Essential Research: Morrison approval and gender issues

A new poll finds an unprecedented gender gap opening up on prime ministerial approval.

Essential Research has seized the day in its latest fortnightly survey with new personal ratings for Scott Morrison, in addition to its normal montly reading (together with Anthony Albanese’s and the preferred prime minister rating) which came in the last poll. The results are broadly similar to Newspoll’s in finding Morrison down five on approval to 57% and up six on disapproval to 35%.

However, the real kicker is the accompanying gender breakdowns, which have Morrison steady at 65% approval and up two on disapproval to 30% among men, but down ten on approval to 49% and up ten on disapproval to 40% among women. This 16% gender gap on prime ministerial approval is twice as big as the Newspoll record from 1996 to the present, which came when Tony Abbott scored 42% among men and 34% among women in January-March 2014 (the biggest the other way was when Julia Gillard scored 38% among women and 31% among men in April-June 2011).

Further questions from the survey continue on this theme: presented with five propositions as to why there are fewer women than men in parliament, the most popular was that “political parties do not do enough to ensure gender equality in their organisations”, with which 63% agreed. Forty-eight per cent indicated support for gender quotas, with 36% opposed. Variations by party support were in the directions you would expect, but were not of great magnitude.

On other fronts, the poll finds respondents taking a mostly positive view of the causalisation of the workforce: while they were most likely to believe it was good for employers, at 65% versus 11% for bad, 46% felt it had been good for the economy, 42% for indivdual workers and 41% for the nation, compared with respective bad ratings of 19%, 29% and 26%. However, 84% expressed support for the right of workers to convert from casual to permanent employment after six months, with only 10% opposed, and 80% felt gig-based workers with regular hours should be recognised with permanent employment, with only 8% opposed.

For good measure, the poll finds 48% supportive for a republic and 28% opposed, although the question emphasises “a republic with an Australian head of state”, which tends to encourage a positive result. The poll was conducted Wednesday to Sunday from a sample of 1100.

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.

2,132 comments on “Essential Research: Morrison approval and gender issues”

Comments Page 40 of 43
1 39 40 41 43
  1. guytaur @ #1943 Sunday, April 4th, 2021 – 1:39 pm

    Barney

    Labor people here say Biden’s great. I am saying. So use that to Labor’s advantage.

    Or is it because Biden benefits the Greens party campaign more than Labor’s?

    Poll Bludger is not a valid cross-section of Australian voters.

    Just because something appeals here doesn’t mean it will pay well with voters.

    You seem to be oblivious to the fact that the voters progressives need to attract are not represented in general by the majority of commentators here and their motivations on how they vote can be very different as well.

  2. guytaur says:
    Sunday, April 4, 2021 at 3:29 pm
    Labor needs to learn not to attack people like Robert Reich for posting stuff like this.

    Labor does not deride R Reich. Far from it. In Australia they’re trying to defend their electoral position against a ceaseless assault from the No Windmills Band.

  3. guytaur says:
    Sunday, April 4, 2021 at 11:36 am
    TPOF

    Bullshit from you.

    It’s not the Greens going out in public and declaring the Labor party the enemy of the Greens.

    The No Windmills Band is Labor-phobic. Their every campaign gesture proves it.

  4. @DaveyPalm tweets

    At times you feel compelled to correct bulshit. So here goes;

    Less than 2% of Aussies identify as Pentecostal or evangelical;
    Over 82% of Queenslanders support free choice re. abortion.

    So…, No Parnell.
    Stokers values and beliefs are not more representative than Magda’s

  5. Barney

    You are oblivious of the facts presented by the contradiction between the Marriage Equality Survey result and the 2019 election

    Labor stuffed up it’s marketing in the election not the survey.

    It’s by using right wing propaganda that did it.
    That’s why the timing of the Greens Adani Convoy was so damaging.

    The LNP propaganda that Labor being for the environment killed jobs.

    So use this to change the debate onto Labor’s terms

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/

  6. Guytaur, you do realise not all “wealth taxes” are created equally, right? Biden’s wealth tax is not the same thing as what the Australian Greens want. Nor is the sort of wealth tax being called for by that famous economic leftie Kevin Rudd likely to be the same as either of those. Really, any tax can be argued to be a “wealth tax”, when you think about it. Its not the basic concept that (most) people take issue with, it’s the details.

    Like I said last night, what Biden is trying to bring might be quite bold by US standards, but it is – in many respects – not especially different from what we already have in Australia right now. There are parallels between the US and Australia’s present political zeitgeists, certainly, but not anywhere near the equivalence you se to think exists. Biden is not President of Australia.

    I personally am in favour of some substantial reform to various aspects of our tax systems, with a focus on ensuring corporations and the very wealthy are paying their fare share and that the working poor arn’t being made to pick up the slack, and I’m not at all averse to taxing the super-rich rather more either. (Though I think taxing corporate profits is generally the more efficient way of going about the latter point.)

    But a lot of these reforms are much easier to implement by an incumbant government with political capital to burn, the power of treasury and the executive behind them, and an election a few years away, rather than trying to win government on them.

  7. guytaur @ #1956 Sunday, April 4th, 2021 – 1:58 pm

    Barney

    You are oblivious of the facts presented by the contradiction between the Marriage Equality Survey result and the 2019 election

    Labor stuffed up it’s marketing in the election not the survey.

    It’s by using right wing propaganda that did it.
    That’s why the timing of the Greens Adani Convoy was so damaging.

    The LNP propaganda that Labor being for the environment killed jobs.

    So use this to change the debate onto Labor’s terms

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/

    How if ME relevant to how voters will react to issues where they perceive a real impact on themselves?

  8. Asha

    At the moment the Deficit Hawks rule.

    So if it’s Senator Warren’s The Greens or the pink polka dot party wealth tax I don’t care.

    As long as the neo liberal ideology of Reaganism dies in this country too.

    Labor and the Greens can use the Democrats incumbency just as the right did with Reagan’s incumbency

  9. guytaur says:
    Sunday, April 4, 2021 at 3:47 pm
    N

    You do your best to promote that division

    I play no part in the Schism – in the No Windmills Band. I want them to dissolve themselves. That would undo the institutional divide.

  10. Anthony Albanese
    @AlboMP
    ·
    4m
    Reena is a disability worker working in the NDIS for the past seven years.

    Under the current system, she’s classified as a casual despite working full time hours.

    No sick leave. No holiday pay. No consistency.

    I met Reena last month. She’s passionate, she cares about people, and she deserves a government that’s on her side.

    Meat and potatoes politics.

  11. GT:

    Labor people here say Biden’s great. I am saying. So use that to Labor’s advantage.

    I’m not sure how what Labor supporters on a niche political blog think of the US President has anything whatsoever to do with arguing a case to the broader Australian public. Labor’s not trying to win the votes of people who spend their days arguing Labor’s case here. Those votes are more-or-less guaranteed.

    The next federal election will not be decided by the comments section on Poll Bludger. We’ve all already made up our minds (mostly), and are but a sideshow to the main event.

    Or is it because Biden benefits the Greens party campaign more than Labor’s?

    ?????

  12. You know what really brings the voters along?

    Telling them they’re too stupid to know what’s in their own best interests.

  13. 3z

    Well that style of campaign worked for Biden against Sanders.
    He called Sanders voters stupid.

    Turns out they weren’t. They voted Biden in the General.

    Edit: Misguided not stupid. That’s what the Democrats called Trump voters. Sorry.

  14. https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/covid-just-chinas-first-virus-threat-warns-mike-pompeo/news-story/c3f84010077b4bf081a2d84b1e54d9f7

    The world faces new pandemic outbreaks at least as deadly as COVID-19 because of the ­continued biological weapons ­research being undertaken in Chinese laboratories, Donald Trump’s secretary of state Mike Pompeo has declared.

    “The Chinese Communist Party continues to engage in this sort of biological research,” Mr Pompeo told The Weekend ­Australian in a wide-ranging ­interview.

    The risk of this sort of thing happening again from a Chinese facility is real and significant.

    Rumours are strong that Mr Pompeo plans to run for the presidency in 2024.

    A voice in the back row. “To the hills men”.

    A plaintive female voice …..

    Boom tish. 🥁

  15. Barney

    Yeah Reaganism/Thatcherism was so absent from Frydenberg’s comments on the budget as he cut JobSeeker/Keeper and the rest

  16. But anything resembling a landslide for the Dems seems incredibly unlikely. IMO, absolute best case scenario is that they hold the House and increase their Senate majority by a couple of seats.

    They don’t need anything more.

  17. Barney
    Because Guytaur watches American politics he thinks everyone else is but he also sees Australia’s political issues as being the same as American political issues.

    Biden will only become influential like Reagan if his policies are successful.

  18. Barney

    It’s relevant to the conversation we were having.

    That’s how the US influences countries around the world.

    Now we have multiple credible mainstream sources that are not the Jacobin magazine arguing against this ideology. I even posted Wayne Swan earlier saying basically the same thing with Hugh Riminton pointing out Labor’s neoliberal agenda under Hawke and Keating.

    At the time Labor was being hammered by Reaganism ideology.

    That’s the point about using Biden. He has made a turning point in world economic discussion

  19. Briefly doesn’t even know what to call himself, Non, N, Briefly, the man has no clue, but go easy on him, he can’t help it.

  20. guytaur @ #1982 Sunday, April 4th, 2021 – 2:37 pm

    Barney

    It’s relevant to the conversation we were having.

    That’s how the US influences countries around the world.

    Now we have multiple credible mainstream sources that are not the Jacobin magazine arguing against this ideology. I even post Wayne Swan earlier saying basically the same thing with Hugh Riminton pointing out Labor’s neoliberal agenda under Hawke and Keating.

    At the time Labor was being hammered by Reaganism ideology.

    That’s the point about using Biden. He has made a turning point in world economic discussion

    And how are these ideas going to attract the voters needed for a progressive majority.

    Voters don’t generally support uncertainty and change.

    They may accept it from a Government, but rarely an Opposition.

  21. Guytaur
    Many of Biden’s policies and spending are short term and so called Reaganism has only been temporarily put on hold but once the economy has recovered and inflation and employment targets are met then the government will start rolling back its spending.

  22. Barney

    The first thing is to point out that not going the Biden route is going to ensure uncertainty and change.

    Labor doesn’t have Trump to directly argue against as Biden did.
    Labor has the world v Australia on climate change.
    Not acting on climate policy creates uncertainty and change.

    Acting on climate change is to conserve the way of life you are used to by keeping temperatures down.

    Edit: It’s an economic and national security argument

  23. Thanks Vogan,

    I was wondering what that was.

    I’ve pushed her out the way and escaped.

    😆 😆 😆

  24. Stokers values and beliefs are not more representative than Magda’s

    Senator Stoker’s “values and beliefs” are in fact completely made up. She was until recently a member of the faction of Senator Brandis, a “moderate” LNP senator, and inherited his Senate seat on that basis.

    She’s run the numbers in the LNP, concluded the nutters are taking over (as they are) and radically adjusted her public expressions (“these are my views, and if you don’t like them, I have others”) in order to maintain her Senate candidate ranking. Adopting a persona not one’s own is of course easy for an ex barrister (she is quite a good lawyer, but completely amoral)

    As for why she has chosen to emulate that spoof character from one of Shaun Micallef’s neverending series of tedious show, one must think that it is an elaborate joke.

  25. Cat

    What do you have against Biden? What do you have against using his incumbency to Labor’s advantage?

    That’s been my argument.

    That and Labor stans pretending we don’t have preferential voting.

  26. I swear guytaur has been sent to The Greens’ finishing school at Liberal Party Dirt Unit HQ. I can just see the Liberals driving their goddam trucks around every day over the length of the election campaign and the breadth of Australia with signs festooned all over them again, except this time it will be, ‘Labor wants to tax your hard-earned money for their Wealth Tax!’

    Give. Me. A. Break.

    Nothing would kill Labor’s chances quicker than if they adopted such a cockamamie policy.

  27. @slpnh_giants_oz tweets
    Can we all agree “cancel culture” had NOTHING to do with Sam Newman no longer being an acceptable paid public speaker at most venues.

    It’s called common decency, its no longer acceptable to platform racists, misogynists, homophobes, transphobes & obnoxious chauvinists.

    #Auspol

  28. guytaur,
    What I ‘have against it’ is that Australia is not America. Joe Biden isn’t some universally loved figure here. I would put my money on less than 10% of Australians even knowing who he is.

    As for adopting his policies, that’s just idiotic. Australia is not America. Labor need to tailor their policies to Australians, not Joe Biden fanbois.

  29. Now guytaur, please don’t start an interminable back and forth with me, I am quite ill, having only gotten out of hospital yesterday and I don’t have the energy for it okay?

  30. Mexicanbeemer

    Australia does need to make the wealthy pay more tax, I can remember paying 48 cents marginal rate, top rate is now about 35 cents
    Australia needs to make overseas corporations pay tax, maybe not on profit but on turnover or revenue
    Shell needs to pay tax/royalties for gas extracted from Northwest Shelf – no tax, no extract

    The rich are getting richer and the middle class and poor are getting poorer. The rich don’t care about climate change they will be able to buy their protection from its effects

    If the rich and corporations want a well fed, housed and educated workforce they should contribute to it

    I think March 2020 will be a watershed. Prior – people like me could take annual holidays in Europe, after annual holidays restricted to Australia and New Zealand as international flights to London that were from $1200 return become $10,000 one way

    Work opportunities are going to become more stratified as people working from home don’t get recognised for effort and can’t network

Comments Page 40 of 43
1 39 40 41 43

Leave a Reply

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