Essential Research: leadership ratings and COVID management

Downward motion for Anthony Albanese and the Berejiklian goverment in the latest Essential poll.

First up, note that below this post is a review of recent happenings in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany by Adrian Beaumont.

Now to the fortnightly Essential Research poll, which includes the pollster’s monthly leadership ratings. Scott Morrison’s position has not further declined since last month, with his approval down one to 50% and disapproval steady on 40%. However, Anthony Albanese, who has long done relatively well out of this pollster in consistently recording net positive ratings, has taken a seven-point tumble on approval to 34%, while his disapproval is up three to 38%. The change on preferred prime minister is more modest, with Morrison’s lead out from 46-28 to 45-26. The effects of all this on the BludgerTrack trends can be observed here.

The stabilisation in Morrison’s personal ratings are not matched in the regular question on the government’s response to COVID-19, which has approached net negative territory for the first time with an eight-point drop in good to 38% and a four-point rise in poor to 35%. The Berejiklian government’s good rating of 47% is down seven points on what was already its worst result last month; the Victorian government is up five to 54%; and the Queensland government is down two to 60%. The Western Australian and South Australian ratings of 82% and 73% are off unreliably small samples, but both are well in line with their long-term averages.

Respondents in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia were asked about the lockdowns in their states, the survey period having begun before the Queensland lockdown. Fifty per cent of New South Wales respondents felt the government had not locked down hard enough, compared with 11% for too hard and 39% for about right. By contrast, 71% of Victorian and 85% of South Australian respondents felt their governments had it about right. However, there is some evidence of a shift in attitudes in Victoria in that more felt the lockdown too harsh (23%) than not harsh enough (6%). The respective results in South Australia were 6% and 9%, a difference well within the margin of error.

The poll sample had two bob each way on lockdown support: 47% believed the federal government was doing enough compared with 37% for not enough and 6% for too much, yet 66% supported the return of JobKeeper with only 11% opposed. The lockdown protests of the weekend before last had 18% support with 67% opposed (which is at least more favourable than the numbers reported from New South Wales by Utting Research). The poll was conducted Wednesday to Sunday from a sample of 1057.

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.

1,202 comments on “Essential Research: leadership ratings and COVID management”

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  1. @Shellbell:

    “ There should be an inquiry as to why we have won so few silver medals”

    ________

    A National Scandal! I mean, we have only won as many Silver Medals as NZ!

    As a side note: how good is NZ! I mean, Australia is punching above its weight, still in 4th position on the medal table deep into the second week of the olympics, holding off perennial powerhouses Russia and Team GB, and seemingly too far ahead for Germany, France, Spain, Korea and Italy to bridge up, but NZ! They are in 8th spot. Even though we have 5 times the population, we only have about 2.5 times the medals won so far. Our little NZ Cussies might even hold out Germany etc by the end of the games as well.

    Getting back to Australia’s piss poor silver medal run, at least we made up for it at the Sydney games: where ended up with 16 Gold, 25 Silver and 17 Bronze for a total of 58 medals and 4th place – truly our silver games.

    Edit: Ha!

    Just like that, NZ slipped to 10th on the medal table, but has now surpassed Australia in the hunt for Silver. We have also only won twice as many medals (as at 8:05pm, EAST).

  2. Lol – all these comments about recon.

    I am sure he is chuckling – wherever he is. He’s not even here and you lot cannot stop talking about him.

    That’s what I call a high impact poster.

  3. boerwar

    Lots of Sinovaxxed double-jabbed Indonesian frontline medical staff are dying.
    It turns out that the Comrades are doing the usual with the truth.

    Off with the blinkers. That its efficacy is waaaay less than the others has been an open piece of information from the start. Peru figures showed it reduced death by 80% the other vaxs they had 100% . Again something known. The hospital workers are probably copping a yuge viral load due to the conditions in many of the hospitals. That, apparently, puts you in line for very serious illness. As for the ‘political use’ , the takers of the B Team product have not been able to get any of the A Team product as ‘we’ are hoovering it all up and can pay the primo price. China can supply something , it may be not the best but desperation does the rest.

  4. Greensborough Growler says:
    Thursday, August 5, 2021 at 8:14 pm
    Lars,

    We’re just speaking ill of the dead!
    ___________________________
    Pollbludger is proof of the proposition the smaller the prize – the more vicious the struggle.

    As a mortgage broker GG I am sure you’d fit snuggly into that mentality.

  5. Patrick v Cth judgment

    http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/AATA//2021/2719.html

    Patrick ultimately sought “all meeting notes/minutes taken from the meeting of the National Cabinet on 29 May 2020″ and the minutes of the relevant National Cabinet meeting of 15 March 2020″ re establishment of the NC”.
    Nout sure if any of the documents will be earth shattering.
    Cth has sought stay on release of documents so are appealing straight up

  6. Itza

    That a lower level official was given the task of negotiating the purchase of Pfizer vaccine suggests that either Morrison simply did not understand the importance of vaccinations, or that he didn’t want to be held responsible.

    Leadership? Responsibility?
    He doesn’t understand them.
    He’s not a leader. He’s a Liberal.

  7. poroti says:
    Thursday, August 5, 2021 at 8:15 pm

    ‘boerwar

    China can supply something , it may be not the best but desperation does the rest.’
    ________________________________________________
    The questions were (a) would China offer Australia Sinovacc (b) would Australians take it up were it to be offered and (c) should anyone in their right mind trust what the Comrades tell anyone about Sinovacc.
    3xno.

  8. Also just in, is this Tesla Daily with a heads up on the upcoming AI day (August 19) in conjunction with AI guy Hong (Sth Korea) with what looks like some kind of mega-processor, and talk of developing a car that can be driven by blind people

    https://youtu.be/ftIs6QLRDcI

    (over and out, back to the ‘lympics)

  9. Lars is like Cannon without Ball, The One Ronnie, or Abbott without Costello.Maybe Wayne can be your new double act partner?

  10. boerwar
    The numbers we are getting are from places using it not from the bloody ‘comrades’ . No, Australians would not take it . If people are a bit iffy about the efficacy etc of AZ then they’d positively flee in panic if offered Sinovac given the comparative numbers.

  11. Historyintime @ #1094 Thursday, August 5th, 2021 – 7:51 pm

    “They breed them differently north of Brisbane – still yearning for the good old days of Bjelke-Petersen, the corrupt Hinze.”

    A pal of mine was Hinze’s Principal Private Secretary (they didn’t have Chief of Staffs in those days). He spoke very well of him as a Minister and said he was competent and not that ideological. Maybe just personally bent but o/wise a good Minister.

    A friend of mine who was fairly high up in his department said something similar. If some thing needed to be done and you put a case to him, he’d approve it quickly and trust you with the implementation.

    Interestingly the same friend was totally switched off Labor by the actions of the Goss government in outsourcing services which often led to the work needed to be redone by public servants anyway – sound familiar? This was in the area of infrastructure construction

    This policy was driven by a couple of eager young high flyers in Goss’s office, one of whom was the sainted Kevin Rudd

  12. lizzie @ #1034 Thursday, August 5th, 2021 – 6:01 pm

    Hard to express the contempt for this man.

    FFS, even Trump was above making statements like that. Or not above, necessarily, but able to sidestep the issue by pretending that covid is fake, or that it won’t actually kill anybody, or that miracle cure X/Y/Z will fix you right up if you get infected. All lies, but also notionally better than saying “we know how to save your life and can do it, but…too much effort, so go have fun dying in the corner; we’ve got businesses to business, transactions to transact, and no time for corpses”.

    Takes a special kind of douchebaggery to tell people “sorry, your life’s not worth saving”. Takes a special kind of stupid to do that as an elected politician.

  13. Amin Afravi
    @AfraviAmin
    ·
    1h
    Great news Double exclamation mark
    after 9 years of suffering Loghman court case decision was, unlawfully he was detained for 9 years due to he was under age when he was sent to Manus.
    And the greatest news is he’s going to fly to #USA tonight from the most racist country Smiling face with heart-shaped eyes
    #FreeTheMedevacHostages

  14. Lars Von Trier (Thursday, August 5, 2021 at 12:18 pm):

    Tricot says:
    Thursday, August 5, 2021 at 12:14 pm

    Hey, Lars FYI I see from BBC that Vanguard, a US investment house is giving, yep giving, $1000 to each of its employees who vaccinate….So, as you seem to be a blind follower of the Free Enterprise System, maybe this is a good idea?

    Well of course, like most people on here – I base my public policy thinking on the actions of US private equity firms! If its good enough for private equity….

    Again you demonstrate your ignorance, combined with your insolence, in a never-ending cynical endeavour to ensure that you never argue other than in bad faith.

    Vanguard are in no normal sense a “private equity firm”. Instead they are principal creator of the index fund concept and they (the Vanguard fund management business) are owned by their funds. In effect they are owned by their customers (superannuants etc) and could hardly be further from the posture of a PE fund.

    Even were it valid to argue against something based on who is making the argument—which of course it is not—you could hardly find a more inappropriate target for your superficial asininity.

  15. Lars Von Trier:

    Thursday, August 5, 2021 at 7:25 pm

    [‘Many organisations have a paedo-infused flavour mavis.’]

    True, but most aren’t second besties of a sitting prime minister, who still apparently stands by a close friend whose father was a peodophile, who allegedly failed to report his old man’s sick sexual predilections:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2KP9fYZUWA

  16. If you don’t believe moi – read it in the AFR below:

    ‘Cash for jabs’ risks reigniting concern about Labor waste
    Since the 2019 election, the party has done well to address the perception it’s the weaker economic manager. That’s what makes the $6 billion vaccine incentive proposal a little strange.

    Phillip Coorey Political editor

  17. Flaneur says:
    Thursday, August 5, 2021 at 8:46 pm
    Lars Von Trier @ #1124 Thursday, August 5th, 2021 – 8:43 pm


    Phillip Coorey Political editor
    If you don’t believe me about the Jews, read “Mein Kampf”. FFS.
    ______________________________________
    Godwin’s Law breach alert!

  18. Senate Republicans are about to hand President Biden a huge political victory by voting for a historic $1 trillion infrastructure package that the president can then tout as fulfilling a campaign pledge to restore bipartisanship in Washington.

    GOP senators and aides predict as many as 20 Republicans — twice the number needed to avoid a filibuster — could vote for the legislation, which would provide the most funding in decades for roads, airports, railroads, drinking water and other priorities.

    “I think everybody pretty much knows what they’re going to do. I think some people are trying to get to yes,” said a Republican senator who helped craft the legislation that was unveiled on Sunday. “So my prediction is 20.”

    The legislation needs 60 votes to overcome a filibuster and make it to final passage, meaning no more than 10 Republicans are needed.

    But 17 Republicans voted last week to begin debate on the bill, and at least that many are now expected to support the measure on final passage.

  19. I am pretty sure Phil Coorey is unofficially working for the PMs office at this point.
    I mean he was harassing Doug Cameron for not supporting Scottys gas plant policy, quite embarasing stuff from Phil

  20. Nicko says:
    Thursday, August 5, 2021 at 8:52 pm
    I am pretty sure Phil Coorey is unofficially working for the PMs office at this point.
    I mean he was harassing Doug Cameron not supporting Scottys gas plant policy, quite embarasing stuff from Phil
    _________________________
    So its a conspiracy? Sounds exciting!

  21. No conspiracy, Phil should just stop pretending to be a journalist and go work for the PMs office, just like what Mark Simpkin did for Abbott

  22. “Interestingly the same friend was totally switched off Labor by the actions of the Goss government in outsourcing services which often led to the work needed to be redone by public servants anyway – sound familiar? This was in the area of infrastructure construction”.

    I heard from quite a few veteran public servants that in many respects the Queensland Public Service (at least the non law and order parts) was a better place to work in the Joh era than afterward. Basically the Ministers delegated a lot to the Departments and Joh aside didn’t have powerful offices.

    Most people seemed to hate Kevin Rudd in his Qld PS days, probably like his Ministers in his PM days. I know I met him once and took an instant dislike to him along the lines of “who the hell does he think he is”. The answer to which is evidently, Prime Minister twice. But not head of the UN.

  23. wakeupsitt
    @wakeupsitt
    Doctors have informed my family that my father, who contracted COVID from staff at Liverpool Hospital, will die tomorrow. He doesn’t understand what’s going on because of his dementia, and the hospital has not let my mum talk to him for two weeks as of today. #covidnsw
    3:29 PM · Aug 5, 2021·Tw

  24. Greensborough Growler says:
    Thursday, August 5, 2021 at 9:10 pm
    lars,

    I always knew you were a bigot!
    _______________________
    You seem a little shy about your faith? Seems like your afraid that it might alienate your friends here on PB? What was that about denying Christ three times before the cock crowed?

  25. Historyintime @ #1140 Thursday, August 5th, 2021 – 9:10 pm

    Most people seemed to hate Kevin Rudd in his Qld PS days, …

    Rudd was the “Doctor Death” in the Goss government. If he’d been a tory, it wouldn’t have been mentioned. When he was PM, he (IMO) overcompensated by sticking to conventions. He was a victim to the lesson in Aesop’s fable. Still, his worst was better than the best of the grubs.

  26. Coorey shouldn’t be disparaged, none more so than
    Bongiorno, even Carlton, who seems to have lost it. That said, “Insiders” should prove interesting on Sunday. I think Savva could be engrossing, though she too seems to have lost the plot – her love of Mal.

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