I have two poll results to relate, plus a plug for a reupholstered BludgerTrack, where you will now find distinct series under “leadership ratings” for the Sussan Ley and Angus Taylor eras, if eras isn’t too big a word (which it is).
• The weekly Roy Morgan poll has Labor up three points to 30%, the Coalition down three to 22.5%, One Nation steady on 23.5% and the Greens steady on 13.5%. Labor’s two-party lead is out from 52.5-47.5 to 56.5-43.5 on previous election preferences, and from 51-49 to 54.5-45.5 on respondent-allocated preferences. The poll was conducted Monday to Sunday from a sample of 1562.
• I missed the latest monthly Essential Research poll last week due to preoccupation with the South Australian election. It had Labor up a point to 31%, the Coalition down two to 24%, One Nation up two to 24% (reaching parity with the Coalition for the first time in this series) and the Greens down a point to 10%. The 2PP+ measure shifted from 48-47 in favour of the Coalition to 47-46, these two being the only two-party poll results of any sort since the May 2025 election to have the Coalition ahead. Anthony Albanese was down three on approval to 39% and up three on disapproval to 51%, while Angus Taylor recorded an above-par debut of 35% approval and 33% disapproval. Further questions focused on foreign affairs, including findings that 26% supported and 42% opposed to the US-Israeli military action against Iran, and 34% supported and 26% opposed Australia’s response. The poll was conducted March 18 to 23 from a sample of 1008.
WeWantPaulsays:
Sunday, April 5, 2026 at 4:12 pm
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The only guys whoever have been my guys are Labor guys. Not only was a member but an active member I was an ALP booth captain for Shorten’s loss, it still hurts.
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Careful WWP; Ven will call you a liar.
Ven states that all posters who claim to be former Labor supporters are liars.
He is a very credible poster himself (not).
Thanks, Hh
I look forward to the first morning in my life when a demented, disinhibited, malignant and narcissist person is not in cahoots with a genocidal maniac are not fighting genocidal maniacs.
The Iranians are basically saying go ahead and wreck the joint cos we are going to wreck the joint anyway.
Despite the chatter, the SoH is not open. It is, in practical terms, closed with less than 10% of the pre-war daily traffic. And here’s the thing.
90% of the current traffic is heading out of the Gulf.
Poor Trump. All he has is his pathetic ghost-written book, The Art Of The Deal. As to a hammer everything looks like a nail, to Trump everything looks like a deal. Trump has sold his proclivity for deal-making as some kind of unique “genius”. The foolish Americans swallowed it whole.
But I’m not sure that murdering those with whom you are negotiating a deal, then repeating that process with their successors, then bragging about all the killing you’re doing, then lying about there being any negotiations at all, then publicly calling them “fucking crazy”, then swearing to start murdering their women and children, effectively destroying not only their livelihoods, but all your own friends’ livelihoods if they won’t talk to you, is in the book, unless maybe there’s a chapter called “Burning Down The Neighbourhood”.
Trump’s insanity is getting worse. He’s looking forward to the killing to come. He is about to murder thousands because he can’t bear being seen as a loser.
I know his own Supreme Court idiotically gave him criminal immunity to get him out of a jam, but that’s only on home soil. After leaving office, when they are civilians once more, the minute he or any of his criminal cronies enter a nation that operates under the rules of international law, they should be arrested, put on trial in The Hague like the tinpot street thugs they are, then jailed for the rest of their miserable lives.
Not really into conspiracy theories but that Truth Social post was very unTrump like imo
He isn’t big on punctuation and there are a lot of ,’s
Either way, obvious frustration from whoever sent it. The illegal war isn’t going well
Ghost Of Whitlam:
Sunday, April 5, 2026 at 10:55 pm
“Sky’s coverage of the Bondi killings has been quite one-sided”
You’re right. What I should’ve said is that Sky’s critique of events since 7 October 2023 has been very one-sided, in favour of the Jewish lobby.
Reuters reports that the US military destroyed two of their disabled MC-130 planes and four helicopters inside Iran ‘rather than risk leaving sensitive equipment behind’, as rescue mission ‘nearly went off course’.
A Chinese company’s publication of AI-enhanced satellite images of US bases in the Middle East is helping Iranian forces identify targets, US intelligence believes.
The ABC has been briefed on the intelligence by a source inside US defence, who says the images are endangering lives.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-06/us-intelligence-chinese-satellite-imagery-middle-east/106508322
Holdenhillbilly, Monday, April 6, 2026 at 6:45 am:
Good. The rest of the world needs to regard Russian oil as not available. If they need oil, they should get it elsewhere. Or use less of it – greater take-up of EV’s and use of electrified public transport, for instance. No more funding Putin’s genocidal imperialist war machine.
HH at 6.45am.
Marj says “Chump needs to drop to his knees and beg forgiveness from god for evil easter.”
Poor old Chumpy says “I can’t, cankles”.
Thanks Holden for today’s international reports
Ghost Of Whitlam @ #1086 Sunday, April 5th, 2026 – 11:10 pm
TailoredMerde’s twin brother. The clever one.
Good thing that Queensland has an LNP government that is tough on crime.
Three on the run after ramraiding Brisbane CBD Hermès store.
A Mercedes SUV has smashed into the Hermès store in Brisbane’s CBD before numerous goods were stolen early on Monday morning.
Police say three people loaded items from the store into another vehicle before leaving the scene
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-06/brisbane-luxury-store-hermes-ramraided/106533968?
I saw a psychological expert talking about Trump and he said:
1. He is a malignant narcissist – the worst type of patient.
2. He is at the sadistic stage- everyday he wakes and acts to hurt as many people as possible.
Even with the usual caveats, what a horrifying and seemingly accurate assessment.
Fastwheels reporting on a stolen mercedes SUV – coincidence or not? 🙂
What a shit show.
Moira Deeming survives Victorian Liberal preselection battle after rivals withdraw.
Outspoken MP Moira Deeming has won preselection for the Liberal Party’s upper-house ticket for the Western Metropolitan Region.
She was officially endorsed after all other eligible candidates withdrew.
Mrs Deeming previously dropped her candidacy after the party favoured Indian community leader Dinesh Gourisetty.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-06/vic-moira-deeming-wins-preselection/106534018?
Trump is becoming more frantic and unhinged with each passing day. His latest “tweet” on BS Social swearing at Iran just screams frustration bordering on desperation.
In an English language post on X, Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, said the U.S. opposition “views Bab al-Mandeb as it does Hormuz”—the key oil-transport route Iran has effectively closed to maritime traffic as the war with the U.S. and Israel drags on.
Although Iran does not border the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, Yemen does, and Iran is closely allied with the Houthis, the Yemeni militant group that previously conducted dozens of strikes against Israel-linked vessels in the Red Sea in 2023 and 2024 in response to the war in Gaza.
The Houthis began launching missiles at military targets in Israel in late March.
The statement came hours after President Donald Trump again threatened Iran’s power plants and bridges over Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Crucial Quote: “Today, the unified command of the Resistance front views Bab al-Mandeb as it does Hormuz,” Velayati wrote. This could refer to Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” the loosely aligned groups of militias and other groups supported by Iran, which include the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Kata’ib Hezbollah in Iraq. “If the White House dares to repeat its foolish mistakes, it will soon realize that the flow of global energy and trade can be disrupted with a single move,” Velayati added.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharyfolk/2026/04/05/iranian-officials-now-threatening-to-close-bab-al-mandeb-strait-after-trump-threats/
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has issued a clear public warning to the U.S. that any damage inflicted on Iran’s power infrastructure will be met with decisive retaliation. Specifically, IRGC spokesperson Brigadier General Ebrahim Zolfaghari threatened the “complete and utter annihilation” of U.S. and Israeli facilities. The ‘hidden’ $30 billion Stargate AI datacenter in Abu Dhabi was singled out as a juicy target for Iranian destruction later in the video.
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/iran-threatens-complete-and-utter-annihilation-of-openais-usd30b-stargate-ai-data-center-in-abu-dhabi-regime-posts-video-with-satellite-imagery-of-chatgpt-makers-premier-1gw-data-center
Moira Deeming survives Victorian Liberal preselection battle after rivals withdraw.
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This indicates a fair amount of nemawashi* has occurred.
* In Japanese culture, nemawashi (根回し) is the informal, behind-the-scenes process of building consensus and laying the groundwork before a formal decision is made
According to this China depends on Australia for lithium
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHN9JL68MEk
A little over stated. Australia supplies 52%, but China does 13%
https://insights.issgovernance.com/posts/lithium-critical-for-net-zero-yet-facing-challenges/
Poor old USA, just makes the chart at 1%, no wonder they are trying to stop the electric car revolution.
Those stats are a bit out of date, frednk.
Our lithium production increased slightly b/n 2022 and 2024, but China’s doubled. And our global share went from over half to 36%.
https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/sk/pdf/2025/Statistical-Review-of-World-Energy-2025.pdf (p. 67)
Also, there’s another open thread … open.