The latest fortnightly Essential Research survey includes the pollster’s monthly leadership ratings, which find Scott Morrison up three on approval to 66% and down two on approval to 25%, Anthony Albanese down four on approval to 40% and up four on disapproval to 39%, and Morrison holding a 53-24 lead as preferred prime minister, out from 50-25. There was also a six point increase in the government’s good rating on COVID-19 response to 67%, with the poor rating steady on 15%.
As it did a fortnight ago, the poll also asked about the mainland state premiers from the small sub-samples in the relevant states: Gladys Berejiklian was at 75% approval (up seven) and 17% disapproval (down four); Daniel Andrews at 65% approval (up four) and 28% disapproval (down five); Annastacia Palazczuk at 65% approval (steady) and 27% disapproval (up three); Mark McGowan at 87% (up nine) approval and 7% disapproval (down five); and Steven Marshall, who was not featured in last fortnight’s polling, at 60% approval and 21% disapproval. State government handling of COVID-19 was rated as good by 82% of respondents in Western Australia, 76% in South Australia, 75% in New South Wales, 71% in Queensland and 59% in Victoria.
Respondents were asked how much attention they had been paying to recent news stories, with 73% saying they had closely followed the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in Victoria, 68% the US presidential election, 36% the allegations of sexual misconduct raised by the ABC’s Four Corners, and 29% Joel Fitzgibbon’s resignation from the shadow cabinet. It also finds an easing in concern over COVID-19, with 27% rating themselves very concerned (down three), 44% quite concerned (down two), 23% not that concerned (up three) and 6% not at all concerned (up two). The peak of concern was in early August, when 50% were very concerned, 40% quite concerned, 7% not that concerned and 3% not at all concerned.
The poll was conducted Wednesday to Monday from a sample of 1010.
Vote Repug. Get The Plague ?
Teh vote.
Teh plague
Nit treatment:
Buy the cheapest conditioner you can in bulk. Smother child’s hair with it. Use nit comb.
No nits.
(Local hairdresser did the research, ended up working with a University in Queensland, and the local primary school had ‘nit combing days’ as a consequence)
Simon Katich
Great news,”zero, zip, none, zilch, nada cases” is the ‘gold standard’ when it comes to the performance of the Covid Safe App
SK: “Before or after the school closures? ”
After. But our school is notorious for having more outbreaks than just about any others: it’s an upper middle class private school where most of the parents are far too busy with their careers to have time to undertake the tedious task of systematically combing through their kids’ hair.
To be fair, the parents at the school also tend to be older than average, and our collective eyesight probably isn’t the best Even armed with a magnifying glass, I have always struggled to find the little buggers.
poroti:
Unsurprisingly coronavirus is surging in those states that refused or had tepid lockdowns. Again, unsurprisingly, the vast majority of those states have Republican governments.
meher
In that case, do the parents do their own hair? Because that’s often why nit infestations linger – you get nits from your kids, you remove their nits but your’s still provide a source of infestation for them.
Thanks BK for the Dawn Patrol. 😍
“I’m straining for a kind way to describe the proposition that “Trump would have won without COVID”. Not so much because it’s untrue, as that it’s simply the wrong way of looking at it. What other national leader has been done for by COVID?”
=====================
What other national leader has mishandled COVID as poorly as Trump has? Certainly not Ardern. It’s absurd to compare their handling of it. Apples and oranges!
It is painfully obvious that based on the disturbingly high level of support that he still maintained, even after four years of his nonsense, that Trump probably would have won had he handled the pandemic better. That is a sobering thought indeed.
zoomster: Shorten is indeed a good communicator in forums beyond the 5 second TV grab (where his zingers tended to grate a bit). Gillard was even better: I’ve seen her brilliantly work a room of the rich and important (well, let’s get it in perspective, the rich and important of Tasmania).
The problem with both of them was with the messages they were required to deliver. Gillard had to deal with the aftermath of the “no carbon tax” debacle along with her government’s unconvincing and rather ludicrous promises of a rapid return to budget surplus.
in the 2019 election, Shorten had to sell the heap of steaming crap which was purportedly a package of taxation and retirement reforms directed at the “big end of town”. In 2016 – when Labor’s campaigning was more focused on the government’s shortcomings than on trying to sell a bunch of unsaleable policies a la John Hewson in 1993 – Shorten did extremely well and came close to winning.
With all the criticisms of Albo I read on this forum and elsewhere, the man has the sense to appreciate the stupidity of running with policies that are going to take money away from many hundreds of thousands of voters.
In terms of the supposed need for him to do more attacking of the government: they’ve done pretty well at keeping themselves as a small target. Abbott was handed his lines on a platter with Gillard’s “carbon tax” blunder, the stupid promises of a return to surplus, the stumbling response to the rapid rise in unauthorised boat arrivals, etc. The Morrison Government hasn’t provided any such targets: Robodebt perhaps, but it’s a difficult thing to explain to the voters.
Also, we are in the middle of a national crisis, and some disconnected voters see attacks on the government which is trying to deal with that crisis as being unhelpful and even disloyal. We can see how badly the Liberal attacks on Andrews have played with the Victorian public.
IMO, Albo generally is doing the right thing in keeping his powder dry, although perhaps the time has come to launch a few attacks in Parliament purely for the purpose of keeping the rusted-ons happy.
BK @ #1349 Sunday, November 22nd, 2020 – 7:42 am
She is ripe for a LNP ministry job.
Primary school dont have a clue how to handle her. She asked me yesterday why sound echos – it is not an object, how can it bounce back off things. Sheesh.
As for nits. Yes, cheap conditioner and a good comb. Forget the chemicals. But you have to get the birdsnests out first.
Allizom:
Covid certainly amplified Trump’s abject incompetence and uselessness in the job.
‘…along with her government’s unconvincing and rather ludicrous promises of a rapid return to budget surplus.’
And yet Morrison was allowed to get away with ‘Back in Black’!
(Which sort of is my point: the media bias which hammers Gillard for ‘accepting the premise of your question’ in order to move an interview along, yet lets the Coalition get away with a claim which you didn’t have to be particularly economically literate to know was highly dubious….)
zoomster: “In that case, do the parents do their own hair? Because that’s often why nit infestations linger – you get nits from your kids, you remove their nits but your’s still provide a source of infestation for them.”
The schools tell parents to do their own hair. I have certainly always done so. But I reckon lots of parents who are short on time resort to using the poisonous remedies on their kids and on themselves, with mixed success. Our school is quite inclined to send kids home if the teacher sights nits in their hair, which can be a tad embarrassing for the parents who are prominent pollies or high-powered medical and legal types.
It’s one of the very few things I won’t miss when my last child reaches adulthood.
zoomster: “And yet Morrison was allowed to get away with ‘Back in Black’!”
I thought “Back in Black” really wasn’t such an outrageous claim at the time it was made.
The real media crime was letting Abbott and Hockey continually imply that they could quickly get the budget back in surplus without cutting anything because surpluses were “in the Liberals’ DNA”. (Now, of course, it seems that the Libs are in urgent need of a fiscal bone marrow transplant.)
The Mooch agrees with me. He obviously knows stuff!
…………
Anthony Scaramucci
@Scaramucci
Final Days Trumpism: it is way worse than we originally thought. Criminal investigations and felony indictments. There will be no Trump hold on the GOP— just watch how quickly this happens. Btw Trump had no negotiating leverage and he knows it.
4:34 AM · Nov 22, 2020·Twitter for iPhone
I think the ‘what if there was no COVID’ is a fair discussion around Trumps reelection prospects- we nit-pick every other minor detail of politics and history……and it is interesting to hear peoples take on it, as it is not black and white one way or the other.
As people said, if he handled it half-competently he probably be re-elected like other leaders that have done their best.
Victoria @ #1365 Sunday, November 22nd, 2020 – 8:47 am
It’s why Don Sr has Don Jr and Kimberley Squawking Guilfoyle trying to take over the GOP as well right now. It’s not succeeding but it shows you how well Trump war games potential scenarios. I mean, he’s reported as having been war-gaming the post-election ‘the voters stole my win!’ scenario since January of this year, fcs! A plan for winning and a Plan B for if he lost.
Vic:
There are 30-40% of American voters who say there will be a Trump hold on the GOP. You can see it playing out as Don Jnr is headed for the chair of the RNC, Eric’s wife is running for office, and Donald’s tantrum about the election results is going to be used to try as a platform for his 2024 run.
meher baba,
You need to get out of the Upper Middle Class Tasmanian bubble which appears to be colouring your thinking about Labor leaders’ speaking prowess in recent times and you could start by reacquainting yourself with this speech for a start:
https://www.juliagillard.com.au/the-misogyny-speech/
Also, just for balance, could someone point me to a globally-electrifying speech that a recent Liberal leader and PM has made?
Bringing people together in order to fight an enemy that he didn’t believe could hurt him was so much against Trump’s philosophy that he couldn’t have done it. His battles are all created for himself to his own advantage.
Simon Katich @ #1324 Sunday, November 22nd, 2020 – 7:15 am
Fair enough. My bad.
C@t
What good idea. Has Scotty ever ‘inspired’ anyone?
Trump has spent 4 years winding back all the good stuff Obama did, so it stands to reason he’d assume Biden would automatically do the same to his ‘achievements’ in office. But this is taking it to extremes. He’s such a thin-skinned individual.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/21/us/politics/trump-biden-transition.html
c@tmomma: “meher baba,
You need to get out of the Upper Middle Class Tasmanian bubble which appears to be colouring your thinking about Labor leaders’ speaking prowess in recent times and you could start by reacquainting yourself with this speech for a start:”
Did you read my post? I praised both Gillard and Shorten as communicators and then observed that they had problems with the messages they were being asked to sell. Gillard’s misogyny speech was an example of her amazing prowess as an orator: an occasion on which she had the opportunity to drive home a strong message in which she truly believed.
I have been lucky enough to have a number of conversations with Gillard and confess to being a bit starstruck by her. In person she is incredibly impressive: open, warm, clever self-deprecating and funny in a way that you rarely find with politicians, most of whom tend to have a touch of the used car salesman about them.
I would have thought that my enormous enthusiasm for Gillard would have come through in my posting over the years. Her removal from the leadership in 2013 was the trigger for my continuing estrangement from Labor since that time. It has always coloured my attitude towards both Shorten and Albo, and is why I have so much enthusiasm for a rapid jump to the next generation: O’Neil, Husic and perhaps Chalmers, although I’m still a bit underwhelmed by the latter: notwithstanding his possession of that allegedly priceless asset, a Queensland birth certificate.
Victoria has recorded a 23rd consecutive day of no new COVID-19 cases.
VicGovDHHS@VicGovDHHS·
Yesterday there were 0 new cases and 0 lost lives reported. There is 1 active case remaining. We received 10,530 test results
In his ostensibly gentle way, Speers goes straight for the jugular with Angus Campbell.
Good point, kind of made, by David Speers about the Afghan war crimes investigation…where has been the response by former leader of the Armed Forces, Governor General David Hurley?
Struck dumb as usual it seems.
Angus Campbell appears to be a very honest broker under the difficult circumstances he faces.
Most posters on PB greatly underrate Speers. Rather than go hard in an objectionable Richard Carleton sort of way, he focuses on attempting to ask incisive questions. And, if he doesn’t get a good answer, he’s quite happy to ask the same question again and again.
On the whole, I reckon he’s pretty good at what he does.
I wish the ABC would stop replaying the illegal shooting of those innocent Afghans. How does it help?
“Also, just for balance, could someone point me to a globally-electrifying speech that a recent Liberal leader and PM has made?”
===================
Here’s one you will like! I’m not sure that “globally-electrifying” is the right way to describe this, but it was certainly a globally significant speech which heralded the beginning of Australia’s involvement in a catastrophic war that never should have happened…
Howard’s statement to Parliament on Iraq
Mr Speaker, my purpose today is to explain to the House and through it to the Australian people the government’s belief that the world community must deal decisively with Iraq; why Iraq’s continued defiance of the United Nations and its possession of chemical and biological weapons and its pursuit of a nuclear capability poses a real and unacceptable threat to the stability and security of our world; why the matters at stake go to the very credibility of the United Nations itself; why the issue is of direct concern to Australia and why, therefore, the Australian government has authorised the forward positioning of elements of the Australian Defence Force in the Persian Gulf.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/howards-statement-to-parliament-on-iraq-20030204-gdg7v5.html
Yep, Gillard’s speech was certainly much better.
Body cameras?
The police have them and turn them off.
meher baba,
I know you subsequently elucidated wrt Former PM Julia Gillard. It just seemed passing strange to have made the original point which you made apropos Labor’s recent federal leadership, whilst not assessing the team from the other side. I wasn’t attempting to be overtly critical just the devil’s advocate.
Oh, and there’s this one that seems to have escaped your assessment 🙂
https://info.australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/our-people/apology-to-australias-indigenous-peoples
Even if it was probably written by James Button. However, micromanager Rudd would have had significant input. 😀
You have got to be kidding me! So now you lot care about war crimes? Ha!
meher baba @ #1380 Sunday, November 22nd, 2020 – 6:11 am
Agreed. I dismiss most of the criticism of Speers here as simply partisan whining.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/pallas-zaps-electric-cars-with-road-charge-20201121-p56gp3.html
Disgusted with this.
Allizom @ #1386 Sunday, November 22nd, 2020 – 9:16 am
I don’t agree that I, in particular, ‘care about war crimes’ all of a sudden. What I do acknowledge is that these things have always happened in war theatres and while they will always be wrong, I am not so naive as to think that this report or outrage from the general populace will lead to their elimination into the future. I have respect for every human life but am realistic enough to see that to some, at certain times and in certain situations, some lives are worth less to some than others. Especially as far as desensitised, trained killers are concerned.
c@t: please don’t ask me to praise anything Rudd was involved with. Like a number of other celebrated speeches made by White men, Rudd’s Sorry speech was a bunch of wonderful words with not much substance behind them.
I’m still waiting for the truly great public speech on Indigenous issues, which will come from an Indigenous leader with a coherent and inspiring vision of how we can all go on living together in this land in a just and meaningful way. I reckon it will come from a smart and charismatic Indigenous woman: Marcia Langton has come close on occasions, but I think it will one of the younger leaders, hopefully from a seat in Parliament.
James Button is ok IMO. I was a big fan of his father: a man who brought a wonderful sense of ironic detachment to his political career.
Ah, Brendan O’Connor. Just the sort of young, dynamic, moderate Labor pollie who will win back the voters in the suburbs.
To be fair to Brendan: he’s quite smart and he’s going ok. But Shadow Cabinet currently features too many like him and not enough in the way of young up and comers with a bit of charisma.
I appreciate that I sound like the average poster on a footy blog: “come on, play the kids, get some games into them”.
But Federal Labor is currently dominated by late Boomers/early Gen Xers and is thereby struggling to cut through with the Millenials.
“I don’t agree that I, in particular, ‘care about war crimes’ all of a sudden.”
***
Unsurprisingly, you missed the point. Either that or you don’t realise who I am…
You’ve been fawning over an American war crim for months because that’s what you were told to do. Now the US Election is over, suddenly war crimes matter to you. What convenient timing!
Googling “Chinese grievances with Australia”. Not the first search that would ever occur to me.
Ok so I’m not sure what was going on the other day. Thought William had banned Firefox again but seems not. Or maybe he unbanned me? Or maybe there was just something buggy that was preventing my posts from showing up. Either way…
meher baba @ #1391 Sunday, November 22nd, 2020 – 9:30 am
He was actually quite an effective spokesman in that interview.
Scott Morrison, Flim Flam Man.
William
Yes. Just like President George W Bush with the Global Financial Crisis.
That is what the two have in common.
It’s not something any political campaign can count on. If Trump had been competent just like Bush wasn’t. Not forgetting the competence coming up over the Hurricane thing too.
Labor can link competence and lack of empathy to Morrison as well. Just like they were able to with the Victorian Opposition.
Bushfires
Robodebt etc
They can then link this with why the LNP are incompetent in today’s era.
Recast Ronald Reagan’s words.
Now make it. The most scary words you will hear. I am from the government I am not going to help you.
Edit: to empathise Labor needs to campaign on how cruel the LNP are. How incompetent. How that blocks the voters economic aspiration.
So we must assume that any aggressive troll who pops up is just Firefox in disguise?
Okayyyyyy.