Nothing to relate over the past week in the way of federal polling, but past time nonetheless for a new post. We do have, courtesy of the Macquarie University Housing and Urban Research Centre, a deep dive into attitudes towards housing policy from before the May election, drawn from the Australian Cooperative Election Survey conducted by Accent Research. It finds only 16% were satisfied with the Albanese government’s housing policies, with 34% dissatisfied and 32% neither, although the high level of consistency of these results by age group, housing tenure and property investment status suggests the dissatisfaction takes on a variety of forms. On the causes of the problem, the report offers the perhaps unsurprising finding that “older and right-leaning voters” blame immigration, while “younger and progressive voters identify high interest rates, high prices and low wages”.
DemosAU does have a state poll for Queensland, which comes too soon after last week’s Resolve Strategic and RedBridge Group polls to get its own post (on a semi-related point: still no date for the Hinchinbrook by-election). In contrast to those two, it finds David Crisafulli’s Liberal National Party government well on top, despite a surge to One Nation at the expense of both major parties. The LNP has a two-party lead of 54-46, essentially the same as the 54.2-45.8 election result last year, from primary votes of LNP 37% (down by 4.5%), Labor 29% (down by 3.6%), Greens 12% (up by 2.1%) and One Nation 14% (up by 6.0%). Crisafulli leads Steven Miles 44-23 on preferred premier. Further questions find the government highly rated for handling of the Olympics but rather a lot less so for housing and cost-of-living, which also register as the two most salient issues facing the state. Extensive demographic breakdowns are available in the full report. The poll was conducted October 13 to 20 from a sample of 1006.
UPDATE (Essential Research): Had I held back a few hours I would have had a new poll from Essential Research to lead with: it has Labor up a point to 36% and the Coalition down one to 26%, and the ongoing One Nation surge pushing them well clear of the Greens, respectively up two to 15% and down two to 9%, with a steady 6% undecided. Labor holds a 50-44 lead on the 2PP+ measure, in from 51-44. Anthony Albanese is up a point on approval to 45% and down two on disapproval to 44%, while Sussan Ley is steady on 32% and up two to 43%.
A question on who should lead the Liberal Party produces indecisive results, with 42% professing themselves unsure and 12% favouring “somebody else” over six designated options: 13% for Sussan Ley, 10% for Andrew Hastie, 10% for Jacinta Namatjira Price, 7% for Angus Taylor, 4% for Allegra Spender and 3% for Tim Wilson. Forty-eight per cent felt the party should adopt more progressive positions, 24% more conservative.
Albanese’s meeting with Donald Trump was rated good for Australia’s long-term interests by 37%, bad by 18% and indifferent by 26%. Support for net zero by 2050 is at 44% with 27% opposed, and a monthly national mood reading improves a bit after a sharp downturn last time, with right direction up a point to 35% and wrong track down four to 46%. The poll was conducted Wednesday to Monday from a sample of 1041.
Corleone: “I assume hastie thinks if he dumps susssan now, the two remaining years to the next election will be a glorious ascendency for him.
He is of course wrong. Just another footnote to a party that has itself become a footnote.”
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It is beyond me what Hastie thinks he was doing. The smart game for him to play was to focus on issues that would give him the opportunity to display his softer, more compassionate side (if he has one). He needed to come across – a la John Howard -in the 1990s – as a hard right Liberal who is prepared to reach out to the moderates.
Instead, he decided to die in a ditch about matters on which he had already established his right-wing credentials.
Dare I say that I suspect that his main problem is that he isn’t very bright.
MB
Despite Nath’s argument who can or would want to be a Catholic in full communion these days?
So you are left with various forms of Catholic Lite – my view, without objective evidence, is that these are people who know its all crap but are hedging their bets.
Following Catholic social teaching, without the spirituality, is a much easier and rewarding path.
Catholics, like other groups, vary in their level of devotion and in their adherence to the detailed rules, about marriage or about anything else.
Steve 777
True and it can be argued that personal conscience is supreme, even in Catholicism, but that goes against the tradition of papal authority.
OC. My faith is a mixture of Hinduism and Hinyana Buddhism (less so Buddhism of the Mahayana variety, although I adore their temples).
If I were ever to convert to Christianity, I would probably go for very high church Anglicanism or Anglo-Catholicism. What I’m after from religion is first and foremost magic and spiritual enlightenment. The Catholics have first-rate magic, but they’ve done too much evil with it for my liking.
If I want ideas about how to do good works and the like I prefer to turn to agnostics and atheists such as the original Fabians, with a dash of Gandhi, Thoreau and Ruskin.
Landlord of the Year @ #1580 Sunday, November 2nd, 2025 – 12:10 pm
Gates wants those who are left alive after adapting to climate change to have better lives. But if we address climate change, then all of us can have better lives.
meher babasays:
However, Earlwood says that he has “personally” seen Albo celebrating Mass (and presumably communicating with the Eucharist) on “numerous occasions.”
________________________
Can’t you cross your arms across your chest and receive a blessing instead? We need eyes on Albo when he’s slipped a wafer.
Fastwheels
Thanks for that article on the harm Brexit has done to London’s financial sector.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/31/city-brexit-uk-productivity-eu-rachel-reeves-budget
Firstly it’s hard not to feel schadenfreude at the suffering of the financial geniuses that advocated the austerity policies which harmed poorer Britons so much.
Yet its even worse for the City and Brexit. Several figures in the financial industry were financial backers of Brexit. They imagined themselves free of Brussels financial regulations yet still able to trade with Europe. Serves them right.
I can’t understand Anglicanism or Anglo Catholicism
You start a new church because you can’t get a divorce. And the entire country is supposed to follow you.
Every single catholic was just doing what they had done for a 1000 years, observing the official religion l, before one man had a tanty
“Morrison had a major falling out with his friend Ray Hadley who insisted that Morrison take an oath on the Bible about certain things relating to the knifing of Turnbull.
Morrison refused, almost certainly because of Matthew 5:34-37, which prohibits frivolous oaths. He did not say this at the time but reflected that his word was his bond which is the meaning of the next verse.”
I guess he just ignored the commandment about bearing false witness. He lied through his teeth his entire time as PM.
Corleonesays:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 1:03 pm
I can’t understand Anglicanism or Anglo Catholicism
You start a new church because you can’t get a divorce. And the entire country is supposed to follow you.
_______________________
It was a religious Brexit.
I am surprised no-one has raised the issue of whether Albanese is a papist.
Ghost Of Whitlam @ #1610 Sunday, November 2nd, 2025 – 12:05 pm
That passage in Matthew is not against frivolous oaths, it is against ALL oaths. It’s a legitimate Christian position not to swear oaths.
Oakeshott ” True and it can be argued that personal conscience is supreme, even in Catholicism, but that goes against the tradition of papal authority.”
I think that’s a fair statement. Many Catholics take the whole Papal authority thing with a grain of salt.
https://www.pollbludger.net/2025/10/29/miscellany-housing-and-queensland-polls-open-thread/comment-page-33/#comment-4618804, may be at some stage he rises above just following orders, and focuses on salient issues
http://ianmcauley.com/saturdays/sat251101/week25110100.html, some faved weekly-ish reading, though some of it has appeared at John Menadue’s site
Thoughts and best wishes Grannie Anny. To you and your family.
‘Socrates says:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 1:03 pm
Fastwheels
Thanks for that article on the harm Brexit has done to London’s financial sector.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/31/city-brexit-uk-productivity-eu-rachel-reeves-budget
Firstly it’s hard not to feel schadenfreude at the suffering of the financial geniuses that advocated the austerity policies which harmed poorer Britons so much.
Yet its even worse for the City and Brexit. Several figures in the financial industry were financial backers of Brexit. They imagined themselves free of Brussels financial regulations yet still able to trade with Europe. Serves them right.’
===================
I understand the City was generally against Brexit. They understood perfectly well that the drawbridges would go up on BOTH sides of the Channel and that EU continental banks and countries would inshore as much as they could. This turns out to be a trillion quid’s worth. A pretty penny. Clipping the coupons used to be sooooooooo easy why the City had full access to the EU.
The problem with using ‘austerity’ as a short-hand for economic policy is that it is not a whole lot useful ATM in terms of policy settings.
Britain has the following:
1. A debt to GDP ratio greater than 100%.
2. A debt which is growing at a rate faster than the economy.
3. An interest bill which is greater than what it spends on defence.
4. An anaemic growth rate.
5. An ageing population requiring more of everything.
6. A monstrous housing shortage.
7. Infrastructure that is run down and requiring huge maintenance investments.
8. Increasing borrowing costs for every quid borrowed as lenders begin to think that maybe the Brits will be forced to default…
9. Fairly high taxes.
10. Natural resources which have been close to fully exploited.
11. A massive nearby market that it has snubbed.
What exactly are the phrases ‘austerity’ and ‘making the poor suffer’ meant to imply in terms of setting economic policy in these circumstances?
I don’t think Britain has any good options left.
From The Guardian Australia.
Albo developing a bit of a dry sense of humour.
‘Upnorth says:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 1:23 pm
Thoughts and best wishes Grannie Anny. To you and your family.’
====================
From me as well.
More good news:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-01/australia-electric-trucks-decarbonise-road-freight/105955870
I come at this from what is probably a different perspective from many here, in that I was raised in a non-religious household and as such have typically found the entire concept of religion and spirituality and all that to be a bit baffling. I particularly find it hard to fathom this idea that a book collectively written by a bunch of different people thousands of years ago (which in itself was an adaptation of holy books written even earlier) contains actual wisdom relevant for people living in 2025.
I admit I have never read the bible on full, or even 10-20% worth if I’m being honest, but most of the life lessons / rules / whatever I’ve seen from that book tend to fall into two categories: “Yeah, no shit, sherlock” and “What the fuck are you talking about, you crazy psycho.”
No disrespect intended to those who do find religious teachings (of whatever kind) to be of value and who genuinely use that stuff to be better people. Good on you. But when you’ve got to pick and choose which parts you pay attention to and which parts you ignore to the extent one must do with pretty much any religious text (“Okay, yes, I will love thy neighbor and won’t kill anyone, but I think I will keep eating shrimp and will hold off on selling my children into slavery for the time being”), its kind of a shitty book to be using for life advice. Probably a whole bunch of allegorical fiction and self-help books at the local bookstore that would do a better job.
Still, you’ve got to hand it to prophets and messiahs of all stripes. I’ve been trying to get people to worship me as a god my whole life and had no success. Even my dog only accepts my authority with great skepticism.
Oh, and while I hold no ill will to the majority of religious people, who I genuinely believe are mostly just decent people trying to go through life as best as they can like the rest of us, I have always held a certain contempt for professed holy men of all stripes.
Much like psychics, there are two kinds of holy men: scam artists and the mentally ill. Either they actually believe themselves to be receiving guidance and instructions and answrs from God, in which case they are in desperate need of urgent psychiatric treatment, or they know full well its all bullshit and are just pretending for their own gain.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/h-m-investigated-over-multimillion-dollar-underpayment-claims/9jhsf7x33
Can I call myself an Anglico-Catholic? I think I can.
So, after a childhood of going to the local Catholic Church every Sunday, receiving my Holy Communion and culminating in being Confirmed at St Mary’s Cathedral, my mother confesses to me that she made a mistake when she organised my christening and instead of it being performed at the local Catholic Church, it turns out it was the local Anglican Church! So Irish. 😉
Heading from The Guardian
‘Australia news live: Liberals ‘not ruling anything out’ on revised energy policy as Nationals weigh up formally ditching net zero’
————–
I thought the Nationals ditched net zero yesterday. But maybe neither party has ruled nothing or something in or out or in or out or in or out or in or out…
This is utterly ludicrous when India and China are only promising net zero sixty and when the US is simply ignoring it altogether under Trump. That is over fifty per cent of the world’s emissions.
And while Labor purports to be committed to zero net fifty, Australia is not going to get to zero net fifty unless something can be done about domestic livestock emissions and unless something can be done about flight emissions.
There is no way that Australia will get rid of its livestock to its national cost while India, China and the US keep their livestock. Nor are you going to get Australia’s well-heeled tourists to stop flying to ecotourism resorts and the like.
The ones that worry me are the ones who have no choice but to kill you for religious reasons. There are still a fair few of them about, despite The Enlightenment.
Boerwar:
Agreed.
Leave campaigners promised £350 million a week for the NHS.
They said Brexit would mean huge savings to fund public services.
Now the Mail is moaning that the UK still has to pay tens of billions just to leave,
money that could have gone to the NHS, schools, or farming.
That’s not Brussels’ fault.
It is what the UK Govt ensured
A deal so bad that the UK is still paying, but have no seat, no say, and no return on investment.
The savings never existed. The bill always did.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15247553/Britain-hand-50billion-EU-Brexit-deal-slap-UK-taxpayers.html
Asha, I think I could convert you into a follower of Nathism if I could just get my hands on you.
As for Albo himself, I always got the impression he is simply one of those people who was raised Catholic and spent his formative years around other Catholics, and still identifies himself as such without taking it all particularly seriously. I suspect a good percentage of religious people of all faiths are pretty similar.
Granny Anny,
My thoughts are with you and your family at this gut-wrenching time. It is not a situation anyone wants to be confronted with, and one which should be only between the family and your medical advisers and I know how great they are at KEMH because that’s where I was treated. Sending you internet hugs.
Nath:
Be careful, statements like that make Nathism sound remarkably similar to most other mainstream religions.
Nathism is possessed of devils as well as angels. Just sayin’.
C@t:
Ah, so its a proper religion, then!
”Australia news live: Liberals ‘not ruling anything out’ on revised energy policy as Nationals weigh up formally ditching net zero’”
I think that they have long since ruled out taking any action that would actually reduce greenhouse emissions.
Angie Bell, Liberal MP, Queensland being interviewed on Sky by Andrew Clennell tells him that “renewables have failed”.
Just another Liberal liar.
Religious affiliations of Australia’s PMs (up to Malcolm Turnbull):
https://en.everybodywiki.com/Religious_Affiliations_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Australia
I am another of one of these pseudo-Catholics I used to follow my aunty to Church fairly often as a kid and she’d often scold me telling me to stop looking at my watch. I mainly looked forward to eating out after.
While I’m not religious now I have come to appreciate the experience and some of the lessons it taught.
Angie Bell, Liberal MP, Queensland being interviewed on Sky by Andrew Clennell tells him that “renewables have failed”.
Just another Liberal liar.
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Sure, but ignoring the gas elephant in the room risks your transition policies being dumped on with this steaming pile of crap.
I mean, how long have we been talking about the ridiculous situation that our gas is more expensive here than OS? Fix it, ffs. Up the royalties or taxes, nationalise some gas fields, tax exports – sovereign risk be damned. We have been handing out gas extraction leases and subsidising their exploration, so the gas companies need to be forced to show us some love.
And, the interconnectors and some other grid infrastructure should be public owned. The PPPs (or whatever new way they have to put public money into private hands) isnt working – or at least isnt helping in the public perception of the transition away from fossil fuels.
The latest on the New Jersey Governor’s race:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/nyregion/mikie-sherrill-jack-ciattarelli-obama-hannity.html
Asha says:
Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 1:55 pm
C@t:
Ah, so its a proper religion, then!
Or is it a cult? 😉
“renewables have failed”
They’ve barely gotten off the ground and gotten going wrt contributing to the national electricity market!
Where do these people get off!?! Misrepresenting the truth to suit their backers. I don’t even think there’s any ideology in it.
“ Angie Bell, Liberal MP, Queensland being interviewed on Sky by Andrew Clennell tells him that “renewables have failed”.
Just another Liberal liar.”
____
Despite the Moncrieff part of the Gold Coast losing nearly all its beach sand due to the ‘unusual’ late March SE Qld earlier this year (nothing to do with CC of course), the demographics of her electorate mean she get away with peddling bullshit on SAD 24/7 and still be returned election after election. Even as her basically entire electorate rush to take up various government incentives to install solar and batteries. Sad (and SAD), but true.
Question: has Rio Tinto announced the closure of the Tomago Aluminium smelter due to the failure of the Hunter Offshore Wind project to proceed (this far) when the Norwegians pulled out earlier this year? My understanding is the offshore wind is thought necessary to firm the grid adjacent to big power and big industry – which is why the Illawarra and Hunter coasts were targeted.
Maybe the government does need to nationalise both the smelter and wind project to avoid backsliding in LNP shitfuckery? Thoughts?
C@t:
As I said, a proper religion.
Fastwheels @ #1638 Sunday, November 2nd, 2025 – 1:59 pm
Yes indeed. But Labor makes it easy for them to get away with lies like this.
Religious adherence seems to me to be another form of psychological/emotional affiliation. People form themselves into adherence/belonging cohorts of many kinds…. linguistic, cultural, theistic, ideo-political, recreational, ethnic, to suggest just some.
Without doubt, extra-personal affiliation helps establish personal identity in meaningful contexts. Of course, adherence groups also constitute ‘collectives’. They can be easily identified and then engaged, marshalled and exploited. We can see the mechanisms of exploitation/intermediation in full operation in social media, in politics, in religion, in consumer marketing.
It further seems to me that most religions operate by stimulating two inter-acting cognitive impulses – fear and its counterweight, hope. Likewise, it seems to me that if you want to not live in fear, stay away from churches and mosques. The basic themes used in most religions are frankly terrifying if taken literally.
The first premises of Christianity are that we inherently ‘sinful’, that the remedy for sin is public, exemplary human sacrifice, and that refusal to go along with this nonsense ensures one will be held in excruciating pain for all eternity. This is absolutely depraved. Nonetheless it has been used to both exploit countless millions for more than 2,000 years and to justify every cruelty.
If you want to be free at heart, do something that is creatively satisfying within groups that encourage learning and discovery.
Avoid the cults… religious cults, personal cults, political cults, sporting cults…all of them .
@Corleone –
“I can’t understand Anglicanism”
While I can’t either, for the reason you expressed – it’s a sect established entirely so a long dead King could get legal divorces he couldn’t get in Catholicism, why should any modern person knowing this give it the slightest credence? – I guess that’s just how religious faith works. Most if not all religion has major logical objections to it if you examine it that can only be overcome by “faith”. The CoE’s nonsense is just closer to the surface than others.
Re the religiousness of various Labor leaders, I’ve never felt Keating or Albo imposed their religious observance (which they had) into the public sphere and ALP policy. This was distinctly not true of Rudd, maybe people forget but under Rudd there was a bit of God-bothering going on (remember the internet filter bill?) that irked many in the party.