As brought to you by The Australian, Newspoll maintains its sedentary ways in its latest poll, which repeats the previous result three weeks ago in recording a dead head on two-party preferred. Labor is up a point on the primary vote to 37%, while the Coalition on 42%, the Greens on 10% and One Nation on 3% are all unchanged. Despite a seemingly difficult week for Scott Morrison, he gains one on approval to 64% and drops one on disapproval to 32% and widens his lead as preferred prime minister from 57-29 to 61-26, as Anthony Albanese drops three on approval to 38% and rises two on disapproval to 45%. The poll was conducted Wednesday to Saturday from a sample of 1504.
There was also a poll on Friday from Roy Morgan, which sometimes publishes its regular federal voting intention polling and sometimes doesn’t. In this case Labor was credited with a bare lead of 50.5-49.5, from primary votes of Coalition 40%, Labor 34.5%, the Greens 13% and One Nation 3.5%. The poll was conducted over the previous two weekends online and by phone from a sample of 2824.
Between Newspoll, Roy Morgan and Essential Research, there are now three pollsters who rate the situation as steady of with Labor fractionally ahead. This is reflected in the BludgerTrack poll aggregate, now updated with the above results on both the voting intention and leadership rating trends, which has Labor edging ahead to a 50.2-49.8 lead.
Lizzie, if it makes you feel any better, while Morrison might “win the week” with the vaccine rollout, it’s unlikely that sugar high will last until the election. There’s plenty of examples of someone having the electorate behind them in a time of crisis but still going on to lose the following election, Anna Bligh in 2012 and Winston Churchill in 1945 are two examples (albeit radically different.)
I know quite a few people who think Morrison (and our Liberal Premier) are doing a good with the pandemic but will still vote Labor at the next respective elections because they have bills to pay and patting someone on the back for crisis management isn’t their priority.
Just who are you really trying to convince with all that nonsense, me or yourself? The truly obsessed ones around here are the old-fashioned “Bronwyn Bishops” who spend their days railing against socialists every 5 seconds and attacking the Greens over nothing.
Northern Ireland parties take legal action against Brexit deal
DUBLIN (Reuters) – Members of Northern Ireland’s two largest pro-British parties are set to take part in legal action challenging part of Britain’s divorce deal with the European Union, the parties said on Sunday.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) are to join other pro-British figures to challenge the Northern Ireland Protocol, which has created trade barriers between the British region and the rest of the United Kingdom.
The protocol, which is designed to protect the European Union’s single market without creating a land border on the island of Ireland, has caused significant disruption to trade since it came into force at the start of the year.
Some British companies have halted deliveries to Northern Ireland and some supermarkets have been left with empty shelves.
The DUP said several senior members would join “other likeminded unionists” as named parties in judicial review proceedings challenging the Northern Ireland Protocol’s compatibility with Act of Union 1800, the Northern Ireland Act of 1998 and the Belfast Agreement, it said in a statement.
“Neither the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Northern Ireland Executive nor the people of Northern Ireland consented to the Protocol being put in place or the flow of goods from GB to NI being impeded by checks,” said DUP leader and Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-nireland/northern-ireland-parties-take-legal-action-against-brexit-deal-idUSKBN2AL0EW
lizzie @ #98 Monday, February 22nd, 2021 – 9:40 am
The photos were courtesy of my taskbar Microsoft roundups.
Along with the Badger photo there was one of field mice… I guess we could imagine a rerun of “Wind in the Willows” with Badger, Ratty and Moly armed with stout cudgels belabouring dickheads of our choice.
Off to consult with my GP. Fun and frolic for all. 😷
In the meanwhile repeat after me …“Fuggim”.
Advocates say new Georgia GOP voting bill targets Black voters
(CNN) Georgia voting rights groups are denouncing a sweeping voting bill introduced this week by Republican state legislators as a “direct attack on democracy” and on Black voters.
The bill comes as Georgia has become ground zero for election law changes in the wake of the 2020 election. Republicans in the state, citing baseless allegations of voter fraud pushed by former President Donald Trump and other GOP officials, have moved to roll back access to mail-in voting and early voting.
The Republican House bill would give counties less time to send out absentee ballots and do away with Sunday voting, among other measures.
“After stunning losses in the general election and January runoffs, it’s no mystery why Georgia Republicans have rushed to enact restrictions on early, absentee and weekend voting.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/19/politics/georgia-gop-voting-bill-black-voters/index.html
Arlene Machiavelli @ #102 Monday, February 22nd, 2021 – 9:47 am
Lol.
Is Scott Morrison saying here that he expects this sort of thing to continue!?!
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/21/staff-rebuked-over-failure-to-advise-him-of-brittany-higgins-allegations-scott-morrison-says
Ted Cruz has repeatedly slammed politicians for vacationing during crisis
(CNN) Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is facing backlash for traveling to Mexico as a winter disaster ravages his home state, has repeatedly criticized politicians who vacationed or took part in leisure activities during times of crisis, a CNN KFile review finds.
This past December, Cruz attacked Austin Mayor Steve Adler for going to Cabo, Mexico, during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Hypocrites. Complete and utter hypocrites. And don’t forget @MayorAdler who took a private jet with eight people to Cabo and WHILE IN CABO recorded a video telling Austinites to ‘stay home if you can…this is not the time to relax,'” tweeted Cruz in December.
Cruz is now facing criticism of his own for traveling to Cancún, Mexico, from Houston with his family Wednesday night as a winter storm left millions of Texans without power or water and disrupted the state’s efforts to distribute the coronavirus vaccine.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/18/politics/vacationing-during-crisis-ted-cruz/index.html
Much of this from George Monbiot is relevant to Australia, although Starmer and Albanese are very different.
https://twitter.com/DoubleDownNews/status/1363458601612959751?s=20
Rational Leftist
Thank you. I also agree with you about the media treatment of Prince Charles. I have felt sorry for him all his (and my) life. He was a very lonely little eldest child (apparently Andrew was “the favourite”). He was laughed at for being a conservationist “talks to the plants. He’s mad”) and the sainted Diana used her popularity to shame him.
The covid booing is complicated by the presence of Djokovic and his fans…after his covid denial, partying, infection , lockdown whinging. Etc.
See? Told you it had to be #FakeNews! It was just a brief, jocular conversation and the quote from Biden must have been taken out of context. Our Joe would never suggest giving Bush a medal, let alone hang one around his neck. He was just making a joke about invading a country. Hahaha! So hilarious.
lizzie @ #98 Monday, February 22nd, 2021 – 6:40 am
Sounds like you need to take a break from politics, including PB. I know it’s easy to get sucked into the minutiae when you spend all day every day here, but having a break from the 24hr news and PB will help you regain your sense of perspective. You’ll probably feel a lot better about life too.
lizzie
Surely dave’s post counts as good news?
On the climate change front, there has been some genuinely good news since Biden’s election, both his actions in USA, and the encouragement it has given to other countries to make major commitments towards meeting Paris targets.
https://www.climateworksaustralia.org/news/good-news-in-climate-solutions-december/
And the technology for both batteries and electric cars is genuinely advancing rapidly in both performance (greater) and production cost (falling). Hydrogen is just hype but BEVs are shaping up as a solution.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesellsmoor/2019/05/20/are-electric-vehicles-really-better-for-the-environment/?sh=75f8270176d2
Mentioning Australian progress in either of these respects would not fit your category of “good news”.
dave:
I said the other day, Ted Cruz flying to Mexico during the storm and saying he was looking out for his family is like that time Chris Christie closed beaches during a govt shutdown and then took his family to the beach to have it all to themselves:
Although we were all incensed yesterday by ScoMo’s oafish manhandling of the little old lady who was first to be vaccinated his disgraceful behaviour didn’t amke it to the nightly news or the front page of the newspapers.
Remember the hullaballoo when Julia Gillard lost her shoe being hustled past protestors who had assembled to tell Tony Abbott what they thought of him
Murdoch and Nine are still protecting him as they now have their shakedown money from Google
So, the upshot of this Newspoll is that it is still possible for Labor to win (but bludgers should remember they were further ahead in the polls last time around and still lost) … but Albo? Not so much 🙁
Seeing that photo reminds me…
Whoever set up Australia’s land system was very far seeing. Unlike Britain, rivers are bordered by Crown Land, and so (to a large extent) are beaches.
This not only means that access to these is open to all, but that there aren’t (as a general rule) houses plonked right on the beach, as seems to be the case in many other countries.
Given that this doesn’t seem to be something we transported from the UK, I’ve often wondered (and tried to research) how we ended up with this system.
Last night the story broke of a third woman accusing the same Liberal Party staffer of rape. I expected this to be another blow against the Liberal Government. This morning it’s hard to find that story. Maybe it says more about me, but the ABC is the only news outlet that I regularly visit to carry this news. If I bingoogle “third woman accuses” and I can find other reports, but I wonder. Do three accusations dilute the intense focus on the first accusation? Is it no longer a story about what he knew, when, and what he did then? Is it becoming another story about a “lone wolf” predator? Does Morrison now have the cover he was looking for?
billie @ #114 Monday, February 22nd, 2021 – 10:09 am
‘Although we were all incensed yesterday by ScoMo’s oafish manhandling of the little old lady who was first to be vaccinated his disgraceful behaviour didn’t amke it to the nightly news or the front page of the newspapers.’
As I’ve observed many times in the past.
PB is an echo chamber.
The punters live in a parallel universe.
Most voters simply don’t see Smirko the way most of us here do.
Alpha Zero @ #67 Monday, February 22nd, 2021 – 8:21 am
Reminds me of ProMo’s ministrations towards Jane yesterday. Faux caring.
Hmm. FauxMo has a certain ring to it. 🙂
Anyone that is expecting to see rapid and severe changes in Newspoll figures are not accounting for the algorithms by which the two party figures are created. Especially so since the modifications following the last election. Perhaps the satisfaction with political leaders and preferred PM may be a little less smoothed?
Penny Wong. Bless her.
Confessions @ #111 Monday, February 22nd, 2021 – 10:04 am
You might even learn to love Scrooter like a regular Aussie 🙂
mundo @ #120 Monday, February 22nd, 2021 – 10:16 am
Yes but there is a grey area of people who don’t post on PB but read it and if we weren’t here they may go elsewhere and not get the unfiltered view we provide for them. 🙂
lizzie @ #121 Monday, February 22nd, 2021 – 10:17 am
If only Labor could get angry.
Does Scott Morrison remind anyone of Sergeant Schultz? “I know nothing!” “I see nothing!”
mundo @ #126 Monday, February 22nd, 2021 – 10:19 am
She sounds pretty angry to me. What do you want her to do? F and blind?
sprocket_ @ #54 Monday, February 22nd, 2021 – 7:28 am
And this is who the Liberals were calling ‘a rising star’ until last week.
‘dave says:
Monday, February 22, 2021 at 9:49 am
Northern Ireland parties take legal action against Brexit deal’
In a major act of bad faith, Johnson introduced a Bill which was designed to break the Interim Agreement.
Now this.
Greens to put inequality at centre of election campaign after billionaires make out ‘like bandits’
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, says he wants the next election to be a referendum on inequality as well as climate action because the coronavirus pandemic has meant ordinary people have suffered while “billionaires and big corporations are making out like bandits”.
Bandt will use a speech to the Greens’ national conference on Sunday to outline his party’s strategy for the next federal election, which he predicts will be later this year.
“Before the pandemic, workers’ share of income in Australia had sunk to the lowest level in history, while corporate profits reached record highs,” Bandt will say, according to a text of his national conference speech.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/21/greens-to-put-inequality-at-centre-of-election-campaign-after-billionaires-make-out-like-bandits
At least the Greens are sticking up for everyday Australians. Meanwhile, the Lib/Lab duopoly give tax cuts to the rich elite and continue to allow many companies to avoid paying their fair share.
*snip*
premature slip of the digit
Socrates:
Monday, February 22, 2021 at 9:27 am
[‘I think simply calling the crowd “idiots” is being too kind. The crowd at a tennis final is probably wealthy and well connected, because only they can afford the tickets.’]
Yes, that was my impression when I viewed it, plus a gut full of piss (Moet?) would have made them more vocal. I don’t think Andrews has got anything to worry about, as this group was unrepresentative, most likely mainly Toorak/South Yarra toffs, the Chair of AO calling them
“opinionated”.
Xi and his minions won’t be happy –
U.K. Calls for UN Action in China, Myanmar, Russia and Belarus
U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will call on the United Nations to take action against “systemic” human rights violations in China, Myanmar, Russia and Belarus in a speech to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday.
According to the Foreign Office, Raab will say the situation in China’s Xinjiang province is “beyond the pale”, and reported abuses — including torture, forced labor and sterilization of women — are taking place on an “industrial scale.”
Raab will call for the UN high commissioner for human rights to be given “urgent and unfettered access” to Xinjiang, the Foreign Office said in an emailed statement.
It comes as the U.K. returns to the UN Human Rights Council, which is made up of 47 UN member states, as a voting member.
On Russia, Raab will point to the “disgraceful” treatment of opposition leader Alexey Navalny and warn the country is “failing to meet its international obligations.” He will also declare a “human rights crisis” in Belarus following President Alexander Lukashenko’s “brutal crackdown” against protesters.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-21/u-k-calls-for-un-action-in-china-myanmar-russia-and-belarus?srnd=premium-asia
C@t
“Morrison said he hoped the reviews he had ordered over the past week would lead to an improvement of the culture”
He “hopes”?
It’s his job to make sure it happens. He’s talking as if it has nothing to do with him. Does he think he’s done his bit?
It could never last!
Sweet little Arlene Machiavelli, predictable transforms back to ugly and vindictive Firefox.
😆
Must-watch videos
(CNN) A Trump tower goes down
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/19/world/videos-of-the-week-mobile-february-19/index.html
An awful lot of ‘Bandt will note’ in that article….
Yes, Barney, but there’s always Theo.
That DT front page makes me want to puke…
Daily Telegraph front pages often have that effect on people.
Teh Chermans saying ‘nein’ to UK vaccine. Brexit ? WWI+WWII ? 🙂
.
.
Germans are turning down Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine
At the Tegel vaccination centres in Berlin, which give only the AstraZeneca product, fewer than 200 people are turning up for the 3,800 daily appointments.
The vaccine’s reputation has been undermined by briefings against the jabs by politicians from across Europe and by a decision in Germany not to use the vaccine for the over-65s,
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/germans-are-turning-down-oxford-astrazeneca-covid-vaccine-hpvh6rh6r
Non paywalled article from German paper (in English)
.
COVID: AstraZeneca vaccine remains unpopular in Germany
https://www.dw.com/en/covid-astrazeneca-vaccine-remains-unpopular-in-germany/a-56630827
There are no ‘new’ Brexit rules.
With the exception of specific issues covering the NI/Republic border, all the rules are the same old EU rules that the EU applies to external trading partners. That British companies are being surprised by these rules shows that (a) their boards have been remarkably slack and (b) that they have received zilch support from the Tories in getting ready for the transition to Britain’s new trade status with the EU.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/feb/21/sussex-medicines-firm-takes-production-line-abroad-white-van-beat-brexit-ban
C@tmomma @ #126 Monday, February 22nd, 2021 – 10:21 am
Looking forward to seeing Penny on the evening news letting it rip at the extraordinary press conference she called to vent her spleen.
‘dave says:
Monday, February 22, 2021 at 10:47 am
…
Raab will call for the UN high commissioner for human rights to be given “urgent and unfettered access” to Xinjiang, the Foreign Office said in an emailed statement.
…’
About as much chance of that as the WHO Team getting urgent and unfettered access to China’s Covid data. Zip.
It will be heartwarming to observe the huge international bustle as the West’s leftist leaders, leftist intellectuals and leftist NGO organizations queue up to cheer Raab for this.
As for the UN, with Fiji holding the Chair of the human rights thingy, we can confidently expect plenty of public demands for action as well.
barney
“Sweet little Arlene Machiavelli, predictable transforms back to ugly and vindictive Firefox.”
What happened to his/her other nom de plume, Theo Something-Or-Other?
Sexism is ingrained in our culture. Very deeply ingrained. It is phobic, at the core. We have to disarm the phobias….somehow. I’m not sure how. But this is the guts of it. Hate. We live with hate in our midst. We all have to deal with this, imo. It’s not something to delegate to others. We have to do it singly and collectively. It is a long struggle. It will not resolve by itself. It is a struggle for redemption from violence and from despair. It is a struggle for emancipation. It is a struggle for peace. We must find courage in ourselves and each other, as Rosie Batty, Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins have shown us. We have to learn from them. We must.
Arlene Machiavelli @ #131 Monday, February 22nd, 2021 – 10:37 am
You are a one Green-eyed joke. Just continue to regurgitate your Greens garbage while taking no notice of what Labor are doing to address the exact same issue. Dolt. God I wish Dr Bowe would expose you as the sock puppet of Firefox you so obviously are.
Mavis
Further on the representativeness of the AO Final crowd, the cheapest seat at the AO Men’s Final was $550 each, ranging up to $990. Not many families will be taking the kids to that.
By comparison the AFL Final ticket price was frozen at $185, despite the Covid numbers restriction, and a preliminary final ticket was $65. AFL final tickets get rationed to clubs because they are affordable and so lots of people want them.
Tennis final tickets are purely supply and demand i.e. whatever the market will bear. So a completely different class of people turn up to each. Watching high level tennis at the stadium has become an elitist passtime, with apologies to fans who just like tennis.
mundo @ #143 Monday, February 22nd, 2021 – 11:10 am
You mean the one that will have no time for her due to being full of Scott Morrison’s latest tickle of the electorate’s amygdala? Don’t hold your breath.
At least some people get it(from The Age’s article by Sumaya Illanbey today, a reader comment):
Looking forward to seeing Penny on the evening news letting it rip at the extraordinary press conference she called to vent her spleen.
It seems to me that Penny has spoken with her characteristic clarity, intensity and logic. She has well-made her point. If you’re angry, do something constructive with your feelings instead of attempting to deride Penny for a lack of passion. She is not at fault here. Your attempt to deride her is in itself sexist. It is itself phobic.