As reported by The Guardian, the latest fortnightly Essential Research poll finds approval of Scott Morrison’s handling of COVID-19 at 61%, which is off from a high of 72% in June. Approval ratings for state governments in New South Wales as well as Victoria are also trending gently downwards, with both having lost two points in the past fortnight, leaving them at 59% and 47% respectively. The Western Australian government continues to lead the field on 84%, though this too is down two on last time, with due regard to the very small sample size.
The poll also suggests Australians are unsentimental about civil liberties in the face of COVID-19, with 65% favouring closing the border to all foreign travellers and 52% supporting dedicated quarantine facilities for convalescents. Concerning outbreaks at aged care clinics, 42% blamed the providers, 30% the federal goverment and 28% state governments, and 70% believed the situation had been aggravated by long-term under-funding. The poll also gauged support for taxpayers to underwrite new gas infrastructure at 27% for, 27% against and 32% for neither. The poll was conducted from 1068 respondents from Thursday to Sunday; the pollster will publish its full report will be published later today.
UPDATE: Full report here. It should be noted that the 61% approval rating for handling of COVID-19 related to “the government” rather than Scott Morrison.
We also had on Friday one of the occasional Roy Morgan polls on federal voting intention, which finds the Coalition lead out to 54-46 from 51.5-48.5 when the last such poll was published in mid-July. The Coalition is up 2.5% on the primary vote to 46%, with Labor down one to 32.5%, the Greens steady on 11% and One Nation up half a point to 3%. The poll was conducted over the previous two weekends by phone and online interviewing from a sample of 2841.
Tom the first and best says:
Thursday, August 27, 2020 at 11:55 pm
Still too long – can do much damage.
Rex Douglas @ #1692 Thursday, August 27th, 2020 – 8:06 pm
But your perspective is pretty shit.
Wasn’t it your perspective that Labor owed their E-M victory to the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers!
http://kevinbonham.blogspot.com/2020/08/preference-flows-and-eden-monaro-result.html
https://twitter.com/davantelewis/status/1298967952365150209
New thread.
Timbo Thurs 8.30pm
Me too Timbo, The sniping and back biting insults practiced by the regulars on this blog turn me off to be honest. I now only check out the journos and cartoons and thank you BK for those