The fortnightly Essential Research poll was published yesterday, showing the following:
• On voting intention, primary vote numbers inclusive of a 7% undecided component have Labor and the Coalition on 32% each, which is one down in Labor’s case and two up in the Coalition’s. The Greens are down two to 12% and One Nation are up one to 7%. The pollster’s 2PP+ measure has Labor down two to 49% and the Coalition up two to 44%, with 7% undecided.
• Leader favourability ratings, in which respondents are asked to rate the leaders from zero to ten (distinct from a more conventional approval question that is asked of the Prime Minister once a month), offer the most distinctive evidence yet for a softening of Anthony Albanese’s position: 40% now give him a rating of seven to ten, down seven on last month, with 28% scoring him from zero to three, up six.
• For the first time since Labor came to power, a “national mood” question records a net negative result, with 42% rating that the country is on the wrong track, up five on a month ago, compared with 38% for the right track, down five.
• A series of three questions on tax policy includes one on “reducing tax concessions for people with superannuation balances over $3 million”, which found 50% supportive and 19% opposed. Forty-seven per cent rate themselves unlikely to have $3 million in super when they are old enough to access it along with 23% for not that likely, while 8% think it very likely and 15% fairly likely. “Tightening up the rules around family trusts to make it more difficult for wealthy families to split their incomes and reduce their tax” was supported by 55% and opposed by 15%, and cancelling stage three tax cuts has 42% support with 22% opposed.
The poll was covered Wednesday to Sunday from a sample of 1141. Other poll findings around the place:
• An additional result from this week’s Newspoll has support for an Indigenous voice at 53%, down three on a month ago, with opposition up one to 38%. Last week’s Resolve Strategic poll also had a supplementary question on the voice, which had support at 58%, down two from December and January, and opposition up two to 42%.
• The quarterly True Issues survey of issue salience by JWS Research finds concern over the cost of living continuing to raise, now rated as one of the three main issues by 47%, up from 44% in October and just 16% a year ago. Housing and interest rates is up seven since October to 26%; health has steadied after a long decline as the pandemic faded from the limelight, now up two to 31%; and environment and climate change is down three to 23%. The survey was conducted February 24 to 27 from a sample of 1000.
• The latest weekly Roy Morgan federal voting intentions have Labor on 38%, the Coalition on 33.5% and the Greens on 11.5%, with Labor’s two-party lead narrowing from 56.6-43.5 to 54.5-45.5. The poll was conducted Monday to Sunday; as usual, the sample is not specified.
Rex Douglas @ #96 Wednesday, March 8th, 2023 – 10:33 am
That’s not egg, Rex. That’s their natural colour.
C@tmomma says:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 10:26 am
Snappy Tom,
You seem to know a lot about WW2. So I’ve been wondering, wrt the War in Ukraine, if ‘Bunker Buster’ bombs might be effectively deployed against Russia’s newly dug in and concrete-fortified positions?
____________
I think my fascination (hopefully not morbid) with WW2 stems from my father being a Pom. He spent part of the war building Matilda tanks. There’s a Matilda in a park in Singleton. When traveling on holiday during my childhood, we always seemed to stop there. Decades later, I figured out why. Dad probably turned some bolts on that particular Matilda.
I suspect explosives experts can determine how big a device is needed to bust a bunker – they just need an estimate on how thick and how reinforced the concrete is.
Russia is the attacker in this war (oops – special military operation!) They need to assemble and, at least temporarily, protect forces that significantly outnumber Ukraine’s. Building bunkers helps protect but does nothing for mobility. The historical rule for a successful offensive is to have local superiority over the enemy by a ratio of 3 to 1.
Russia may be in a bind – they’re losing lots of troops. Maybe the bunkers indicate a shift to defending territory capture so far, in hopes of forcing a negotiated settlement. If Ukraine can destroy lots of bunkers – which usually involves the deaths of troops inside – it may compromise Russia’s ability to protect even defensively-oriented forces.
Ukraine will continue to need a lot of stuff from the West.
Arky says:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 10:39 am
Don’t blame us Rex, we just made the mistake of believing that the Greens and Senator Thorpe were telling the truth about what she did. How are we meant to know the Greens lawyers advised Thorpe to lie about a relationship that didn’t happen?
Are you telling us in the future we should assume they’re lying?
____________
The Greens never lie. They always mean whatever Rex tells us they mean – and it is always the truth.
Thorpe both wad and wasn’t in a relationship with a bikie. Simultaneously.
Rex Douglas @ Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 10:33 am
“Certain Labor partisans have egg on their faces for past attacks and smears against Senator Thorpe.
I shan’t be re-quoting those attacks but they know who they are.”
Rex demonstrating yet again that he thinks the best form of defence is to cause offence 😉
C@tmomma @ #92 Wednesday, March 8th, 2023 – 10:18 am
C@t You seem to forget that I have met and spoken to you at PB lunches, and in chats before and after while strolling to transport. I know that you have analytical powers of such acuity that they failed to even inform you with any worthwhile precision of where you actually live, and which direction the opening to the bay over the road from your place faces, and where Lion Island and my places at Bateau Bay and Bucketty are relative to yourself.
Your muddle headed expostulation about my comments on the golden rule yesterday was truly odd.
Your, and 9Fax’s rantings about China remind me chillingly of similar crap that was being spewed by the press about Vietnam and the ‘yellow peril’, and we know where that led.
Please understand that I am not in the least sensitive to any comment that you see fit to make about me. Remember, I have met you in person, and have sized you up. You have acknowledged, on here, that I have helped you to understand your actual, physical place in the world, by providing you with aerial photos of your local geography. I have observed, first hand, the intellectual capacity that you represent. My reactions to your posts take my assessment of your limitations into account.
Go well. North is important. That’s where the sunlight comes from.
Player One says:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 10:41 am
Rex Douglas @ #96 Wednesday, March 8th, 2023 – 10:33 am
Certain Labor partisans have egg on their faces for past attacks and smears against Senator Thorpe..
That’s not egg, Rex. That’s their natural colour.
____________
“Albumen” refers to the white of an egg. It derives from the Latin for “white” (hence “albino”).
P1, I am truly surprised to see you complement Labor on its purity – white being traditionally symbolic of that virtue.
On behalf of the Party, I thank you.
TEN’S defence in the Lehrmann defamation suit:
https://www.fedcourt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/107444/NSD103_2023-Defence-Network-Ten.pdf
yabba, you need new material. This one is getting as tired as a painted lady’s underwear:
C@t You seem to forget that I have met and spoken to you at PB lunches, and in chats before and after while strolling to transport. I know that you have analytical powers of such acuity that they failed to even inform you with any worthwhile precision of where you actually live, and which direction the opening to the bay over the road from your place faces, and where Lion Island and my places at Bateau Bay and Bucketty are relative to yourself. 🙄
BFD!
More speculation being floated about, on last year’s sabotage of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline:
“European and US intelligence officials have obtained tentative intelligence to suggest a pro-Ukrainian saboteur group may have been behind the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year, according to reports in the New York Times and German newspaper Die Zeit.
German investigators believe the attack on the pipelines was carried out by a team of six people, using a yacht that had been hired by a company registered in Poland and owned by two Ukrainian citizens, according to Die Zeit.
The information has been shared between European intelligence agencies in an effort to establish more information about those who carried out the undersea bombings in September, an attack that had left western governments perplexed.
Details about the intelligence remain sketchy and it is unclear what confidence the US intelligence community places in the theory, as well as who may have organised, funded and directed such a daring attack on the gas pipelines running between Russia and Germany. But it is suggested that the government of Kyiv did not direct the underwater strike.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/07/officials-believe-pro-ukraine-group-sabotage-nord-stream-pipelines
This is all still tentative, but I want to say that any sabotage of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Europe is an excellent development for three reasons:
1. It cuts off a source of revenue for Moscow;
2. It cuts off a source of Moscow’s influence over Europe;
3. It encourages Europe to find alternative sources of energy to Russian gas, some of which at least will be from renewable sources.
So, here’s to whoever blew up that syringe of Moscow’s influence, which promised to do nothing but mainline that influence right into the heart of Europe. Bravo!
Слава Україні! Героям слава!
Oh, and lol, yabba.
Please understand that I am not in the least sensitive to any comment that you see fit to make about me. Remember, I have met you in person, and have sized you up.
I’m quivering in my boots because YOU have sized me up! 😆
Snappy Tom @ Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 10:42 am:
“Russia is the attacker in this war (oops – special military operation!) They need to assemble and, at least temporarily, protect forces that significantly outnumber Ukraine’s. Building bunkers helps protect but does nothing for mobility. The historical rule for a successful offensive is to have local superiority over the enemy by a ratio of 3 to 1.
Russia may be in a bind – they’re losing lots of troops. Maybe the bunkers indicate a shift to defending territory capture so far, in hopes of forcing a negotiated settlement. If Ukraine can destroy lots of bunkers – which usually involves the deaths of troops inside – it may compromise Russia’s ability to protect even defensively-oriented forces.
Ukraine will continue to need a lot of stuff from the West.”
======================
Thank you for your answer to C@t’s question, Snappy Tom (and thank you for inviting the answer, C@t). I full agree.
Enough Already,
I wouldn’t put it past the Ukrainian intel services. It’s rather complex to get enough explosives underwater and on a pipe that’s 6 inches thick with concrete in that part of the world.
There’s a lot of patrol boats.
Personally, I think the yanks did it on behalf of the ukrainians, and with silent thanks from the Europeans. Crippling Russia is still on the pin board of strategic goals for the CIA.
Your, and 9Fax’s rantings about China remind me chillingly of similar crap that was being spewed by the press about Vietnam and the ‘yellow peril’, and we know where that led.
And your continued misrepresentation, or willful ignorance, about my position wrt China, in service of an extremely tenuous and ‘muddle-headed’, yourself, link to Vietnam just proves to me that you will grasp at any straw in order to prove yourself right and anyone who disagrees with you, wrong. Of that, we have copious evidence.
Don’t bother replying, yabba, except if it’s to continue to stroke your ego, as I am finding the discourse with you, tiresome, to say the least. I always do with, my way right or wrong, commenters.
Mavis
Wishing peace for your beloved pooch.
south @ Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 10:59 am:
“Enough Already,
I wouldn’t put it past the Ukrainian intel services. It’s rather complex to get enough explosives underwater and on a pipe that’s 6 inches thick with concrete in that part of the world.
There’s a lot of patrol boats.
Personally, I think the yanks did it on behalf of the ukrainians, and with silent thanks from the Europeans. Crippling Russia is still on the pin board of strategic goals for the CIA.”
===================
South, that’s a good theory. The logistics of such an audacious strike on a Russian geopolitical/economic asset as Nord Stream 2 would be a formidable obstacle to a motley crew of a half-dozen chancers. 😉
south @ #112 Wednesday, March 8th, 2023 – 10:59 am
That’s a fascinating perspective, south. Thanks for that.
Oh, and for the record, yabba, more than one person at the PB lunches said to me that they wished you hadn’t tried to dominate the discussion so much and had let others have a say.
“only 22% oppose ditching s3 tax cuts, what are they afraid of?”
This:…..After a small tweak to Super tax concessions which only effect balance over $3,000,000 and dont kick in till 2025 there has been an almighty stink kicked up by the opposition and the opposition loving media. Front page stories, editorial rants, every right wing nut job wheeled out onto channels 7, 9, 10, Sky and the ABC.
Now imagine what will happen if s3 TAX CUTS that have been PROMISED and that will affect a great many more Australians than the Super changes are axed. It will be on every paper, every News report, every editorial, every Liberal brochure everyday from now until the Election. LABOR BREAKS PROMISES…..AGAIN…..and it wont matter one iota that the tax cuts are unfair, or regressive and that the savings will be spent do this good thing or that good thing……The Super changes furore was proof of what will happen…Maybe Albo and Chalmers did it for this very reason, to test the waters…..well they have their answer. So Nath, Player One, Integrity are just inviting the destruction and defeat of a Labor Government so that they can continue to feel morally superior under the iron yoke of a Dutton Regime
From the OP
[and cancelling stage three tax cuts has 42% support with 22% opposed.]
What the f##k is Albo worried about …???
nath says:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 10:10 am
Cronus says:
A small question, if what Thorpe is saying no is correct, why didn’t she simply tell the truth the first time……………?
_________
A reasonable question, not that it matters. She was pilloried on here by Labor stooges and alleged to have provided information to bikies.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. She is a figure to be hated by many and in the end, no matter what she does or doesn’t do she will be hated on.
——————————————————————————————
But nath you’ve simply attempted to deflect from the simple question, why did she not just tell the truth in the first place? The question and its answer have absolutely nothing to do with what anyone else believes.
Do try to grow up from using the stooge pejorative, it makes an indefensible response even more immature. The failure of any individual to tell the truth doesn’t in any way reflect upon the listeners/readers/viewers not physically involved in the issue. The teller of an untruth is responsible for their own actions and any subsequent ramifications but don’t blame uninvolved readers.
Player One says:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 10:41 am
Rex Douglas @ #96 Wednesday, March 8th, 2023 – 10:33 am
Certain Labor partisans have egg on their faces for past attacks and smears against Senator Thorpe..
That’s not egg, Rex. That’s their natural colour.
中华人民共和国
Back from the jungle troops! Just read the latest in the Thorpe saga. Claims that Green Party Lawyers told her to lie. Well well well. FICAC should investigate the Greens as a matter of priority. Open hearings too.
Lisa Millar hits back at the scum attacking her
https://thenewdaily.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/2023/03/08/abc-tv-lisa-miller-twitter/
Rex:
I note that there isn’t a single mention of Labor partisans in that article.
Snappy Tomsays:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 10:47 am
Quantum truth with Quantum Integrity!
At last! The royal commission has commissioned expert examination of the various actual processes that were designed and implemented. This should be an interesting testimony.
Rex Douglassays:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 11:11 am
Weren’t they Labor scum yesterday, Integrity?
C@tmomma @ #108 Wednesday, March 8th, 2023 – 10:54 am
Once more, without any particular feeling one way or the other:
Please understand that I am not in the least sensitive to (that is to say, I am indifferent to, am disinterested in) any comment that you see fit to make about me. Remember, I have met you in person, and have sized you up. My reactions to your posts take my personal assessment of your manifest limitations into account.
Do you see?
C@tmomma says:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 10:26 am
Snappy Tom,
You seem to know a lot about WW2. So I’ve been wondering, wrt the War in Ukraine, if ‘Bunker Buster’ bombs might be effectively deployed against Russia’s newly dug in and concrete-fortified positions?
——————————————————————————————-
Most often yes. The GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator is a 14000kg bomb used by the US that will penetrate up to 60 metres deep.
From the Oz – the Thorpe vs Green war continues. Wonder which side Green partisans will choose?
” Greens Leader Adam Bandt is unlikely to apologise to Senator Lidia Thorpe after she was cleared of contempt over her “connection” with former Rebels bikie boss Dean Martin while serving on a law enforcement committee.
The former Greens senator demanded an apology from the Greens leader in the Senate on Tuesday night, saying she “did nothing wrong” when she “kissed” Mr Martin at an Invasion Day rally.
It comes after a senate privileges committee report into “possible obstruction” of the law enforcement committee found she did not disclose the committee’s activities to Mr Martin.
She sat on the committee between February 2021 and April 2022.
The report did however find Senator Thorpe should have declared her links to Mr Martin.”
Rex Douglas says:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 10:33 am
Certain Labor partisans have egg on their faces for past attacks and smears against Senator Thorpe.
I shan’t be re-quoting those attacks but they know who they are.
————————————————————————
And the liar, because she’s admitted that’s what she is, what does she have on her face? She writes her own character reference by her words and actions.
Interesting ongoing commentary about whether or not Fairfax/ Nine Media are beating the war drums . I wouldn’t know because I avoid the aforesaid media as I do with the Merdeocracy.
Whatever the reality is, both the former and latter have a real problem.
His name is Dutton. No amount of drum- beating is going to make him a likely successor to Albanese.
Can the Opposition gain ground in the polls?
Sure, but to do that, they have to invoke the Abbott principle ( sorry, wrong term, I meant strategy) of absolute opposition and negativity to everything the Government says or does.
Will that work with an electorate tired of petty, destructive politics?
Maybe. But does Duttons leadership help or imperil that strategy? He is the face of negativity and is starting from one hell of a low personality base. The fact that he’s a Qlder doesn’t hold him in good stead with the other parochial ( and voting- population strong) States.
So the Liberal Party media have to focus away from him and onto other issues. Cue the aforesaid drum- beating- a classic Conservative strategy. With war in the the Ukraine now a world issue, “It’s time” ( apologies for using a classic Labor line).
However, the economy, interest rate rises and inflation are likely to be on most voter’s minds and the drum beats may not be resonating in their ears.
Labor will hope that interest rates will peak in the next 12months and even drop. If so, another Conservative attack line will wilt. Time is against them if the economy turns. They need to make inroads now. Anything the media can drum up will suffice.
But the face of Dutton is still the issue. Who have the Liberals got to replace him? What sort of internecine warfare would be involved?
Labor needs to maintain its course. Yes, there are always icebergs in the course, but at least the ship is on its way. Its rival shipping line is still on port, deciding what cargo to load, which direction to go and doubts about its captaincy.
Let’s see, without referral to certain media , how long and how impactful this current theme will be.
Again in the Oz
“The former Greens Senator denied she dated Mr Martin altogether.
“We kissed once at a rally on the 26th of January. I had no idea who this person was or his background,” she told the Senate.”
So Thorpe goes around snogging blokes at public events without even knowing who they are. I’m not one to judge but seems a bit strange to me. Maybe I’m just old fashioned.
C@tmomma @ #117 Wednesday, March 8th, 2023 – 11:05 am
I have considerable difficulty in believing you. I am in personal, friendly, external communication and social contact with a number of them, in particular in relation to ‘classical’ music. But you be you, and believe whatever you choose. Keep to your faith, if it helps. Go well.
If its true that Lidia Thorpe’s dalliance with the former biker was little more than a hook-up and that she was pressured by her party’s lawyers into saying differently, than I reckon she has a pretty legitimate grievance. The reporting at the time suggested she had been in a serious relationship with the guy.
But if that’s all it was, one has to wonder why she didn’t just say that at the time. She’s never exactly struck me as the loyal party soldier who will just do what she’s told, especially when her reputation is on the line in this manner. I also can’t quite fathom why the Greens’ legal team would advise her to tell a lie that makes the situation look worse than it actually worse.
What a mess.
Asha says:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 11:28 am
If its true that Lidia Thorpe’s dalliance with the former biker was little more than a hook-up and that she was pressured by her party’s lawyers into saying differently, than I reckon she has a pretty legitimate grievance. The reporting at the time suggested she had been in a serious relationship with the guy.
But if that’s all it was, one has to wonder why she didn’t just say that at the time. She’s never exactly struck me as the loyal party soldier who will just do what she’s told, especially when her reputation is on the line in this manner. I also can’t quite fathom why the Greens’ legal team would advise her to tell a lie that makes the situation look worse than it actually worse.
What a mess.
中华人民共和国
+1
Upnorthsays:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 11:16 am
So it reflected a conflict of interest, but there’s no evidence she acted inappropriately with any information she obtained on the Committee.
Upnorth,
What a mess.
—-
Hey just focus on watching the greens become just another political party. It’s pretty fun.
south says:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 11:34 am
Upnorth,
What a mess.
—-
Hey just focus on watching the greens become just another political party. It’s pretty fun.
中华人民共和国
Butter is not only melting in their mouths it’s positively dripping from the edges!
The expert witness told the commission that three of the four categories of less than confident PAYG data matching actually leaked into the robodebt scheme after DSS data matching verification. FMD!
Upnorth says:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 11:29 am
Asha says:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 11:28 am
If its true that Lidia Thorpe’s dalliance with the former biker was little more than a hook-up and that she was pressured by her party’s lawyers into saying differently, than I reckon she has a pretty legitimate grievance. The reporting at the time suggested she had been in a serious relationship with the guy.
But if that’s all it was, one has to wonder why she didn’t just say that at the time. She’s never exactly struck me as the loyal party soldier who will just do what she’s told, especially when her reputation is on the line in this manner. I also can’t quite fathom why the Greens’ legal team would advise her to tell a lie that makes the situation look worse than it actually worse.
What a mess.
———————————————————————————————
I find it extremely difficult to believe Green’s lawyers would advise any MP to lie, thereby putting their own credibility and employment at risk.
Upnorth says:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 11:29 am
Asha says:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 11:28 am
If its true that Lidia Thorpe’s dalliance with the former biker was little more than a hook-up and that she was pressured by her party’s lawyers into saying differently, than I reckon she has a pretty legitimate grievance. The reporting at the time suggested she had been in a serious relationship with the guy.
But if that’s all it was, one has to wonder why she didn’t just say that at the time. She’s never exactly struck me as the loyal party soldier who will just do what she’s told, especially when her reputation is on the line in this manner. I also can’t quite fathom why the Greens’ legal team would advise her to tell a lie that makes the situation look worse than it actually worse.
What a mess.
中华人民共和国
+1
____________
Remember, The Greens aren’t really a political party. They’re pure. On policy plus everything else.
We mere impure mortals could not be expected to understand The Greens’ pure legal logic.
Upnorth:
Eh, they’re both consenting adults. (Well, I’m assuming the bikie consented to the kiss.) Most people have surely hooked up with somebody they just met at least once in their life.
“I find it extremely difficult to believe Green’s lawyers would advise any MP to lie, thereby putting their own credibility and employment at risk.”
Aren’t there rules around that kind of this? Should the Bar have a chat to those lawyers?
BK says:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 11:36 am
The expert witness told the commission that three of the four categories of less than confident PAYG data matching actually leaked into the robodebt scheme after DSS data matching verification. FMD!
____________
You know those handles just above the doors of a car? They fold down when you grab them – if, say, the drivers is taking a corner too fast.
A friend of mine once termed them “FMD handles”.
If Lidia Thorpe had just said it was only a kiss at a rally it wouldn’t have stopped people demanding some kind of inquiry or stopped allegations being made against her that she had passed on information. Many would simply have not believed her.
Pueo,
There’s no consequences. Lawyers breaking lawyerly laws don’t ever face real justice.
Once you’re in the club, you’re in the club. And politics is another verboten arena where justice and accountability is to be kept away.
We rely at times like this on the meek media. So yeah, no consequences. It’s law of the jungle from here.
And as for Yabba insulting C@t on her ‘limitations’. Well, it was not C@t who posted her name and address on here.
Asha says:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 11:40 am
Upnorth:
So Thorpe goes around snogging blokes at public events without even knowing who they are. I’m not one to judge but seems a bit strange to me. Maybe I’m just old fashioned.
Eh, they’re both consenting adults. (Well, I’m assuming the bikie consented to the kiss.) Most people have surely hooked up with somebody they just met at least once in their life.
__________
Upnorth requires a formal introduction from a Labor party member before hooking up.
Asha says:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 11:40 am
Upnorth:
So Thorpe goes around snogging blokes at public events without even knowing who they are. I’m not one to judge but seems a bit strange to me. Maybe I’m just old fashioned.
Eh, they’re both consenting adults. (Well, I’m assuming the bikie consented to the kiss.) Most people have surely hooked up with somebody they just met at least once in their life.
中华人民共和国
I went to a few rallies in my younger days – was too busy throwing eggs at John Hewson. “Hey Hey – Ho Ho – Dr Hewsons gotta go!”. Never got to snogging complete strangers. Maybe I haven’t lived. Asha I shall take your commets as inspiration good sir.
Before getting naked with someone, Upnorth requires not only a formal introduction from a Labor party member, but two letters of recommendation from two former or current Labor members of Parliament.