The fortnightly YouGov poll, which is now branded News24 Pulse following Sky News’ name change, is little changed on last time: Labor is steady on 28%, One Nation down one to 24%, the Coalition steady on 22% and the Greens down one to 12%. Respondent-allocated two-party preferred results have Labor leading the Coalition 52-48, which is in from 53-47, and One Nation by 56-44, which is unchanged. Anthony Albanese is down one on approval to 36% and up two on disapproval to 57%, while Angus Taylor is up two to 35% and down three to 46%. Albanese holds a preferred prime minister lead of 42-38 over Angus Taylor, in from 43-37, and leads Pauline Hanson 51-38, in from 52-37. The poll was conducted Tuesday to Monday – the sample size remains to be seen, but would have been around 1500.
The weekly Roy Morgan poll has Labor down two points to 25.5%, their worst result for the term, but with the Coalition also down, by a point-and-a-half to 22%. One Nation is up two to 26%, while the Greens are up half to 15.5%, their equal best result for the term. Respondent-allocated two-party results have Labor leading both One Nation and the Coalition by 53-47, which is respectively in from 54-46 and out from 52-48, while Labor’s lead on previous election preferences narrows from 52.5-47.5 to 52-48. The poll was conducted Monday to Sunday from a sample of 1647.
The moron from Monash stood up in question time twice to ask if the Prime Minister was going to apologise to the Japanese Prime Minister for talking about the melons she gave him as a gift. Meanwhile, bird flu is hitting Australia at the rate of knots and the LNP did not ask a single question about this alarming event.
It was left to a Labor member to ask about bird flu and people wonder why the LNP are so low in the opinion polls?
Thanks for the Bludgertrack update. So many data points!
Former prime minister John Howard has warned against an alliance between the Coalition and One Nation, as the Liberal Party’s campaign chief urges downbeat MPs to play the long game in countering Pauline Hanson.
Howard told this masthead that “the only party that we should ever be in coalition with is the National Party”. Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has resisted pressure from a minority of right-wing MPs to collaborate with Hanson, whose party One Nation retains a big lead on the Coalition in the polls.
But Howard, who as Liberal leader backed the move to disendorse Hanson as a Liberal candidate in 1996 for her remarks about Indigenous Australians, declared “the way to deal with the One Nation challenge is for the Liberal and National parties to be the best demonstration of themselves”.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/howard-s-advice-to-liberals-to-win-back-voters-flocking-to-pauline-hanson-20260811-p60nam.html
The Coalition will back a plan by Pauline Hanson to prevent Australian citizens with links to overseas terrorist groups from returning home, significantly elevating One Nation’s policy prescriptions on matters of national security.
Despite pledging to fight Hanson’s insurgent rightwing movement amid collapsing support for their own parties, the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, and Nationals leader, Matt Canavan, both signalled support for One Nation’s bill to bar the return of foreign fighters ahead of its introduction to the Senate on Wednesday.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/aug/12/coalition-to-back-one-nation-policy-barring-overseas-australians-with-terrorist-links-from-returning-home
The current coalition won’t want to merge with whatever ON is as a party.
Even though they may hold similar stances on many issues, much like many Labor members do with the Greens (shhh), absolutely no party likes sharing power or giving away the keys to power.
World News & Politics Patrol:
Russia Preparing Autumn Mobilization Immediately After “Imitation” Elections: https://united24media.com/war-in-ukraine/russia-preparing-autumn-mobilization-immediately-after-imitation-elections-zelenskyy-says-21590
Ukraine destroys air defenses protecting Putin’s palace near Gelendzhik: https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/ukraine-destroys-air-defenses-protecting-1786377788.html
Wildberries Tried to Redirect Ukrainian Drones Onto Rival Ozon—It Didn’t Work: https://united24media.com/war-in-ukraine/wildberries-tried-to-redirect-ukrainian-drones-onto-rival-ozon-it-didnt-work-21575
Moscow accuses Romania of providing military support to Ukraine, points to Giurgiulești port: “NATO is moving closer to direct confrontation with Russia”: https://spotmedia.ro/en/news/news/moscow-accuses-romania-of-providing-military-support-to-ukraine-points-to-giurgiulesti-port-nato-is-moving-closer-to-direct-confrontation-with-russia
Trump says Russia agreed to release jailed US Marine without swap: https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/08/11/8048293/
US fired on Panama-flagged ship that tried to break blockade of Iranian ports: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-fired-panama-flagged-ship-that-tried-break-blockade-iranian-ports-wsj-reports-2026-08-11/
Meta glasses banned from courts in England and Wales: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/aug/11/meta-glasses-banned-from-courts-in-england-and-wales
The Spectator: “We can reveal that a former supporter of Hizb ut-Tahrir, now banned as a terror group, has been appointed assistant research professor of education at Cambridge, in the same faculty as Arday.”: https://x.com/spectator/status/2087074041307738541
Surprise! Todd Blanche Immediately Breaks His Promises to GOP Senators: https://newrepublic.com/post/214186/todd-blanche-breaks-promises-donald-trump
New Study Confirms Medicare for All Would Save 114,000 Lives and more than $1 Trillion a Year: https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-new-study-confirms-medicare-for-all-would-save-114000-lives-and-more-than-1-trillion-a-year/
Trump Blames Biden For Firing the U.S.’s Missile Stockpile at Iran: https://newrepublic.com/post/214190/trump-biden-missile-weapons-stockpile-depleted
Mamdani Backs Proposal to End Amazon’s ‘Exploitative’ Delivery Model in New York City: https://www.commondreams.org/news/delivery-protection-act-nyc
Trump’s fear of attack is making him deeply paranoid: https://inews.co.uk/news/world/trump-fear-attack-pushing-extraordinary-lengths-4698949
Samuel Alito gained up to $2.9m from oil and gas assets since joining supreme court: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/11/samuel-alito-oil-gas-assets-supreme-court-analysis
Trump Openly Mulls Dystopian Plan for Stealing the Midterm Elections: https://newrepublic.com/post/214189/donald-trump-national-emergency-voter-id-midterm-elections
Meta can’t stop states’ $1.4 trillion lawsuit from going to trial: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/meta-cant-stop-states-1-4-trillion-lawsuit-from-going-to-trial/
Contiguous US breaks its record for hottest month ever, NOAA says: https://apnews.com/article/hottest-month-july-climate-change-4a9d612281485356103631f0f09b61af
The Coalition can say whatever they like, if ON win enough seats and they need their support to govern, be it state or federal, they’ll change their tune.
I’d imagine many Nats, deep down are desperate for some kind of formal allliance so that they can push for an electoral pact for ON not to run in their existing seats, because on current polling numbers there’s no way they don’t face a wipeout.
The Showdown in Wellington is happening within an hour.
Luxon has called an urgent meeting in an attempt to head off leadership talk but it may have backfired.
JM from Qld says:
Wednesday, August 12, 2026 at 6:49 am
The Coalition can say whatever they like, if ON win enough seats and they need their support to govern, be it state or federal, they’ll change their tune.
———————————-
Problem for the lib/nats , since one nation voter based is on the same political side
If one nation win seats, it’s coming off the lib/nats
The Financial Review has bumped the business news down from the lead for – MelonGate.
The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed as long as the U.S. does not change its behavior and accept Iran’s conditions, newly appointed Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei said Tuesday. “America must end the war, pay Iran’s frozen assets, the war must end throughout the region, including in Lebanon and Gaza,” he added.
Morning all. Ignoring the melon beatup (its not a gate ) this article by Laura Tingle explains the significance of the new Saudi Arabia Turkiye Pakistan alliance. Three Sunni Islam countries are charting a new course.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-12/a-nato-like-defence-pact-in-middle-east/107024494
Until that Japanese WW2-apologist ex-ambassador put a hostile spin on a three month old podcast episode, nobody cared. Now The Australian gave him a platform, too much of the rest of our media are death-riding this for all it’s worth. I swear many of these ‘journos’ want Japan to take offence at us.
ASIO is set to get new powers to secretly probe university collaborations with hostile and authoritarian nations after the Education Department rebuked 26 universities over risky research.
Universities will be forced to report all dealings with any institution in China, Iran, Russia, Belarus, Brunei, Vietnam or Laos, under changes to the Foreign Relations Act before parliament.
Every education and research institution in those countries will be deemed to “lack institutional autonomy from their government’’, meaning hostile or authoritarian governments can meddle in sensitive research ranging from cyber security to military and biological warfare.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation will no longer have to notify universities or academics when they are under investigation.
https://archive.is/kBXie
Good to see Well Done Angus taking matters of state seriously…
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/coalition-demands-police-investigate-leak-of-diplomatic-note-about-pm-s-melon-gaffe-20260811-p60nfr.html
Need a poll for state gov Secret harbour election in WA coming soon.
Labor has run a shocker so far reeking of desperation.
Meanwhile a good idea to lease not buy below,mind you this baby may attract people to break the law…
https://thewest.com.au/news/police/leased-luxury-23-million-jet-unveiled-as-flashy-high-torque-new-addition-to-wa-police-air-fleet–c-22705026
Con air err Swiss air.
MelonGate takes a twist with Cash calling for the AFP to investigate the leaking of the communication between Australia and Japan lol
PK raised it at the time on Insiders saying it was bigger than KylieGate, works out she was right. In discussing it on the Politics Now podcast yesterday she suggested people watch the clip and make up their own mind
I’d imagine those defending it here haven’t actually seen it
Bit late for a leadership change in NZ, they must have some terrible internal polling to even be considering it
Can someone give me an explanation as to why Roy Morgan’s polling bounces around so much more than anyone else.
HBG, I’ve seen the clip several times. Its a bit cringe, but the way people on PB and the Murdoch press along with their lackies are carrying on is a total beat up.
And to say otherwise is just hypocrisy considering the seat sniffers et al across the board.
Coalition now acting as junior partner to ON to promote illegal legislation. Winning! (as PP would say).
MI dipping into the distant past re seat sniffing
Dare I suggest, 2 wrongs done make a right?
I’m sure MelonGate will fade away as KylieGate and his “difficult” line re Grace Tame have. I’m not sure they’ll be forgotten though and wouldn’t be surprised if they are raised again during the election campaign
The Wombat @ #20 Wednesday, August 12th, 2026 – 7:42 am
I suspect they don’t spend resources on “smoothing” the final figures but just let the numbers fall where they may. If anything it makes them more credible in my book.
sprocket_says:
Wednesday, August 12, 2026 at 7:05 am
The Financial Review has bumped the business news down from the lead for – MelonGate
_______________________
Well considering it’s made the BBC and CNN.
What do you expect.
“I’ve seen the clip several times. Its a bit cringe, but the way people on PB and the Murdoch press along with their lackies are carrying on is a total beat up.”
Albo is totally being “Murdoched”.
Distraction from Labor policy wins.
Morgan is my favourite poll, well when it goes the left way lol
I wonder what’s happened to their version of the MRP? They were talking it up a month ago
We have 80,00o ,come over here!!
But of course USA runs on economic growth in Australia it’s Labor federal governments population Ponzi policy that’s gets growth.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-visas-revoked-foreign-nationals-b3031380.html
Encore heres another 75k….
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-ice-record-arrests-july-b3030791.html
“Dumocrats”
Aussies see this above in the news sometimes and this drives up One nations vote.
Crime at 100 year low in USA. They are winning!
Hard Being Greensays:
Wednesday, August 12, 2026 at 7:49 I’m sure MelonGate will fade away as KylieGate and his “difficult” line re Grace Tame have. I’m not sure they’ll be forgotten though and wouldn’t be surprised if they are raised again during the election campaign.
_______________________
It will always be there in the background.
As a reminder of what type of person he really is.
HardGreen
Family saw it for the first time last night.
One of us is a Green voter.
None of us saw what we were told we should be seeing. (And all of us had been assuming he was Guilty as Charged before that).
What we saw was a sweeping gesture, which – even if paused at exactly the right moment – still didn’t look like cupping.
Regardless, if the Japanese aren’t fussed by it, I’m not sure anyone else should be.
But hey, you run with the Liberals…
The shadow housing minister Andrew Bragg will be up at the national press club and says the opposition will strip the 2000 page national construction code, which he says makes it “illegal to build a cheap safe house”, down to an 80-page “basic Australian standard”.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2026/aug/12/australia-politics-live-question-time-anthony-albanese-angus-taylor-coalition-andrew-bragg-housing-construction-immigration-one-nation-pauline-hanson-gambling-melon-gift-japan-ndis-ntwnfb
Time for a Royal Commission into Bragg’s sell out to the Developer Lobby.. non so corrupt as the LNP.
I see Melons still figure prominently. It’s a totally manufactured “scandal”, as Zoomster said at the end of the old thread.
My last word on Melons. I have some work to do.
I’ve refrained from commenting on the melon thing until now, because it’s one of those issues on which the Labor luvvies are going to have very set opinions and nothing whatsoever is going to budge them.
But I am finding myself getting very bored with reading the view that this is all some sort of terrible Murdoch beatup.
When it first got a bit of coverage a few weeks ago, I checked out the video. It was appalling and horrendously embarrassing and Albanese should feel utterly ashamed about it, as should the ministers and other apologists who have argued that this hand gestures were inadvertent or in some way not meant to suggest what most people watching (other than Labor luvvies) would conclude they were suggesting.
Anyway, even if I’m wrong and the hand gestures were inadvertent, what on earth was he doing appearing on a show hosted by some sort of a ning nong in a safari suit and which has the moronically crude name “Bush Deep?” What on earth was he trying to prove: that he’s our first 1oo% bogan Prime Minister?
I think that, on the whole, the guy has been doing a good job, but this is a terrible black mark which, deservedly for him, isn’t going to go away in a hurry. Especially on top of the Kylie stuff.
Trump has done so much recently to vulgarise governmental processes and practices. The last thing we needed was for an Australian Prime Minister to join in.
I doubt it will do much damage to our relations with Japan: Takaichi seems to me to be the sort of person who would laugh about this rather than take deep offence. Although, let’s be clear, I think she would be laughing at Albo’s embarrassment, not at what to all intents and purposes appeared to be a crude joke.
As a friend of my family’s always used to say about people who weren’t really quite the right type, Albo is a bit “Hotel Sordide”, isnt’ he?
Thanks, Hh.
The Hanson/Taylor government will have to run a referendum to change the Constitution to ensure that their promised national security law changes are legal. The lawyers framing the Referendum questions are going to have their work cut out for them. How to exclude IDF soldiers who are trying to return to Australia fresh from protecting Jewish terrorists who daily assault, bash, terrify and murder West Bank palestinians, for example.
But we all know that this is racist dog whistling performative politics.
The Hanson/Taylor government is promising to reduce national housing standards so that slumlords can increase their profits. This is not performative politics. They mean this one. It is core ideological business for the Hanson/Taylor government will be strip standards in every public domain.
The NZ Nationals Caucus has been going for 45 minutes without resolution.
The poll just out had Luxon as preferred PM of just 17% of the voters.
However, Chris Hipkins of Labour is only on 15%.
And zoomster, I love you dearly, but
He spoke the words “a couple of melons” while moving his hands towards his chest in what was entirely the appropriate motion… Appropriate, that is, if you happen to be Benny Hill. If it was inadvertent, it was extremely unfortunate timing.
I suspect the leaked Japanese diplomatic note was actually leaked by Japan in an attempt to kill off the beat up
They’re obviously not familiar with how feral the Australian media and LNP politicians are so it misfired badly.
Just heard Senator Cash on the TV and the famous raucous delivery was reduced to a bit above a whisper. Winter respiratory infections are no respecters of politicians by the sound of it
The Australian is telling us that the Great Barrier Reef is just fine…
Meanwhile… Australian fire crews are fighting fires in europe and the the US, the US has just had its hottest month since 1885, the 40 million people who depend on the Colorado Basin/Oglalla Aquifer are facing the ‘pay-later’ bit of ‘fly now pay later’ by way of an over-extended water budget, and significant parts of China are under water…
Oh, and a record El Nino looms.
PK: “Watch the clip.”
They’re telling us what to watch now. It can take a number.
ajm
I agree with this. There is absolutely nothing for Japan in making a fuss about this. And, as I said, I’d be astonished if Ms Takaichi was truly offended.
But Albo shouldn’t have done it. He should never have been on that program in the first place.
A country that can focus on a melon joke must have very little to worry about……
Sort of inevitable, IMO. Today’s people just don’t like the ‘pay later’ phase of ‘fly now pay later’. Options are truly limited. There are too many people. Biological environmental resources are being tapped to the max. The environmental sumps are not infinite after all and are being filled to overflowing. China’s mercantilism is stripping the rest of the world of its manufacturing capacity.
I’m glad you watched it Zoomster, you do you though if you think it, and the interview more broadly, were prime ministerial
80 pages for a building code? Doesn’t sound like enough but Bragg is confident houses won’t fall down… In saying that, 2000 sounds a bit excessive although apparently 700 are to do with the states
It’ll be interesting to see how things play out in New Zealand
Time for work, have a great day folks
zoomster
Don’t worry about pausing the video. It was a juggling motion, with his hands in front of his chest. Walk into any bar, make that gesture, and ask the blokes what they think it means.
Maybe Albo didn’t mean it, but it sure didn’t look great.
torchbearer
My thoughts, too.
If this is the biggest political issue we’re facing – and that seems to be the Liberal take on it – we’re sitting pretty.
What’s ‘Prime Ministerial”?
Tony Abbott? Scott Morrison?
Bob Hawke? Paul Keating?
All had their yobbo moments.
You’ve gotta love this response via the SMH Letters page to the Strathfield Council trying to regulate the language of signage on shops…brilliant!
One can only wonder where Strathfield Council’s proposal might lead. We would need to abandon “restaurant”, “cafe” and “bistro” (French), “pizzeria” (Italian), “delicatessen” (German) and “kiosk” (Turkish, ultimately Persian). Then there’s “salon” and “depot” (French), “emporium” (Latin), “galeria” (Spanish), “casa” (Italian/Spanish/Portuguese), “spa” (Belgian), oh, and “bric-a-brac” and “antiques” (French again). We would also need to remove “manicure” and “pedicure” (French) and of course “kebab” (Persian). Sheesh, I need a “sedative” (Latin) just thinking about it. Ross Duncan, Potts Point
Ms Takaichi herself, her Party members and Government representatives regularly worship at the Yasukuni Shrine which honours Japanese war dead including named war criminals and which has locomotive C5631 in pride of place.
That locomotive pulled the first train end to end of the Burma Railroad. Because of Japanese treatement, that railroad cost a death per sleeper. And such miserable, lingering horrible deaths. Those actually decapitated without trial or any of those sorts of trimmings were only a tiny minority of the whole.
Yamagami, the former ambassador should never have been accredited IMO. He is a full-blown apologist for the the Japanese behaviours in World War 2 which resulted in the deaths of ten thousand civilians a week for nearly eight years.
Ms Takaichi herself was swept to power based on a wave of anti-Chinese war mongering populism based, inter alia, on beating the war drums in relation to Taiwan.
Ms Takaichi is leading on the remilitarization of Japan, including broadening the remit of the Japanese military.
However, none of the above are at all relevant to Albanese’s behaviour, IMO. These need to be judged in the context of Australia’s standards having to do with interpersonal respect for others.
They ARE relevant to the behaviours of those seeking to destroy Albanese by any means possible, even if it means joining up full throttle with Yamagami’s squalid long game.
Dogs and fleas abound.
Hanson/Taylor must be pissing themselves laughing.