Nielsen: 51-49 to Coalition

The latest Nielsen poll strengthens the impression from last month’s result that the series may be leaning to the Coalition relative to the other pollsters.

GhostWhoVotes relates that the monthly Nielsen poll in tomorrow’s Fairfax has the Coalition leading 51-49. I’m not clear if this is based on respondent-allocated or previous election preferences, but the respective results in last month’s poll were 51-49 and 52-48. The Coalition primary vote is steady on 44%, Labor is up two to 35%, and the Greens are steady on 12%. Tony Abbott’s approval is steady on 45% and his disapproval is up two to 49%, while his lead as preferred prime minister is down from 49-39 to 48-43. More to follow …

UPDATE: James J in comments relates that the poll also shows 52% support a means test for Medicare bulk billing versus 46% opposed, and the following results on what the government should do about Qantas: 30% remove foreign ownership restrictions, 20% provide debt guarantee, 3% both, 41% neither.

UPDATE 2: Full tables here.

UPDATE 3 (Essential Research): After a week at 50-50, Essential Research has the Coalition back at 51-49 in front, their primary vote up a point to 43%, Labor’s down two to 36%, the Greens up one to 9% and the Palmer United Party steady at 4%. Other questions find respondents tending to oppose relaxing restrictions on the media, with 31% favouring more regulation, 15% favouring less and 36% thinking the present situation about right, while 43% are opposed to relaxing cross-media ownership laws with 29% supportive. Twenty-six per cent say they would prefer having the same party in government at both federal and state tiers against 24% who would prefer different parties and 36% who say it makes no difference. Respondents were asked if they would prefer the federal or state government to be responsible for various areas of policy, with the federal government favoured for everything except roads, regional investment and public transport.

South Australian election morning after thread

The South Australian election result remains up in the air after a gravely disappointing night for the Liberals.

A grim night for the Liberals in South Australia, who needing six seats to win have only clearly won two from Labor (Bright and Hartley) and one from an independent (Mount Gambier), and will require sharp late-count reversals to add any more than Mitchell to that list. Labor can yet get to a majority if they can hold on to Mitchell, but the most likely result seems to be a hung parliament with the two returned independents, Geoff Brock in Frome and Bob Such in Fisher, deciding the issue. Another loser of the evening is “electoral fairness”, with the Liberals weak showing coming despite what looks like a win of about 52.5-47.5 on two-party preferred. I’ll have a lot more to say about this of course, but not right now.

Tasmanian election call of the board

One clear change of government overnight at least, with a landslide win for Will Hodgman’s Liberals and a grim night for Labor, Greens and PUP alike.

Late news: a thumping win for Will Hodgman and the Liberals in Tasmania, on 14 or maybe even 15 seats in a chamber of 25. A very quick review of the results which I’m just now perusing for the first time, as much to get this straight in my head as anything else:

Bass. The ABC computer is calling it three seats to the Liberals and one to Labor, and it seems to me the last seat is likely to stay with the Greens, which would amount to the Liberals gaining a seat from Labor. So Peter Gutwein and Michael Ferguson re-elected for the Liberals and likely to be joined by Sarah Courtney; Michelle O’Byrne re-elected for Labor, but fellow incumbent Brian Wightman defeated; and Kim Booth re-elected for the Greens.

Braddon. Liberals three, Labor one; the last seat might be a fourth for the Liberals, which would be quite something. Or it could be a second Labor seat or a first for the Greens. What it won’t be is a win for Kevin Morgan of the Palmer United Party, for whom the party had high hopes. Adam Brooks and Jeremy Rockliff re-elected for the Liberals, newcomers Roger Jaensch and Joan Rylah fighting it out for a third or potentially both getting elected. Bryan Green to retain his seat for Labor, fellow incumbent Brenton Best only to make it if Labor wins a second seat. Greens MP Paul O’Halloran struggling to hold his seat.

Denison. A status quo result of two Labor, two Liberal, one Greens. Matthew Groom and Elise Archer re-elected for the Liberals; Scott Bacon re-elected for Labor, the second seat a four-way lottery between newcomers; Cassy O’Connor re-elected for the Greens.

Franklin. The Liberals gain a seat from Labor for a result of three Liberal, one Labor, one Greens. Will Hodgman and Jacquie Petrusma re-elected for the Liberals, to be joined by upper house ex-independent Paul Harriss. For Labor, Lara Giddings re-elected and David O’Byrne defeated, although the latter would be back on a re-count if the former didn’t hang around. Nick McKim re-elected for the Greens.

Lyons. Three Liberal, one Labor, with Labor and the Greens grappling for a final seat. So a Liberal gain either from Labor or the Greens. Rene Hidding and Mark Shelton re-elected for the Liberals, to be joined by Guy Barnett. Rebecca White re-elected for Labor, possibly to be joined by David Llewellyn, attempting to return after his defeat in 2010. Tim Morris struggling to win re-election for the Greens.

South Australian election live

A thread for discussion of tonight’s South Australian election count as the results roll in.

As I type, polling booths in South Australia are set to close at any tick of the clock. I do so from the studios of ABC Television in Adelaide, where I’ll be standing in for Antony Green, who spends the evening grappling with Tasmania’s high-maintenance electoral system. Obviously I won’t have much to offer in the way of live commentary on this site, but here’s a thread where you can call the toss as the results roll in.

Tasmanian election live

A thread for discussion of the Tasmanian election count as the results roll in.

Polls have closed in Tasmania, and votes should start coming in any tick of the clock. I’ll be preoccupied this evening covering the South Australian election count for ABC Television. ABC News 24 will be alternating through the night between the South Australian coverage and the Tasmanian, the latter of which is being handled by Antony Green on account of its high-maintenance electoral system.

Newspoll and ReachTEL: final South Australian polls

Newspoll suggests a tight race for the Liberals in their endeavour to gain the six seats needed for a majority in South Australia, although it’s a rather different story from ReachTEL.

Continue reading “Newspoll and ReachTEL: final South Australian polls”

Newspoll: Liberal 53, Labor 23, Greens 16 in Tasmania

Newspoll’s pre-election entry for Tasmania points to humiliation for Labor and an emphatic majority win for the Liberals.

I’m too busy to offer any commentary on late campaign polling, so it’s just as well that these numbers speak for themselves. The personal ratings are similarly devastating for Labor: 29% approval and 62% disapproval for Lara Giddings, 53% and 36% for Will Hodgman, and 27% and 64% for Greens leader Nick McKim. On preferred premier, 53% for Hodgman, 22% for Giddings and 14% for McKim. The poll also foreshadows a disappointing result for Clive Palmer, with the Palmer United Party recording only 4%.

Galaxy: 51-49 to Labor in Newland and Mitchell (SA)

Two new electorate-level polls suggest an intriguing election night looms in South Australia on Saturday.

The Advertiser has published two of Galaxy’s electorate-level automated phone polls from samples of about 550, and they have produced the very interesting findings that Labor holds 51-49 leads in its key marginal seats of Mitchell and Newland. The Liberals need six seats to form a majority government, and with respective margins of 2.5% and 2.6%, the seats in question are Labor’s fifth and sixth most marginal. We will evidently have to wait until tomorrow’s hard copy of the paper for full results, but it appears the poll will show that Kris Hanna, a former Labor member for the seat who held it as an independent in 2006 but was defeated by Labor’s Alan Sibbons in 2010, is at the very least competitive.

UPDATE: GhostWhoVotes relates that the poll in fact has Kris Hanna a fairly distant third on 19%, with Labor on 38%, the Liberals 36%, the Greens on 4% and Family First on 3%. For Newland, the results are 44% Labor, 42% Liberal, 8% Family First and 6% Greens. With both sets of primary votes, I would have thought Labor would have been further ahead than 51-49 on two-party preferred.

UPDATE 2: The Australian reports provisional results from a Newspoll survey to be completed today gives the Liberals further cause to fear they may not make it over the line:

But with results from the first 1000 voters polled showing a two-party-preferred vote of 53-47 per cent to the Liberals, Labor Premier Jay Weatherill may still have a chance of forming minority government if swings are contained in key marginal seats.

With two thirds of voters polled for an exclusive Newspoll to be published in The Weekend Australian, Labor’s primary vote has fallen from 34 per cent to 33 per cent over the past month while the Liberal Party’s primary vote has dipped slightly from 44 to 42 per cent.