Essential Research: COVID-19, leader attributes and more

A new poll finds a dip in the federal government’s still strong ratings on COVID-19, with only a small minority of respondents planning to skip the vaccine.

The latest fortnightly Essential Research poll does not include leader ratings or voting intention, but does have the following:

• The regular question on COVID-19 response finds the federal government’s good rating suffering a seven point dip to 62%, returning it to where it was for several months before an uptick in November, with the poor rating up two to 14%. The small sample results for mainland state governments also record a drop for the Victorian government, whose good rating is down ten to 49%, while the New South Wales government holds steady at 72% and the Queensland government’s drops three to 73%. As ever, particular caution must be taken with the Western Australian and South Australian results given the sample sizes, but they respectively retain the best (down three to 85%) and second best (down one to 78%) results out of the five.

• The poll finds 50% of respondents saying they will get vaccinated as soon as possible, 40% that they will do so but not straight away, and 10% that they will never get vaccinated. Variation by voting intention is within the margin of error. By way of contrast, a US poll conducted by Monmouth University last month produced the same 50% result for the “soon as possible option”, but had “likely will never get the vaccine” markedly higher at 24%. This increased to 42% among Republicans, and doesn’t that just say it all.

• The poll includes a pared back version of the pollster’s semi-regular suite of questions on leaders’ attributes in relation to Scott Morrison, but not Anthony Albanese. The consistent pattern here is that Morrison is a bit less highly rated than he was last May, but substantially stronger than he was during the bushfire crisis in January. However, he has done notably better on “good in a crisis” (from 32% last January to 66% in May to the current 59%) than “out of touch” (from 62% to 47% and now back up to 59%), whereas his gains since January on “more honest than most politicians” (now 50%), “trustworthy” (52%) and “visionary” (41%) are all either 11% or 12%. Two new questions have been thrown into the mix: “in control of their team” and “avoids responsibility”, respectively 56% at 49%.

• Respondents were asked to respond to a series of propositions concerning “the recent allegations of rape and sexual assault from women working in Parliament”, which found 65% agreeing the government has been “more interested in protecting itself than the interests of those who have been assaulted”. Forty-five per cent felt there was “no difference in the way the different political parties treat women”, though the view was notably more prevalent among men (54%) than women (37%), and among those at the conservative end of the voting spectrum (53% among Coalition voters, 41% among Labor voters and 30% among Greens voters).

• A number of questions on tech companies found an appetite for stronger regulation, including 76% support for forcing them to remove misinformation from their platforms.

The poll was conducted Wednesday to Monday from a sample of 1074; full results here.

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.

2,565 comments on “Essential Research: COVID-19, leader attributes and more”

Comments Page 4 of 52
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  2. boerwar says:
    Wednesday, March 3, 2021 at 12:07 pm

    “Must pay $100,000 plus to S H-Y who will pass it along to charity.”

    Whale Watching?

  3. The next major hurdle to an early election is the slow vaccination rate.

    It will need to be over 60,000 a day to get to something like 75% of the population by the end of the year. It is currently running at under 5,000.

  4. In relative Morrison terms this is good news on the economy. We have recovered almost as much ground as we have lost in 2020.

    “Katharine Murphy
    @murpharoo
    ·
    46m
    New from the ABS. The Australian economy rose 3.1% in seasonally adjusted chain volume measures in the December quarter. Through the year, GDP fell 1.1% #auspol”

  5. Steve777 says:
    Wednesday, March 3, 2021 at 12:17 pm

    “It is currently running at under 5,000.”

    Oh, well, that’s it – we’re buggered. There’s no way they could increase above 5,000 a day – no way. Completely stalled – there will never be more vaccines, more staff, more centres – this is it – 5,000 a day is the MAXIMUM. Apparently.

  7. Steve

    “The next major hurdle to an early election is the slow vaccination rate.

    It will need to be over 60,000 a day to get to something like 75% of the population by the end of the year. It is currently running at under 5,000.”

    Scotty doesn’t hold a syringe. What are the States doing about this Commonwealth responsibility?

  9. It’s a national disgrace that Hunt can’t get his pricks properly lined up.

    By the time the Coalition is finished with them, the military will be left with subs that can’t swim, fighters that are too expensive to fly, and a military that is only useful for defending war crimes, political grandstanding, and jabbing Australians.

  12. Bucephalus
    No, the money will go to Plan International and the South Australian Working Women’s Centre.

    If the whale watching comment was a joke, I didn’t get it.

    I find SHY grating (as I do most Greens politicians). But she had my 100% support against egregious turd Leyonhjelm.

  13. “Third woman accuses NY governor of sexual harassment”

    “A third woman has accused Andrew Cuomo of inappropriate behaviour, less than 24 hours after the New York governor formally referred himself for investigation over similar allegations from two former aides.

    Mr Cuomo has faced growing criticism, including from within his own Democratic Party, for suggesting the two ex-aides had “misinterpreted” him.

    Anna Ruch, 33, told The New York Times she met Mr Cuomo at a wedding in September 2019. During the reception, he put his hand on her bare lower back — which she pushed away — and asked if he could kiss her.”

    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/third-woman-accuses-ny-governor-of-sexual-harassment/news-story/4c3cdfcdf43a08bc828716718b40a253

    Of course, if it was a Conservative it would be worse.

  18. ““Rape trial by media is a threat to justice””

    Says The Australian. When it’s one of our guys. Nobody gives a fuck what this rag thinks and as soon as the old bloke pops his clogs it will be gone. Market forces and that sort of thing.

  20. The funny thing about right-wing scum is that they make sneery implications about where the money is going (even when it is well publicised on the public record) when a left-winger sues for gross defamation, but when one of his fellow scum bring a defamation action (or just threaten) to shut up information getting out about their gross conduct, he is silent as the grave.

  21. Buce
    “1988 – I can’t even remember if I was rubbing nasties with anyone let alone who they were. I’m pretty sure I was but trying to recall anything specific now? Very sketchy.”

    General day to day living without traumatic impact is the difference.
    Mundane stuff I can’t remember but an assault of more than 47 years ago is in the present in every detail. You park these events & try to forget & get on with life. Then anything could trigger the memory. It might only be fleeting but it’s there.
    How must this girl have felt? My attacker was an opportunistic stranger. This alleged attack was by all accounts a”friend” who moved in the same circles.
    You don’t forget!
    I don’t want any discussion on my self but you must understand, the passage of time in these cases is irrelevant.

  22. boerwar @ #157 Wednesday, March 3rd, 2021 – 12:23 pm

    Frydenberg up fudging the figures and running a few unicorns on behalf of an alleged anal rapist ministerial colleague.

    Frydenberg is famous for lavishing his corporate mates and donors with taxpayers money, tormenting low income recipients on centrelink payments and a record $60B budget miscalculation.

    Worst treasurer since GOLDen boy Costello.

  23. Roy Orbisonsays:
    Wednesday, March 3, 2021 at 12:34 pm

    From the article:

    “It is relevant to raise the Bill Shorten issue from August 2014 when Shorten named himself as the Labor figure who had been investigated by Victorian Police in relation to alleged historical sexual assault. The police found no basis on which to proceed. Shorten then said the claim had been “untrue and abhorrent”.

    The political system largely accepted the police decision as the final judgment. Nobody asked for an independent inquiry. On the contrary, then prime minister Tony Abbott said: “It’s a personal matter and he’s dealt with it.” Shorten’s colleague Richard Marles said he “knew” the accusations could not be true. There was no trial by media as we see today.

    While Labor had its concerns about the issue being resurrected, Shorten led the ALP at two elections where the allegations were not an issue.”

  24. Buce

    Are you seriously saying that if you anally raped someone you’d have forgotten about it?

    If so, that’s the problem, right there – a man can (apparently) shatter a woman’s life and then forget all about it….

  25. Rex Douglas
    I followed a link to the job ad. I think i spotted his problem 🙂 Oh and ZERO mention of the $5000 bonus the bulldust artiste claims was being offeed.
    .
    .
    * MUST BE AVAILABLE TO WORK WEEKENDS

    The ideal candidate for this role will have great customer service skills, immaculate presentation and strong communication skills.

    Job Types: Full-time, Part-time, Casual, Permanent

    Salary: $0.00 per hour

    Schedule:

    Rotating roster
    Experience:

    server: 3 years (Required)

  26. Grace Tame’s narrative of how her abuser went on to academic success and access to other young women, while she was shamed and silenced, is indicative of the influence of powerful men within our society. Such a clear speaker.

  28. zoomster @ #173 Wednesday, March 3rd, 2021 – 9:42 am

    Buce

    Are you seriously saying that if you anally raped someone you’d have forgotten about it?

    If so, that’s the problem, right there – a man can (apparently) shatter a woman’s life and then forget all about it….

    Maybe he’s suggesting that it might have been a common practice for the offender and so the memories tend to blend together. 🙁

  30. Roy Orbison
    “Says The Australian.”

    I don’t recall the Murdoch press being such a stickler for ‘due process’ and ‘natural justice’ when the pack was baying for the blood of Julia Gillard over something her ex-boyfriend did decades before. Trial by media was all the rage.

  32. zoomster says:
    Wednesday, March 3, 2021 at 12:42 pm

    “Buce

    Are you seriously saying that if you anally raped someone you’d have forgotten about it?”

    Can’t say I recall ever having done that. Always been consensual.

  33. Great to see the economy recovering but with all that cheap money around who is surprised?
    I understand, despite all, that at this point in time the economy has actually shrunk 1.5% since this time last year.
    The elastic of the bungee analogy is a good one…..
    The price on all the world-wide debt created by governments all around the place to save there respective economies, is yet to be paid…..
    The current Federal Treasurer has done nothing out of the ordinary to make any of this happen in Oz, as any damned fool can spend borrowed money like a drunken sailor…No talk of balanced-budgets/debt buses and other crap I notice from him and his party now….big surprise – not….
    He has plenty of mates of like kind in the UK, US and China where state intervention, Keynes-style, has been the policy adopted.

  34. I don’t agree with BB about much, but I agree with him today.

    We should all think back to the Chamberlain case and contemplate the horrors of trial by media in any circumstances.

    There is not even a skerrick of a credible case against Minister X. There’s no evidence whatsoever: the original complaint, which was withdrawn, isn’t evidence. Nor is the letter that has emerged in recent days: which, as the NSW Police have rightly pointed out, cannot be proven to have been written by the same person who complained about Minister X to them 2 years ago. Nor are the statements by friends of the alleged victim about what a credible person she was.

    The alleged incident happened more than 30 years ago, when both the alleged perpetrator and the alleged victim were minors, and – according to the excerpts of the letter we have seen – were on some sort of a date during which one or more consensual sex acts occurred. There appear to have been no other witnesses. Even with a signed statement by the complainant, it would have been a pretty thankless case for the police and the DPP back in 1988. Let alone now.

    Many of you seem to be assuming that it did happen: because, you know, Minister X is a Liberal and a Four Corners report suggested that someone who might be Minister X is a bit of a sexist sleazebag, and of course all sexist sleazebags are rapists.

    Just as the majority of Australians back in the 1980s assumed that Lindy Chamberlain must have killed her baby because, you know, Seventh Day Adventists are a weird bunch and of course dingoes don’t attack humans.

    What we are seeing over the past 48 hours is an hysterical witch hunt, led by the media: with the Murdoch media at the forefront. Just imagine if you or a member of your family were the subject of this sort of campaign. It’s just plain wrong at a level which completely transcends party politics.

  35. Interesting context to Minister X’s speech, whenever it starts, from Grace Tame’s speech to the NPC:

    “It took ten years for Tame to be able to publically share her story:

    I connected with ground-breaking Fellow survivor and journalist, Nina furnel, I needed to raise awareness and educate others about sexual abuse and the prolonged psychological manipulation that belies it.

    After months of recounting, retraumaising details, tearlessly transposed by Nina, we discovered we were barred from sharing them by section 194K of Tasmania’s evidence act, that made it illegal for survivors of child sexual abuse to be identified by the media, even after turning 18, even with their consent.

    Nina created the Let Her Speak campaign to reform this law. We were then joined by 16 other brave survivors who lent their stories to the cause. The law was officially changed in April last year, almost 10 years to the day from the beginning of my story.”
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2021/mar/03/australia-news-live-accused-cabinet-minister-rape-allegation-politics-covid-19-international-border-closure

    Speaking soon after this was perhaps not so clever.

  36. The Julia Gillard point was made by me yesterday…..She was grilled for nearly 2 hours by the CPG on something that happened 20 years previous, of very little importance but seen by the likes of Julie Bishop as some kind of criminal matter. The Liberals have done, still do and will do rank hypocrisy better than Labor……

  37. mundo says:
    Wednesday, March 3, 2021 at 10:28 am

    My prediction…the Porter stuff will disappear faster than Robodebt.
    ——————————–
    If he had come out on Saturday then yes but its now Wednesday and the issues are very different.

  38. Of course if the alleged anal rapist doesn’t want to be known as that forever, and doesn’t want a trial by media then he could announce an inquiry similar to that which Susan Kiefel ordered for Heydon.
    Shorten was cleared by a police investigation, unfortunately that’s not possible in this case due to the death of the witness.
    I’m sure he’ll want to clear his name and avoid this terrible media speculation and stand aside and let the matter be investigated.

  39. Tricot says:
    Wednesday, March 3, 2021 at 12:58 pm

    “The Julia Gillard point was made by me yesterday…..She was grilled for nearly 2 hours by the CPG”

    She continually refused to answer questions and then one day, called a presser at very short notice and took questions on the issue – but the journalists who had been covering the story in detail and knew what questions to ask were not available for the Press Conference, so she didn’t get asked the questions that would have required the difficult answers.

  40. MB
    The problem for the minister is the delay in coming out to front the media because by allowing it to trag on has created the impression of quilt. If he is innocent then he has been very badly advised because this should have been dealt with days ago.

  41. Good Afternoon

    Remember Toxic Masculinity

    This is what it is.

    I agree with Mr Albanese
    @AlboMP tweets

    This is worth repeating:

    If we want to end violence against women, it’s not women who need to change their behaviour. Men do.

    We need to end the culture of victim-blaming and start focusing on those who are responsible for these crimes.

  42. Beemer

    Yes you are correct about the public perception.

    The Qanon types are having their conspiracy theories confirmed because of that perception.

    The LNP have handled this issue very badly as people look back on the Four Corners program and the LNP response to it.

  43. There has been no trial by media of the unknown Minister.

    First, he has not been named.

    Secondly, the details of the allegations made against the Minister have not been published, only the nature of the allegation.

    Given the above, in no way can any sort of “trial” be said to be in progress.

    We are only in the investigative stage. There is enough in the public domain to be alarmed that there is a real possibility that a senior Minister has in the past engaged in very serious brutal criminal misconduct, the sort of misconduct that would, if proven, immediately disqualify the Minister from being a candidate for election with any major party.

    The Minister is entitled to the right to silence, the presumption of innocence and the full protection of the law from defamatory allegations. This is not in doubt and, what’s more, it is clear beyond argument that the rule of law applies undiminished in his case.

    On the other hand, the Minister needs to retain the confidence of the public that he is a fit and proper person to hold the high office he does. The obvious and time-honoured way to retain the confidence of the public is to:

    a) make a public statement explaining such of the circumstances as the Minister believes necessary to explain why the allegations are being made against him and the extent to which they are incorrect;
    b) exposing himself to unlimited questioning on any aspect of the allegations, giving as full a response as he is able to, and explaining where and why his memory of an event 33 years ago cannot assist.

    Once the Minister has taken these 2 steps, in the absence of any fresh material there should be an end to the inquiry.

    The public, thus fully informed, is then able to make a proper judgment of the matter, not a judgment in law but a political judgment as to whether the Minister has adequately satisfied the requirement to be a fit and proper person to remain as Minister. The ultimate decision is then to be made at the ballot box, which is where all political decisions should ultimately be determined.

    None of the above interferes in any way with the Rule of Law. Claims to that effect are complete nonsense.

  45. Vogon Poet says:
    Wednesday, March 3, 2021 at 1:03 pm

    “he could announce an inquiry similar to that which Susan Kiefel ordered for Heydon.”

    That was a legitimate workplace inquiry. This issue is not about a workplace. It was appropriately a Police Inquiry if the person wanted that – her behaviour of delaying, failing to make a formal statement and then finally withdrawing doesn’t indicate that she really wanted a Police Investigation.

  46. Vogon Poet: “Shorten was cleared by a police investigation…”

    You’ve posted this several times recently.

    As I posted yesterday, the Victoria Police statement re Shorten in 2014 was that “the advice from prosecutors was that there was no reasonable prospect of conviction.”

    That statement really doesn’t seem to me to be all that different to the one made by NSW Police yesterday in relation to Minister X: that there was “”insufficient admissible evidence” to proceed.

    It was Shorten himself back in 2014 who came out and claimed that the investigation had “cleared his name.” I’m not sure that’s a term that the police would ever use.

    If you have other information that proves me wrong on this, please post it.

  47. Mexicanbeemer says:
    Wednesday, March 3, 2021 at 1:01 pm

    “If he had come out on Saturday then yes but its now Wednesday and the issues are very different.”

    NO, they’re not. You are normally a pretty level headed poster but on this one you appear to have let the “vibe” get to you.

  48. Other MB: “The problem for the minister is the delay in coming out to front the media because by allowing it to drag on has created the impression of guilt. If he is innocent then he has been very badly advised because this should have been dealt with days ago.”

    So you’re suggesting he should have come out publicly while the police were still considering whether or not they were going to proceed with an investigation/charge him? Maybe, but I can’t recall too many instances of people potentially facing criminal charges to make any sort of public statement either before or after they are laid.

  49. Bucephalussays:
    Wednesday, March 3, 2021 at 1:04 pm
    Tricot says:
    Wednesday, March 3, 2021 at 12:58 pm

    “The Julia Gillard point was made by me yesterday…..She was grilled for nearly 2 hours by the CPG”

    She continually refused to answer questions and then one day, called a presser at very short notice and took questions on the issue – but the journalists who had been covering the story in detail and knew what questions to ask were not available for the Press Conference, so she didn’t get asked the questions that would have required the difficult answers.
    …………………………………………………
    Tosh. More importantly an entirely political RC was held to get her. Despite the esteemed RCer (handsy Heydon) finding her evidence should not be entirely accepted for the extraordinary reason that she was too well prepared, absolutely no finding of any significance was made against her.

    So what is your point? We should have a RC into the unknown Minister?

  50. Nearly all the commentary, suggestions , advice, pronouncements I have seen about the ‘rape’ so far have been by powerful, middle aged, entitled, wealthy, white men…..
    Wish they would all STFU and let women discuss this issue.

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