Essential Research: leadership ratings and COVID management

Downward trends continue for federal leaders’ ratings and perceptions of COVID-19 management at both federal and state level.

The latest fortnightly Essential Research poll includes the pollster’s monthly leadership ratings, which finds Scott Morrison’s approval down one to 57% and disapproval up four to 36%, while Anthony Albanese is respectively steady on 39% and up one to 36%. Morrison’s lead as preferred prime minister is at 48-28, narrowing from 50-24 last time. The pollster’s regular question on the handling of COVID-19 gives the federal government its weakest result since the beginnings of the series in March last year, with its good rating down five to 53% and its poor rating up six to 24%.

The trends for the leadership ratings are COVID-19 questions are worth noting: the former can be found at BludgerTrack, which no longer registers a recovery for Morrison after his slump in May, but also now records Anthony Albanese in net negative territory for the first time; the latter is shown in the chart of the Essential Research series below.

However, it’s not just the federal government that Essential Research finds to be down from its earlier peaks on COVID-19 management: the Victorian government’s good rating is down 15% amid the state’s latest lockdown to 48% (the federal government is also down 15% in the state, to 42%), and recent results for the other state governments are all down around six points from where they were at the start of the year, ranging from 65% for Queensland to 75% for Western Australia.

The poll also finds 40% view the federal government less favourably than they did a year ago, compared with 25% for more favourably and 35% for the same; 43% of the view that the vaccine rollout is being conducted efficiently (unchanged since April), 67% that is is being done safely (up four) and 54% that it will be effective at stopping the virus (up two); and 55% agreeing the Victorian government is raising valid concerns about the federal government’s vaccine rollout performance compared with 45% for the alternative option that it is seeking to shift the blame.

The poll was conducted Wednesday to Sunday from a sample of 1104. This being Essential’s first result since the launch of the Australian Polling Council code of conduct, it comes with a separate disclosure statement containing detail of the poll’s response options for voting intention, from which we learn that state and Senate voting intention questions were included even if we may never see the results, and that the poll is weighted for age, gender, location and party identification (a somewhat contentious practice in the latter case).

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.

1,336 comments on “Essential Research: leadership ratings and COVID management”

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  1. If Adam Bandt is so good, and he wants to see the end of the LNP government – what better than leading Melbourne for Emma Dawson, and taking his electoral talents to a Liberal held seat.

    Bandt running for Kooyong against Frydo, or better still, against Greg the Lyin’ Hunt in Flinders – sounds like a plan!

  2. It is a really odd thing in our society.

    When you borrow some money and spend it on your choice of spend you are required to pay it back. The latter is rarely as much fun as the former, of course.

    Fly now, pay later does have its consequences.

  3. And still they are afraid to use the dreaded E word (elimination) . What a good squirrel grip this ‘word aversion’ must have on them
    .
    .
    5m ago 11:54

    Victoria “absolutely has to have zero” cases says CHO

    ,,, here is what Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton has to say:

    “I have always had in mind that we need to do what is required to make sure that we get back down to zero.

    There is really no alternative. Our national strategy of aggressive suppression is there for a reason. If you do not get to zero, there is no grumbling along with one or two cases.
    This started with one case in Wollert that has led to almost 100 cases over a period of a few weeks. So we absolutely have to drive it back down to zero. But has been the national strategy for a reason. It is what allows the travel bubble, what allows our internal borders to be open again.”
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2021/jun/09/australia-live-updates-melbournes-covid-restrictions-expected-to-ease-gradually-morrison-to-give-key-foreign-policy-speech-victoria-climate-china-g7-vaccine-coronavirus-afp-fbi-anom

  4. lizzie
    Carry your dogs when you do the kitchen laps. The more weight you carry the more energy you use the hotter the place gets.
    My advice is don’t overdo it because you would turn your house into a sauna.

  5. “Barney in Tanjung Bungasays:
    Wednesday, June 9, 2021 at 11:43 am

    Interesting that you’re not denying that the PM has in the past denied things that later were proved to be true.”

    What??? Scott Morrison denying something that was later proved to be true?

    Video evidence or it didn’t happen!

    https://junkee.com/scott-morrison-shanghai-sam/221799

    Before the expected response occurs; poor ScoMo got confused because the journalist used the word “racist”twice. The journalist also used other words more than once but somehow that didn’t confuse ScoMo. Perhaps all future questions to ScoMo should be made up of words only used once in the same sentence so as to not confuse him.

  6. Roy Orbison @ #145 Wednesday, June 9th, 2021 – 11:59 am

    “He will be the cabaret act for the other 6.”

    This assume he is one of the seven. He’s not. We’re not and we’ll never be. He’s been invited to sit in the cheap seats and to come down and say something stupid to keep the big boys and girls amused.

    Yes, we are in the G20, created by our glorious leader Kevin Rudd, and not the G7.

  7. I can just see the front page of the Daily Telegraph tomorrow with Air Force 1 taking off and headline, “You tell ’em ScoMo!”

  8. Hopefully the rest of the G7 will tell Morrison to piss off.

    Scott Morrison is resisting international pressure to lock in more ambitious climate commitments, declaring Australia opposes setting targets for certain parts of the economy or “false deadlines for phasing out specific energy sources”.

    Before he sets off for the G7 summit in the UK later this week, the prime minister will use a foreign policy speech to say that “ambition alone won’t solve the problem of actually reducing emissions”.

    Morrison is also expected to characterise carbon border tariffs – an idea that is gathering momentum in international discussions as a way to avoid heavy-emitting industries shifting to countries with less ambitious climate commitments – as a “combative” protectionist measure.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/08/scott-morrison-digs-in-against-deeper-cuts-to-emissions-ahead-of-g7-summit

  9. C@t

    No, hardly ever sleet, rarely frost. It’s strong northerlies roaring down the valley that do the damage, but they’re infrequent.

  10. Before he sets off for the G7 summit in the UK later this week, the prime minister will use a foreign policy speech to say that “ambition alone won’t solve the problem of actually reducing emissions”.

    Thats his opening joke for the cabaret.

  11. This is agony aunt reporting. A real journalist would have addressed the following:

    1. The number of people who drowned on boats
    2. The 80 million displaced people
    3. The truly open slather policies of the Greens
    4. The 60,000 unaccompanied minors who have crossed the Mexican/US border since Harris took actual charge of that policy space.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2021/jun/09/until-we-face-up-to-the-lie-that-underpins-our-treatment-of-refugees-tharnicaa-and-children-like-her-will-suffer

  12. @DocAvvers
    ·
    3m
    The difference between weddings and religious ceremonies? I can tell you, silly journalist. We don’t get drunk and emotional at church services.

  13. Buckley was told his contract would not be reviewed. Collingwood are rebuilding and are unlikely to be finals contenders for a couple of years. So, he’s taken the option to leave now and review the scene for another opportunity elsewhere. He’s an experienced coach. So, he should be in demand at a club that thinks they are ready to advance to finals and a Premiership.

    Possible options will be:

    Carlton (Assistant Coach resigned and team just not performing. Has plenty of talent)
    Hawthorn (Mail is Sam Mitchell)
    Brisbane (Coach is sixty. However Luke Hodge may be in the frame there).
    GWS (A bit off broadway)
    StKilda (although Brett Ratten appears entrenched. They have had a shocker this year).

    Then again, Buckley might just walk away from the game. The demands of being involved with AFL have been over powering with reductions in support staff, living in hubs because of Covid and major rule changes making yesterdays game plans obsolete.

  14. Unfortunately my small woolie (at present) dog is giving me dirty looks. The rain will not let up and he has not had his walk. Doesn’t like the rain though.

  15. GG
    Good on him, IMO.
    The next coach of Hawthorn may not survive the rebuild.
    Carlton is the standout underperformer in that lot.
    How sweet it would be…

  16. laughtong
    Put him outside and wait until he starts barking desperately to get back in.
    He’ll love you to bits when you open the door.

  17. Bandt is the most progressive MP in the House of Reps by a country mile. Why on earth would he leave Melbourne to someone who represents a party like Labor which doesn’t take climate change seriously and which gives tax cuts to rich elites? That makes no sense at all. Perhaps Labor should focus on taking a Liberal held seat instead of attacking a real progressive.

    But don’t you worry, the Greens will also be fielding great candidates in Kooyong and Flinders, I have no doubt about that.

    One last thing before I leave you lot to it for the day…

    Origin tonight! GO THE MIGHTY BLUES!!!

  18. Sprocket

    Your panic about the Greens is palpable.

    I want Labor to win in their own right. All these attacks on a Green members seat which is not going to change the government is very telling about Labor panic.

    The LNP lurkers will be having a good laugh.

  19. laughtong

    My two won’t even go out because the rain is so heavy. Anyway, I’m seriously think of having a quick lunch and then going back to bed. A dog on either side and the TV and my mobile – luuxury.

  20. @MikeCarltonO1 tweets

    Curious. If I take an ironic, satirical whack at Louise Staley’s appearance, it’s vile, sexist misogyny. But if I say, for example, that Barnaby Joyce looks like he slept in a ditch, no one could care less.

    @LisaZed2 replies

    Context mate! When men have been judged for centuries on their fuckability and nothing else, then your point could be valid.
    Personally tho, I don’t think it’s relevant to belittle anyone, male or female for their appearance & what they’re wearing.
    Play the ball, not the person.

  21. Bucephalus
    On that basis, the PM should the Government Solicitor ready to roll with a defamation case if the ABC runs its story trying to link him to Qanon.

    As with Porter, this would be Morrison suing on his own account. No Solicitor-General here. Which billionaire would be willing to fund him?

  22. lizzie, we just nudged over 6°C for the first time since Monday. But it seems to be reconsidering the effort.

    At least the sun showed up today.

  23. You guys are making Sydney feel like a tropical paradise which in this winter it’s not of course.

    I will enjoy it while it lasts.
    It’s a balmy 15 degrees.

  24. @broomstick33
    ·
    2m
    watching the Vic pressers is a grueling experience, as aggressive Murdoch hacks cast blame and mount conspiracies, with slanderous imputations against public health officials, the hostility is apparent to all.. any other journalist who thinks this is cool and normal is delusional

  25. You guys are making Sydney feel like a tropical paradise

    Move to Adelaide and you quickly realise that Sydney actually is a tropical paradise.

  26. The journalist profession nowadays is completely laughable.

    Yes, well, I wont have another tirade on the fact they arent actually a profession. But I will say there are notable exceptions to the laughability – both in the alt media and MSM.

  27. There have been reports of snow in the NSW Central Tablelands including the higher parts of the Blue Mountains West of Sydney, but nothing major.

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