Polls: leadership ratings, WA border closure, Australia Day

Scott Morrison’s ratings continue to head in the wrong direction, all and sundry sinking on COVID-19 management, WA voters supportive of the protracted border closure, and the regular annual Australia Day barrage.

Nothing on voting intention, but there’s a bunch of polls around the place, the most useful from my perspective being the first fortnightly Essential Research survey of the year, as it includes the pollster’s monthly leadership ratings. Scott Morrison is at 46% on both approval and disapproval, respectively steady and up two since last month, which is the first time he has failed to record a net positive result since immediately before the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. Anthony Albanese is likewise equal on approval and disapproval, in his case at 39%, with approval down one and disapproval up three. Morrison’s lead as preferred prime minister is at 42-34, in from 42-31 last month and likewise his weakest result since March 2020.

There’s more bad news for Morrison on COVID-19 management, with the federal government recording a net negative result for the first time, its positive rating down six to 35% and negative up six to 38%. There has also been a sharp decline in the positive ratings for every state government except Victoria, most noticeably in the case of Western Australia, where the positive rating is down twelve to a new low of 66%. This remains nineteen points higher than nearest rival Victoria, up four points to 47%. New South Wales is down seventeen to 37%, now the lowest of the five, with Queensland down eleven to 46% and South Australia down fourteen to 43%. The results for the smaller states especially should, as always, be treated with caution here, but the near-uniformity of the sharp downward turn is impressive.

Respondents were also asked if various matters related to COVID-19 were likely to influence their chances of voting Coalition, an exercise I’m dubious about since it’s clear that many party loyalists respond without regard to the fact that their vote choice isn’t in doubt. For what it’s worth, 37% rated themselves less likely on account of Scott Morrison’s recent performance and 19% more likely; 30% and 15% ditto because of recent case numbers; 38% and 12% because of the shortage of rapid antigen tests (note the perversity of being more likely to vote Coalition on this basis); 22% and 19% because of reduced border restrictions; and, in the one net positive result, 23% and 27% for the Novak Djokovic affair.

The poll also finds 37% believe the choices of those who wish not to be vaccinated should be respected versus 63% who don’t, of whom 41% consider the unvaccinated ill-informed and 22% selfish. It was conducted Thursday to Sunday from a sample of 1062.

Various other polling around the place:

• A poll by Painted Dog Research for The West Australian recorded a 71-29 split in favour of the McGowan government’s indefinite postponement of the reopening of the state’s border. Respondents were also offered a poorly framed question as to whether they “agree the McGowan government could have done more to prepare to open up on February 5”, to which 51% agreed and 29% at least purported to disagree, notwithstanding the obvious absurdity of such a position. The poll had a sample of 637 Western Australian respondents; no field work date was provided, though obviously it was done after Thursday’s announcement.

• YouGov has conducted a poll for the News Corp tabloids that covers an extensive range of issues, but not voting intention, results for which are seemingly being published bit by bit (the full questionnaire is here). There have been two reports from this that I’m aware of, one dealing with state government COVID-19 management. Thirty-five per cent of New South Wales respondents rated their government’s performance positively, 28% neutrally and 34% negatively; Victorians, 42%, 21% and 36%; Queenslanders, 61%, 20% and 19%; Western Australians, 85% positively, 6% neutrally and 8% negatively; South Australians, 48%, 29% and 21%; and Tasmanians, 65%, 21% and 11%. Another report related results on election issue salience, in which respondents were asked to pick two issues out of eight, with 58% choosing cost of living, ahead of 37% for health care, 34% for the economy and 32% for climate change. The poll was conducted December 27 to January 10 from an overall sample of 2297, with state sub-samples ranging from 257 in Tasmania to 507 in New South Wales.

The Conversation reports on a Deakin Contemporary History Survey of “a representative, random sample of more than 5,000 Australians” finding that 60% overall believe the current date of Australia Day should be maintained, but with a clear age effect in which 53% of those born 1986 or later felt otherwise, with 46% favouring no change.

• According to an AAP report, a CoreData survey of 1292 respondents finds more than 80% of those under 26 and more than 70% of those aged 27 to 41 “support moving the date for the sake of improving relations with the Indigenous population” – a formulation that presumably elicits a more favourable response – which plummeted to “just over 30%” among the 56 to 75 cohort and 25% of those over 75. All that’s revealed of those of in the middle is that “the majority still supported keeping the holiday on its current date”.

• A Roy Morgan SMS poll of 1372 respondents posed the not-all-that-useful-to-my-mind question as to whether as to whether January 26 should be identified as Australia Day or Invasion Day, breaking 65-35 in favour of the former. Cross-tabs here if you’re interested.

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.

1,878 comments on “Polls: leadership ratings, WA border closure, Australia Day”

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  1. Just fyi from old thread:

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jan/27/coalition-senators-join-growing-calls-for-inquiry-into-australias-covid-response

    Three Coalition senators have joined growing calls from the crossbench and Labor to hold a royal commission or similar inquiry into Australia’s Covid pandemic response.

    Nationals Matt Canavan and Sam McMahon and Liberal Gerard Rennick – three of the five Coalition senators who crossed the floor to vote against vaccination mandates – have backed the idea, which also received in-principle support from the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese.

    Last week the independent senator Rex Patrick wrote to the prime minister asking him to consider establishing a commission before he calls the 2022 election and to set aside money for it in the budget. The independent MP Zali Steggall is already working on draft terms of reference.

    Canavan told Guardian Australia “we need a full and comprehensive inquiry but I think that needs to wait until the pandemic is over”.

    Canavan said he was “not fussed” about the form of inquiry “providing it has the appropriate power to take evidence from all levels of government, not just the commonwealth, given how involved the states have been with the coronavirus response”.

    Rennick, who has vowed to continue to withhold support for government legislation over the pandemic response, told Guardian Australia there “definitely needs to be a review into the way everything happened”.

  2. Justice Stephen G. Breyer will retire at the end of the current Supreme Court term, according to a person familiar with his plans, giving President Biden a chance to reinforce the court’s liberal minority and make good on his campaign pledge to make history by nominating the first African American female justice.

    Breyer, 83, is the court’s oldest justice, and he has been under unprecedented pressure to retire while Democrats have narrow control of the Senate, which must confirm Supreme Court nominees. The current term concludes at the end of June.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/stephen-breyer-supreme-court-retire/2022/01/26/02a47db0-ace1-11eb-b476-c3b287e52a01_story.html

  3. ‘fess,
    One thing you have to admit is that Manchin and Sinema have reliably voted for all the Democrats’ picks for the courts so far. If they didn’t do it for a SCOTUS vacancy, they may as well join the Republicans the day after refusing Biden’s nominee.

    Biden promised the first African-American woman for the SCOTUS and he has some good choices lined up already. Which would really piss off the White Supremacists and the Misogynists. 😀

  4. C/ the Guardian

    Probably a saying I won’t use but nonetheless:

    “ The independent senator Jacqui Lambie was open to the idea but agreed it was too soon. “You don’t read the entrails while the chicken’s still clucking,” she said.”

  5. Morning all. Cat, Fess I agree on your comments on US Courts. That being said, the more I read of Sinema’s history, the more I think Arizona Democrats deserve a good kicking for nominating her.

    Amid other issues, here is one more story of government mismanagement. Road safety strategies have been failing since the Gillard government strategy of 2011. Inquiries have been held to understand why. Suggestions made. The new strategy (under McCormack) ignored most of them.

    Now the strategy is getting criticised. So Barnaby Joyce is canning the strategy. Good? No!! Why didn’t he just fix it?? He has had six months. He did nothing.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-27/joyce-revisit-road-toll-plan-safety-decade/100780488

    SA transport is no better. They have not even issued a new strategy for road safety, after former Minister Stephen Knowl sat on a report that didn’t tell him what he wanted to hear.

    Road safety (crashes) costs us almost twice as much as road congestion each year. Most of our money goes on “busting congestion” that only generates more traffic.

  6. Soc,
    Liberal strategy re road safety is encapsulated in the Local Council level of thinking: promise to fix pot holes. The feds generally leave it to the states to do the big stuff and then they make them toll roads. Roundabouts seem to be the biggest they’ll go which they fund themselves.

  7. Good morning Dawn Patrollers

    The SMH editorial says that rising inflation is about to change the economic debate.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/rising-inflation-is-about-to-change-the-economic-debate-20220126-p59rgi.html
    The 2022 federal election campaign is already well under way and when we vote in May, one of the major parties will come out ahead but what will the nation get out of it, wonders Sean Carney.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australians-will-pay-the-price-of-politics-for-politics-sake-20220126-p59rap.html
    Independents are running strong at this year’s federal election, putting a hung parliament into play. The challenges they face for a successful candidacy remain high, however, writes Bob McMullan.
    https://johnmenadue.com/its-a-tough-road-but-minor-players-look-like-having-a-major-role-in-2022-poll/
    The immediate backlash from conservative men in power in response to Grace Tame’s photos with the Prime Minister has exposed how they are the gatekeepers of Parliament’s sexist culture, writes Yasmin Poole who tells us why young women aren’t smiling for you any more.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-young-women-aren-t-smiling-for-you-any-more-20220126-p59rd2.html
    A prime minister who lives by the photo op dies by the photo op – and Grace Tame owes Scott Morrison nothing, says Van Badham.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/26/a-prime-minister-who-lives-by-the-photo-op-dies-by-the-photo-op-and-grace-tame-owes-scott-morrison-nothing
    “Thank you, Grace Tame. Smiling doesn’t start national conversations”, says Channel Contos.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/thank-you-grace-tame-for-not-smiling-for-the-pm-smiling-doesn-t-start-national-conversations-20220126-p59rcn.html
    Kirstie Clements writes about Grace Tame’s fashion lesson in speaking volumes without saying a word.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2022/01/26/kirstie-clements-grace-tame-fashion/
    Grace Tame, the 2021 Australian of the Year represents a generational baton-change for the women’s movement, in which neither generation really gets the other, writes Pru Goward.
    https://www.afr.com/politics/grace-tame-s-year-as-an-angry-young-woman-20220126-p59ra1
    What is required of a woman if she wants a seat at the powerful men’s table, asks Jennifer Wilson. “That she smile!”, she says.
    https://theaimn.com/what-is-required-of-a-woman-if-she-wants-a-seat-at-the-powerful-mens-table-that-she-smile/
    This week’s unexpectedly high inflation figures put Philip Lowe in the hot seat over his rejection of any prospect of a rate rise in 2022, says Jennifer Hewett.
    https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/lowe-s-predictions-in-the-firing-line-20220126-p59rgp
    The market thinks rates are about to go up because of inflation. The market could be wrong, declares Greg Jericho.
    https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2022/jan/27/the-market-thinks-rates-are-about-to-go-up-because-of-inflation-the-market-could-be-wrong
    Doctors are urging Australians to report positive COVID-19 tests to ensure they do not “fall through the cracks” and miss out on life-saving treatments.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/gps-fear-at-risk-patients-missing-out-on-crucial-covid-treatment-20220125-p59r23.html
    This is a very good explanation of how we should interpret and act upon RAT test results.
    https://theconversation.com/how-accurate-is-your-rat-3-scenarios-show-its-about-more-than-looking-for-lines-175515
    Three Coalition senators have joined growing calls from the crossbench and Labor to hold a royal commission or similar inquiry into Australia’s Covid pandemic response.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jan/27/coalition-senators-join-growing-calls-for-inquiry-into-australias-covid-response
    David Crowe and Emma Koehn report that, according to industry leaders, Australia could make more than two million rapid antigen tests (RATs) each week with an outlay of about $20 million on new production lines.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/make-more-here-industry-pitches-plan-to-manufacture-millions-of-rapid-tests-20220126-p59rf6.html
    The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association said six out of 10 NSW ICU nurses in a recent survey said they had “no intent of sticking around” once the Omicron outbreak subsides. The New Daily tells us that National cabinet will discuss the capacity of Australia’s health system to handle the Omicron wave as these exhausted nurses prepare to protest to voice their “despair”.
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/coronavirus/2022/01/27/coronavirus-nurses-protest-health-system/?breaking_live_scroll=1

    Four Sydney aged care homes have recorded at least 170 cases each during the Omicron surge, as operators say a lack of access to timely testing for staff and delayed booster clinics sparked some of the biggest outbreaks. Bloody hell!
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/outbreaks-exceed-170-cases-in-four-sydney-aged-care-homes-20220126-p59rbn.html
    Graham Readfearn writes that experts are casting doubts on the green credentials of coal-based hydrogen.
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/27/coal-based-liquid-hydrogen-pivotal-for-green-energy-the-experts-doubt-it
    Carbon offsetting is not warding off environmental collapse – it’s accelerating it, argues George Monbiot.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/26/carbon-offsetting-environmental-collapse-carbon-land-grab
    Finding a common ground between both sides of the political spectrum is key to saving democracy in Western cultures, writes Sue Arnold.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/saving-democracy-bridging-the-leftright-divide,15975
    Having completely destabilised its property sector last year, China’s authorities now appear to be doing anything and everything they can to put a floor under it, explains Stephen Bartholomeusz.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/china-ignited-a-property-implosion-now-it-is-trying-to-engineer-a-soft-landing-20220126-p59r9n.html
    “Arsehole of the Week” nomination goes to the Melbourne GP who doled out 149 dodgy child vaccination exemptions and doctored a letter from the then-Deputy Chief Health Officer has been banned from practising for at least six years and stripped of his title.
    https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/former-melbourne-gp-cops-six-year-ban-over-dodgy-child-vaccination-exemptions-20220126-p59rib.html

    Cartoon Corner

    Peter Broelman

    Cathy Wilcox

    Matt Golding





    Alan Moir

    Mark David

    John Shakespeare

    Glen Le Lievre (with one gif)
    https://twitter.com/i/status/1486239136352972806

    Andrew Dyson

    Fiona Katauskas

    Leak

    From the US














  8. Socrates

    To be fair to McCormack he can’t be accused that he was looking after his home town in regards to roads and safety.

    The Pearson and Dobney street’ potholes in Wagga are legendary.

    His lack of regard for road safety is writ large right there. No wonder he ignored country wide recommendations.

    He wins my award for the most useless local member in Federal Parliament given his level of seniority of positions he has held in government. He won Riverina 70/30 2PP in 2019 and he gives SFA back to the electorate.

  9. Sean Carney encapsulates the Morrison mob very neatly…

    “ It’s designed to manage issues as they arise and otherwise do as little as possible. It’s a caravan that rumbles from election to election, waving problems away with slogans until it’s forced to take action. Meanwhile, it throws small lumps of ideological red meat to its party base and media friends with such things as its constant undermining of universities, the ABC and industry super funds.”

    Thanks BK as usual, excellent work.

  10. Thanks for the roundup BK.

    I think the story that experts are “casting doubt” on coal based hydrogen is a masterful understatement. Coal based hydrogen emits more CO2 than burning diesel. The only reason for coal based hydrogen is to give disingenuous politicians an excuse not to shut coal mines. That includes Dan Andrews.

    The recent ship that left Victoria called 3 tonnes of hydrogen. It weighed 8000 tonnes and probably has around 200 tonnes of fuel oil bunkerage. So we burnt 200 tonnes of oil to get 3 tonnes of hydrogen to Japan, having already burnt around 8 tonnes of coal to create the hydrogen. Call that green?

  11. Morrison’s free RATs for pensioners is going exceedingly well:

    Pharmacies are losing up to $7.50 on each rapid antigen test under the federal government’s concession card-holder scheme due to a shortage of stock.

    Under the program 6.6m concession card holders in Australia can access up to 10 free RATs over a three month period, but the Pharmacy Guild of Australia has told the Guardian the scheme leads to a loss for individual chemists.

    The shortage of tests across the country has driven up wholesale prices. The tests currently cost the pharmacies up to $17.50 each but the government is providing only a $10 reimbursement, the guild said.

    Prof Trent Twomey, the national president of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, said while wholesale prices have increased, there hasn’t been a subsequent adjustment to the reimbursement.

    “The reimbursed price set by the government has clearly been calculated on the wholesale cost of the tests around early December. The wholesale prices have gone up because of the demand, and distributors are chartering jets to bring the product in, and then employing staff at weekends and on overtime to process orders which are dispatched by express courier services.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jan/27/australian-pharmacies-take-a-loss-under-government-scheme-for-concession-card-holders-as-rat-prices-skyrocket

  12. ParkySP @ #11 Thursday, January 27th, 2022 – 8:09 am

    Socrates

    To be fair to McCormack he can’t be accused that he was looking after his home town in regards to roads and safety.

    The Pearson and Dobney street’ potholes in Wagga are legendary.

    His lack of regard for road safety is writ large right there. No wonder he ignored country wide recommendations.

    He wins my award for the most useless local member in Federal Parliament given his level of seniority of positions he has held in government. He won Riverina 70/30 2PP in 2019 and he gives SFA back to the electorate.

    Duplicating the Sturt Highway from the Hume to Wagga as well as a Wagga by-pass, given the number of Double-B’s that pass through the town, wouldn’t have gone astray either. We’ll get his annual Anzac Day booklet, however.

  13. Thanks, BK.

    ‘The 2022 federal election campaign is already well under way and when we vote in May, one of the major parties will come out ahead but what will the nation get out of it, wonders Sean Carney.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australians-will-pay-the-price-of-politics-for-politics-sake-20220126-p59rap.html
    —————————-
    I am very, very pissed off at this casual same same bullshit. As if there is no difference between Morrison and Albanese or no difference between Labor’s policies and values and the Coalition’s policies and values.
    Carney is no better than the Bandtstanders.

  14. I month or so ago I was doing Bludger Battle with the Peace Studies 101 Squad.
    The point I was trying to get across was that their frame needed altering.
    The West is no longer calling the shots. Putin and Xi are players and initiators. Not reactors.
    I tried to explain the frame by likening Putin to a leopard.
    The Taylor cartoon, above, has Putin as a leopard. The problem with the cartoon is this. Leopards are not lions. Taylor has desecribed a lion’s behaviour; not a leopard’s behaviour.

  15. Parky, Ballantyne

    “ Duplicating the Sturt Highway from the Hume to Wagga as well as a Wagga by-pass, given the number of Double-B’s that pass through the town, wouldn’t have gone astray either.”

    Sorry but even that suggestion highlights where Australia is going wrong. There is very little evidence road duplication improves road safety. E.g. people still die on four lane sections of the Hume and Pacific Highways.

    Road safety will be improved by things like this:
    – better rural speed management e.g. point to point speed cameras, not spot ones
    – more wire rope safety barriers in the middle of rural highways; these drop fatal crashes up to 75%
    – better maintenance funds for existing rural highways, rather than upgrades
    – better management (and policing) of fatigue in rural road freight
    – adoption of EU vehicle safety standards. Why have ADRs when we don’t build cars?
    – in cities slower speeds in pedestrian areas, protected bike lanes, more roundabouts, less traffic signals
    – proper investigation of all fatal crashes and consistent reporting by states
    – updating design and investment guides to make road safety a higher priority than “busting congestion”
    – passing Vision Zero as legislation, not policy. Policy gets ignored.
    – national standards for safe road design, not guidelines; ridiculous states adopt different safety standards

    Road safety is something Labor is not as bad at as the LNP. But neither is good.

  16. Boerwar, BK

    On issues other than road safety and brown hydrogen I agree Labor is light years ahead of the LNP in many policy areas. That is before we start to consider all the corruption in Canberra and lack of a Federal ICAC.

  17. Socrates
    “Road safety will be improved by things like this:”
    A meaningful modal shift to rail freight. Something every transport minister for decades has talked about, quietly contradicted by their actions.

  18. Victorian COVID-19 hospitalisations at 1,057 as state records 15 deaths

    The number of people in hospital after contracting the illness sits at 1,057, down from 1,089 recorded on Wednesday.

    Of the people in hospital, 117 are in intensive care units and 40 are on ventilators.

    There were 13,755 new infections officially reported, bringing the number of active cases to 119,153.

    The tally was comprised of 6,130 PCR test results and 7,625 rapid antigen tests (RATs) registered with the state on Wednesday.

  19. Socrates at 8.51am

    A couple of road safety things…

    I am a motorcyclist and regard the wire rope road dividers with horror. The rope’s OK, but we in the riding community describe the metal uprights as “cheese cutters” for the effect they are likely to have on a motorcyclist who strikes them. What about concrete dividers – they probably only break riders’ legs?

    Also, some years ago I was on holiday in Adelaide and noticed the school zone speed limit was 25km/h (most other states it is 40.) I thought “That’s taking school safety seriously.”

  20. If the water cooler talk is anything to go by Tame\s behaviour has not gone over well. They think her actions were rude and childish towards the PM and mostly woman. She has shot herself in the foot and given the PM a helping hand at the same time.

  21. “If the water cooler talk is anything to go by Tame\s behaviour has not gone over well. ”

    So, water cooler patrons in your ward are truly representative of the demographic the Libs need to win over?? Yah…right……..

  22. Hey snappy tom did you get my photos of ex PM’s turning there backs. Gillard on Abbott was a particularly good one I thought. But like I said they all do it on a daily basis when parliament sits. When you are that one-eyed you stop seeing anything other than what you want I suppose.

  23. Will SfM be able to run a scare campaign on this? If Labor wins in May, will it be able to survive the negativity that Murdoch and his opposition will dish up?

    “ The rise in interest rates to a normal level after 10 years, during which interest rates only went down, is good news because it shows the economy is recovering. But there will be winners and losers along the way. Households and investors will have to change their mindsets.”

    https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/rising-inflation-is-about-to-change-the-economic-debate-20220126-p59rgi.html

    Sportsbet has Labor out from $1.40 to $1.45 just on Steelydan’s water cooler talk.

  24. 70% of NSW roads deaths are on country roads.

    Point to point speed cameras are the most effective way to control speeding.

    Point to point speed cameras in NSW are only for detecting speeding trucks.

    Unlike other states, NSW’s existing fixed average-speed cameras are only used to detect speeding by heavy vehicles.

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/best-thing-since-sliced-bread-to-help-reduce-car-accidents-in-nsw-20220104-p59lql.html

    It is Nationals policy to see them *not* used for cars.

    Going as far back as that ignorant bumpkin Minister (anything but) Gay.

    On Wednesday, Mr Gay – a senior Nationals MP – said not introducing point-to-point speed cameras for cars and light vehicles “is an election commitment and will not change”.

    https://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11457718

    You’d be forgiven for concluding that there are significant numbers of country drivers insisting on being able to speed undetected, and kill themselves, with or without alcohol, the other killer, in the mix.

    Edit: block quote issues

  25. You’d be forgiven for concluding that there are significant numbers of country drivers insisting on being able to speed undetected, and kill themselves, with or without alcohol, the other killer, in the mix.
    —————
    In a world where there are apparently significant numbers of people insisting on their right to become infected by a deadly virus, and to infect others, by refusing vaccination and masking, unfortunately what you’ve described is not that implausible!

    Right wingers have jumped the evolutionary shark it seems. Natural selection is coming for them. Unfortunately they’re taking out a few of the more highly evolved cohort along the way.

  26. Steelydan – this criticism from Yasmin Poole applies directly to you:

    It’s the same argument from a worn-out misogynists’ playbook. If women’s “disdain” for the political boys club is so great, why should they run for politics? If women “disdain” the system that entrenches our disadvantage, why should we sit at the table and challenge it?

    Their criticisms carry a thinly veiled message: women who refuse to obey do not belong in spaces where decisions are made.

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-young-women-aren-t-smiling-for-you-any-more-20220126-p59rd2.html

    (Thanks to BK for posting the article)

  27. It is amazing how so many conservatives are upset at not getting a smile.

    Well done Grace Tame, at the end of your tenure, to not go quietly into the night. You have been a catalyst yet again.

  28. Imacca

    So, water cooler patrons in your ward are truly representative of the demographic the Libs need to win over?? Yah…right……..

    In my ward 🙂 I will pay that.

  29. Steelydan @ Thursday, January 27, 2022 at 10:20 am

    While I do not doubt how partisan you may perceive such conversations, I am very happy to hear of the issue that you are discussing at the ‘water cooler’. It is an issue that should be discussed, as it is by such conversation that the hidden fabric of privilege in our society is brought into the light.

  30. My guess is that for those hellbent on demanding smiles from women … most women represent their mum, and if their mum didn’t smile at them, they were in trouble.

  31. ‘Australian astronomers have chanced across an object hidden in our galaxy that should not exist.

    Three times an hour, like clockwork, the object releases a massive burst of radio waves for a minute, briefly becoming the brightest object in the sky at those invisible frequencies.’

    Disappointingly…

    ‘“I was concerned that it was aliens, but what’s really good about these observations is they are over a very wide frequency range,” she said.

    “That means it must be a natural process, this is not an artificial signal.”’

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/three-times-an-hour-mystery-space-object-releases-massive-radio-signal-20220126-p59reb.html

  32. Griffsays:
    Thursday, January 27, 2022 at 10:38 am
    It is amazing how so many conservatives are upset at not getting a smile.

    Well done Grace Tame, at the end of your tenure, to not go quietly into the night. You have been a catalyst yet again.

    She has been a catalyst all right she has reminded those leaning towards voting Labor that radicals are still a big part of the ALP and the type of people they will be giving power to. When this sort of behaviour is seen as being endorsed by labor or part of Labor it detracts from Albo and Labor been seen as a safe pair of hands. Labor needs to stay away from from all radicals if it wants to win. I bet Grace Tame will not be seen in any labor election campaigning, no photo opps, nothing, she is about to see who her true friends are.

    Lots of support but I just cant be seen with you at the moment Grace.

  33. ‘“I was concerned that it was aliens, but what’s really good about these observations is they are over a very wide frequency range,” she said.

    “That means it must be a natural process, this is not an artificial signal.”’

    Suspicious that we have living among us an apparent expert on what aliens would/wouldn’t do. Very suspicious.

  34. Streeydan

    Did the people at your water cooler have any comment on this story?

    New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern has said “at no point was I worried about my safety” after her van was chased and forced on to a curb by anti-vaccination protesters.

    Footage of the incident, which took place last week, was posted to social media in recent days. It shows protesters shouting slogans at the van, including “shame on you,” and “we do not consent”. A person filming inside a car is heard saying “there’s Jacinda” and “​​Oh this is fun, we’re on a chase.” The car pursues the prime minister’s van and at one point someone inside calls the prime minister “a Nazi” and shouts various obscenities. As their vehicle tries to block the van, the van is forced on to the curb to avoid it, then continues on.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/26/jacinda-ardern-shrugs-off-car-chase-by-anti-vaccination-protesters

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