Nothing succeeds like secession

A new poll finds a certain amount of support for Western Australia to go it alone, as the Federal Court finds facts in Clive Palmer’s constitutional challenge against the state’s border closures.

The West Australian has a poll today from Painted Dog Research showing 34% out of 837 respondents from the state favour secession for Western Australia. However, the utility of this finding is limited by the report’s failure to offer any insight as to how many of the other 66% were actively opposed and how many uncommitted, if indeed the latter was provided as an option. The poll also finds “close to three-quarters” think the federal government has put the needs of the eastern states ahead of Western Australia during the pandemic. I wouldn’t normally consider such a poll front page news, but it’s past time for a new general discussion thread, so here it is.

There is also the following:

• Since Tuesday’s post from Adrian Beaumont on the extraordinary finding of a Reid Research poll of voting intention in New Zealand, the other regular pollster in the country, Colmar Brunton, has produced a somewhat more modest result: Labour 53%, National 32%, Greens 5%, ACT New Zealand 4.8% and New Zealand First 2%. It also finds Jacinda Ardern with a 54-20 lead over the new National leader, Judith Collins, as preferred prime minister. There’s an interesting discussion on polling in the country, the record of which is apparently very good, on Radio New Zealand’s The Detail program.

• As noted in my popular dedicated post on the subject, elections will be held today for two seats in Tasmania’s Legislative Council. One of these at least, for the Launceston region seat of Rosevears, includes both Liberal and Labor candidates, and might be seen as some sort of barometer for the state’s new-ish Premier, Peter Gutwein, who has been recording exceptionally strong poll ratings amid the COVID-19 crisis. Live coverage of the count will, as ever, commence here at 6pm.

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.

1,962 comments on “Nothing succeeds like secession”

Comments Page 13 of 40
1 12 13 14 40
  1. Holdenhilbilly: “There will be additional limits to the four reasons to leave home. You will no longer be able to leave home and go any further away from your home than a 5km radius. ”

    Presumably this doesn’t apply to people going to work?

  2. Rex Douglas: “Yes and it will cost him his job and he knows it, but will do what needs to be done nevertheless.”

    So you reckon that, if he chose to do nothing and just let the virus run out of control, he’d be able to keep his job?

  3. I wish Andrews had made this Vic curfew and lock-down decision two weeks ago, but it is the correct decision. It worked in New Zealand and it should work in Melbourne too. Compared to letting things drag on, this is actually the least pain solution.

    As with NZ, where cabinet ministers lost their jobs for breaking the rules, no exceptions is the best policy both for compliance and for fairness.

    Albo needs to take up the point that extending jobkeeper to those who do not currently get it is essential.

  4. meher baba @ #582 Sunday, August 2nd, 2020 – 2:44 pm

    BK: “Does anyone think there is any state premier not doing his or her best?”

    In terms of their individual efforts, they’re all doing really well as far as I can see.

    But something does seem to have gone seriously wrong in Victoria. As I’ve suggested before, I think the real problems were at the bureaucratic level There are some suggestions that turf wars between agencies were part of the problem: if so it’s totally inexcusable and should lead to the instant curtailment of a number of bureaucratic careers.

    And, if it is true that the current wave of the virus can be traced back to the quarantine hotels, there must also have been problems with the way in which the contracts with the security firms were drawn up and managed. And possibly some inadequacies in the contact tracing processes. And Andrews has admitted that he has had trouble with enforcing home quarantining, and it seems to me quite possible that there’s also something gone wrong with the local enforcement process (as apparently there was at the hotels).

    Andrews has to take some responsibility for whatever stuff-ups there might have been: and I trust he will do so after the inquiry reports its findings. The idea that he could possibly get away with trying to blame it all on the Feds, with a bit of added “whaddabout dem” in relation to the Ruby Princess, is a delusion in the minds of some posters on PB. Andrews certainly isn’t so silly as to attempt something like that, although he has done a bit of lashing out at the public, which isn’t a great idea either IMO.

    Gossip and unsubstantiated innuendo and assertions are all you’ve got.

  5. Rex Douglas

    Considering you have no actual evidence, or even like actual proof, maybe you should just back off with your nonsense?

  6. meher baba @ #604 Sunday, August 2nd, 2020 – 3:14 pm

    Rex Douglas: “Yes and it will cost him his job and he knows it, but will do what needs to be done nevertheless.”

    So you reckon that, if he chose to do nothing and just let the virus run out of control, he’d be able to keep his job?

    Excellent verballing there mb.

  7. Zerlosays:
    Sunday, August 2, 2020 at 3:17 pm
    Rex Douglas

    Considering you have no actual evidence, or even like actual proof, maybe you should just back off with your nonsense?
    __________
    Yeah Rex. Your anti-Dan statements are turning people off. Of course only those without a sarcasm detector!

  8. BK @ #577 Sunday, August 2nd, 2020 – 12:26 pm

    Confessions
    I screwed up the question – it should have been –
    Does anyone think there is any state premier not doing his or her best?

    It highlights the lack of absolutes when dealing with a virus, just because you’ve done everything recommended, it doesn’t guarantee a successful outcome.

  9. And L’arse wonders why he’s universally regarded as an idiot!

    He has a bad case of sour grapes over his side of politics’ dismal failure to nail Dan Andrew’s to a cross over the virus outbreaks in Victoria.

    In doing so he ignores calls – from just a few weeks ago – from himself, his right wing chums and Liberal Party heckling buddies for “Chairman Dan” Andrews to open up Victoria for business. The clamour from the Lib donors – pub owners, casino leeches, aged care operators forcing both patients and staff to co-exist in conditions that would look far-fetched in a Dickens novel – was just too loud. Did I forget the fops and spiv enablers of the IPA? Them too.

    Now, if they can spare the time away from deleting these demands off their Twitter accounts, or trying to explain away how the private sector of the industry, run by their Gucci loving, Maserati driving mates , has accounted for 95% of the deaths in aged care, these sociopathic ghouls are now blaming Andrews for doing pretty much what they insisted upon. They even got ScoMo in on the act, with his (not so) brilliant (after all) description of the outbreak down south as “the Victorian Wave”.

    Nice three-worder, L’arse, catchy… but, last I heard, Victoria was still part of Australia, and ScoMo – for all his crocodile tears about the sorry state of Aged Care last year – is directly responsible for regulating the privatized Aged Care sector, whether it’s in Victoria or anywhere else. And in this he and his absentee minister, Colbeck, have failed, demonstrably.

    Worse, the Australian people are beginning to realize it. And if they haven’t done so yet, the bereaved relatives of the dead grannies and grandpas will fix that toot sweet.

    It was all so predictable, as was the disaster of the Ruby Princess – another ScoMo fuck-up (and let’s not forget #KoalaKiller Gladys) – and the coming second wave in NSW.

    Northern Beaches (and before that, Port Macquarie Base) hospital should have rammed home the lesson that extorting billions from the public, obscene profits, the front page of Vogue Livingand the word “care” do not belong in the same sentence, and never have.

  10. George Pell, Alan Jones and Tony Abbott dine at an exclusive club just DAYS before it shut after a staff member tested positive for coronavirus
    George Pell, Tony Abbott and Alan Jones dined at the Australian Club on July 22

    Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Sky News presenter Alan Jones and Cardinal George Pell ate at an exclusive club days before a staff member tested positive for coronavirus.

    The three high-profile men, described as old friends, met at the request of Cardinal Pell on July 22, according to Sydney Confidential.

    The trio are believed to have eaten at the exclusive Australian Club, located on Macquarie Street in Sydney.

    Sources for Jones said it was just ‘friends catching up and discussing the state of the world’, the newspaper claimed.

    On Friday, it was revealed the venue would be closing due to a staff member testing positive for coronavirus.

    It is not known if the three men came into contact with the staff member.

    The dinner isn’t Pell’s only high-profile outing, after all enjoying dinner at with fashion icon Carla Zampatti.

  11. GG: “Gossip and unsubstantiated innuendo and assertions are all you’ve got.”

    You forgot to mention the epidemiological data.

  12. Presumably this doesn’t apply to people going to work?

    It seems that Andrews is announcing a triage of work tomorrow with businesses categorized as (a) business-as-usual (supermarkets, food/grocery retail), (b) reduced intensity – limits on staffing and shifts, or (c) work-from-home only.

  13. meher babasays:
    Sunday, August 2, 2020 at 3:26 pm
    GG: “Gossip and unsubstantiated innuendo and assertions are all you’ve got.”

    You forgot to mention the epidemiological data.
    ___________________
    As a fanatical supporter of the state government GG does not recognise the anti-Dan propaganda produced by the state government. 🙂

  14. RD: “Excellent verballing there mb”

    Huh? I was merely pointing out that, when you suggest that a decision made by a political leader will cost them their job, then you are, by definition also suggesting that there was another decision available to them that would have allowed them to hang onto their job.

  15. Rex, i agree Dictator Dan should go, even if shagging hotel quarantees was not enough changing the rules on nursing homes in 1997 is the last straw.

  16. Sprocket
    “The dinner isn’t Pell’s only high-profile outing, after all enjoying dinner at with fashion icon Carla Zampatti.”

    Good to see the vow of poverty being kept with the same diligence as the others. I hope the god Pell believes in protects him as appropriate.

  17. Barney in Tanjung Bunga @ #615 Sunday, August 2nd, 2020 – 3:21 pm

    BK @ #577 Sunday, August 2nd, 2020 – 12:26 pm

    Confessions
    I screwed up the question – it should have been –
    Does anyone think there is any state premier not doing his or her best?

    It highlights the lack of absolutes when dealing with a virus, just because you’ve done everything recommended, it doesn’t guarantee a successful outcome.

    Absolutely correct. The Virus does not give a stuff about human endeavour. If blocked it just looks for another opportunity. Human pathology is incapable of fighting the Virus. We are creatures that crave to be outside communicating and inter mingling with others of our species.

    The virus just exploits these characteristics.

    The only answers are that herd immunity arises, there is an innoculation that works and the virus mutates in to something less lethal to humans.

    At the moment, the authorities are trying to manage the virus so as not to overwhelm ourl capacity to deal with the problem.

  18. The curfew for Melbournians from 8pm tonight till 5am tomorrow, and every subsequent day for 6 weeks is ‘shock and awe’ tactics.

    Has there ever been such a curfew before?

  19. Typical reaction. Childish. It’s only for 6 weeks.

    Adam Creighton
    @Adam_Creighton
    ·
    31m
    Shameful what’s occurring in Victoria.
    Effective dictatorship declared.
    Devastating, destructive power of the state on full display.
    Respect for the individual clearly irrelevant.
    What’s the point in being alive if you can’t live?

  20. There is a flaw in that the 5 km radius for shopping doesn’t work in some outer areas of Greater Melbourne. I hope this will be clarified.

  21. Rex
    The next election could be seen as too close to call because there are a number of seats that the ALP wouldn’t expect to retain – Nepean Bass Hawthorn Burwood Mount Waverley Ringwood and Box Hill then there is the super marginal Bayswater and South Barwon. The problem the Liberals have is a number of traditional marginal seats are currently held by large margins.

    http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/a/australia/states/vic/historic/pendulums/pendulum2018.txt

  22. BB why don’t you try and Be like c@t more? C@t is able to have respectful discussions from a labor viewpoint without resorting to abuse?

    Why don’t you try it ?

  23. lizzie @ #631 Sunday, August 2nd, 2020 – 1:35 pm

    Typical reaction. Childish. It’s only for 6 weeks.

    Adam Creighton
    @Adam_Creighton
    ·
    31m
    Shameful what’s occurring in Victoria.
    Effective dictatorship declared.
    Devastating, destructive power of the state on full display.
    Respect for the individual clearly irrelevant.
    What’s the point in being alive if you can’t live?

    The only shameful thing here are Creighton’s thoughts.

    What libertarian rubbish!

  24. “You’re one of those unusual examples of a clock that is never right even when stopped.” Good comment GG on this tiresome troll.
    LVT and the somewhat subdued Nath are locked once again in their dance of the arm-crossed boogie. Or is it the other way round? Either way it is ugly and repetitive.

  25. Nick Kyrgios has withdrawn from the US Open because of coronavirus concerns in a blow to the New York grand slam.

    The outspoken Australian tennis star on Sunday cited health and safety issues amid the Covid-19 pandemic as he joined world No.1 Ashleigh Barty in opting out of the Flushing Meadows major.

    “I will not be playing this year at the US Open,” Kyrgios said.

    “It hurts me at my core not to be out there competing in one of the sport’s greatest arenas, Arthur Ashe Stadium.

    “But I’m sitting out for the people, for my Aussies, for the hundreds and thousands of Americans that have lost their lives, for all of you. It’s my decision.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/aug/02/australian-nick-kyrgios-pulls-out-of-2020-us-open-due-to-coronavirus-pandemic?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=soc_568&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1596346786

  26. lizzie @ #638 Sunday, August 2nd, 2020 – 3:41 pm

    Ah, clarification: the nearest available supermarket.

    I was thinking the same thing. Just checked and ours is only 2.7 k away on the easiest route. My little dog is due at the groomers tomorrow but nothing mentioned about services like that. They were open right through lockdown one

  27. Mexicanbeemer @ #635 Sunday, August 2nd, 2020 – 3:38 pm

    Rex
    The next election could be seen as too close to call because there are a number of seats that the ALP wouldn’t expect to retain – Nepean Bass Hawthorn Burwood Mount Waverley Ringwood and Box Hill then there is the super marginal Bayswater and South Barwon. The problem the Liberals have is a number of traditional marginal seats are currently held by large margins.

    Those issues are now for either Jacinta Allen or James Merlino to plan for.

  28. I find it fascinating how posters who dare to make even the slightest suggestion on PB that the Andrews Government is in any way responsible for the large scale disaster unfolding in Melbourne are accused of “trolling.”

    Unless PB is a site reserved exclusively for rusted-on Labor supporters – William, please confirm that it isn’t – then it’s not trolling to post a contrary view to that of another poster.

    I amuse myself with the thought that, if Shorten had won the election last year, and a similar disaster had occurred in NSW, any poster who attempted to blame Shorten rather than Berejiklian would be instantly accused of “trolling”.

  29. Steve, I’m an independent.

    Not so sure that trump is finished though, he’s only 4 points behind in the latest independent poll. You would think he should be finished but there you have it.

  30. Can anyone who thinks it fair and reasonable to call Meher Baba a “troll”, as the unfailingly moronic Steve Davis appears to have just done, please permanently absent themselves from my website.

Comments Page 13 of 40
1 12 13 14 40

Leave a Reply

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