rose Garden on the portico, just showed somebody who is utterly fantastically delusional. He is like a delusional cult leader. Thankfully there are fewer and fewer Americans willing to go down with the cult every day. But there are still too many.

    The election isn’t over. And the consequences for the country of Donald Trump’s staying in office just simply cannot be overstated. The country cannot endure four more years of the incompetence as we consider the death rates from the virus, the shattered economy, and the assault on national security interest by hostile foreign powers that the president will not defend us.

    https://www.politicususa.com/2020/07/01/steve-schmidt-trump-delusional-cult-leader.html

  46. sprocket_ @ #89 Thursday, July 2nd, 2020 – 8:30 am

    Blaming the contract security guards is going to blow up in someone’s face. One of the rules on outsourcing, is you can’t outsource your responsibility.

    …

    However, that’s one of the main reasons they do it.

    Hide behind commercial in confidence and the like.

  48. Kayjay “Youse can all relax I’ve found the missing sock. “

    Great. I can drop that from my list of things to worry about.

    I match odd socks on the principle “prop est statis statis”.

  49. 1934pc

    You mean there are corrupt police officers, adf personnel and God forbid, high court judges………..
    Not just security guards………

  50. sprocket

    Blaming the contract security guards is going to blow up in someone’s face. One of the rules on outsourcing, is you can’t outsource your responsibility.
    ———-

    It seems to me this is a very serious failure by the Victorian Government. I assume the responsible minister is the Minister for Health.

    She should resign immediately.

    I know under Democracy with Australian Characteristics no politician is responsible for anything (unless it was a political success in which case they are all responsible). 🙂

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