Reflections on the Miracle of Democracy at Work in the Greatest Nation on Earth

Newspoll: 52-48

Sky News reports tomorrow’s Newspoll at 52-48. The Australian reports a sample size of 2614, but no primary votes. Normally you wouldn’t doubt the result with four polls telling you 52-48, 52-48, 54.5-45.5 and 57-43, but surely there’s some significance to the fact that the two closest polls of the year have come in the day before polling day.

1,500 Comments

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  1. 101
    Martin B
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:19 pm | Permalink

    Are we to believe that campaign has had no effect whatsoever??

    Pretty much.

    Or more precisely the minutiae of the campaign and their analysis are of low importance to most voters.

  2. 102
    Lose the election please
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:19 pm | Permalink

    At least we know now there are no other polls to worry about. The worst polls for the year came out as 52/48 for the ALP.

    I’m still a little surprised they didn’t poll Bennelong for publication this morning.

  3. 103
    Lefty E
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:19 pm | Permalink

    So, in sum, all polls point to Ruddster.

    I can get back to work!

    Enjoy, bludgers. May drop in tonight – last night of the Howard regime.

  4. 104
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:19 pm | Permalink

    So, apparently Morgan have one more poll coming out.

    Doubt they’ll be predicting a “cliffhanger”.

  5. 105
    10pse
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:20 pm | Permalink

    Gary Bruce, personally I think Labor will get over the line by a couple of seats. But let’s be very clear – the Coalition can win if they get 48%. As I showed on this site a few days ago…. they could actually do it with less, though obviously it becomes less likely.

    The thing people are not factoring in is that the Liberals have not campaigned in any Labor seats, so there are big swings to the ALP in seats it already holds. There are also some bigger swings in Lib safe seats…

    So the swing in the marginals could be such that the Govt holds on, just. Now as I say, I think Labor will get over the line, but don’t think 52-48 is safe for Labor. If it is 52-48 tomorrow it will be a coin toss. Remember, in 1987 Hawke would have won with 47.9% (though he got more)

  6. 106
    ruawake
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:20 pm | Permalink

    This is a con – buy tomorrows GG to get the full results. Ha Ha

    This poll shows Bennelong lost, yeah. :)

  7. 107
    red wombat
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:22 pm | Permalink

    Overington on Sky…..what to do the “coloring in”

  8. 108
    Econocrat
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:22 pm | Permalink

    3% improvement for the LNP after this week? pfft…

  9. 109
    middle man
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:22 pm | Permalink

    Econocrat. my thought exactly.

  10. 110
    Gary Bruce
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:23 pm | Permalink

    When was the last election a party won with 48%TPP?

  11. 111
    Guru
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:23 pm | Permalink

    Accept it. It looks as though 52 48 is where we are sitting at the moment.

    57 for Labor is so out of the ballpark for Labor that its not funny. This is the outlier and it should be forgotton.

    I have got the gut feeling that this election is going to be very very close.

    Either side can win at this stage.

  12. 112
    Pancho
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:24 pm | Permalink

    Does Overington make animals out of long balloons or juggle as well?

  13. 113
    Lose the election please
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:24 pm | Permalink

    thanks Guru. it takes a bit of guts to go against the pack.

  14. 114
    Greg
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:24 pm | Permalink

    The problem with just dismissing this (and the Galaxy poll which is unfavourable) as MOE is that you’re dismissing all incremental movements. Surely you have to look at the totality of campaign Newspolls. Effectively you have seen the gap close from 16% at the start of the campaign to 4% on Election Eve. It may comfort people to dismiss that 12% close as all MOE. For mine though, it represents a genuine narrowing. Having said that, I still expect Labor to win 53/47. ACN is dreaming, just quietly.

  15. 115
    ruawake
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:24 pm | Permalink

    Howard cannot win win 48% tpp. :-P

  16. 116
    ShowsOn
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:25 pm | Permalink

    Overington on Sky…..what to do the “coloring in”

    LOL! :-P

  17. 117
    noel
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:25 pm | Permalink

    Ah, poor lib sympathisers. Newspoll/Galaxy flunkies giving you a little tune to whistle in the dark to keep your spirits up.

  18. 118
    Van Patten
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:25 pm | Permalink

    It beggers belief that after the campaign week the coalition had they’d pull back so much. . . And with Howard campaigning in seats with a 10% buffer

    The devil will be in to detail ( and the rounding which we wont see)

    There’ll be an anomaly in the national vote and negligible movement on primary.

    Is there any reason to suspect this is any more than NO CHANGE from a week ago ?

  19. 119
    Lord D
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:26 pm | Permalink

    It’s likely this was taken Wed/Thur nights; this is normal for Newspoll’s final. Newspoll uses aggregate minor party prefs flows from 2004. That means it doesn’t matter what the Greens got, it just gives 61% of prefs to Labor automatically. If Labor support has gone to the Greens, the 2PP will not reflect any increase in Greens; it’ll only reflect a decrease in Labor’s primary.

  20. 120
    Kina
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:26 pm | Permalink

    Haha – just look at the Newspoll history – see the odd one out? Are the playing games here or just an unlucky sample?

    http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/files/poll.gif

  21. 121
    ricky
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:27 pm | Permalink

    I don’t see why we can’t take the Morgan polls of 58+ seriously but we will take these 52s so serious.

  22. 122
    ShowsOn
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:27 pm | Permalink

    I think it is dumb asking who has had the better or worse campaign. The winner of the campaign is whoever wins the election.

  23. 123
    Marko
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:27 pm | Permalink

    If we take the five polls released in the last 24 hours (ACN did phone and online, both with the same results, hmm), and throw out the highest and lowest, we still have 57-43, 54-46 and 52-48.

    Which seems to point to something in the 54-46 range.

  24. 124
    10pse
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:28 pm | Permalink

    Ruawake, i agree 48% is not good, but the simple math of this shows they can win with 48% …. it is not open to dispute, it is a matter of simple maths… .whether they do is entirely a matter of where the swings are…

    that said, i think Labor will get there

  25. 125
    Jim
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:28 pm | Permalink

    Labor can get 51% and still lose.
    Newspoll says Labor has 52%
    Can the lefties at least acknowledge that the election might be close?
    Talk of a landslide is now clearly hubris.

    We knew the final polls would show a narrowing. This is no longer in dispute.
    I expect there will be a continuing move back to the coalition until polls close.

    Forget the pollsters (we always knew these were nothing more than a rough guide). The real ‘egg on face’ brigade will be the bookies.

  26. 126
    Arbie Jay
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:29 pm | Permalink

    Greg

    True, to go from 16% to 4% is a narrowing, but such a movement against such anionept government especially with the campaigning is not right, there are errors in there.

    probably the 16% is too high and the 4% is too low and the final result is somehwere in between.

  27. 127
    Sharkbait
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:29 pm | Permalink

    God let this be over. I’ve done bugger all work this week. If my boss has been tracking my web use I’m out. I wonder if i can get a job as a pollster. After Saturday some of them will be losing there jobs.

  28. 128
    Aussieguru01
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:29 pm | Permalink

    ruawake – Your on the money!

  29. 129
    Observer
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:29 pm | Permalink

    Now Now. Leave the Liberals be. So far they’ve enjoyed believing their own spin, don’t deny them their last moments of delusion. “We caught them napping”

  30. 130
    Lose the election please
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:30 pm | Permalink

    10pse you can say that ’til you’re blue in the face and they won’t agree with you.

    Jim I doubt the bookies are going to care if Labor lose… they’ll pocket heaps.

  31. 131
    Karma Policeman
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:30 pm | Permalink

    Damn.

  32. 132
    PJK for President
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:31 pm | Permalink

    If the preferences are being allocated 60/40 then the primary votes are 46/44.
    If the preferences are being allocated 70/30 then the primary votes are 45/45. I bet they did 60/40 and that is underestimating.
    So , I reckon Labor are on at least a 46% primary and that the we can’t but win with that.

  33. 133
    paladin
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:31 pm | Permalink

    Hold the line people. Hold the line.

  34. 134
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:32 pm | Permalink

    I’d really like a look at the state-by-state, frankly.

  35. 135
    Ron Brown
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:32 pm | Permalink

    POLL ANALYSIS

    Lets accept 3 pollsters drop Labor’s vote by 2% in a week
    and maybe the ‘Lindsay’ Muslim rort DID FAVOR the Liberals in thurs nite polling

    1/ What does 52% mean ???? 52% can be anywhere from 51.51% to 52.44%

    2/ 52% to 48%….but we do NOT know now WHICH STATES have the swing

    OPTIMISTIC
    eg. if it is 52 to 48 in Q’LD vs 2004 ACTUAL Labor 2 PP vote of 42.91%
    then that is a state (but NOT seat swing of 9.09%)

    PESSIMISTIC
    5% in Vic and 8% in SA is useless
    Labor needs the big swing in Q’ld OR a bigger swing again in NSW

    I am shattered to see 2% primary disappear in a week

  36. 136
    L
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:32 pm | Permalink

    Without seeing the primary votes, I’d suggest that preference flows aren’t factored in correctly (as some have noted above). Higher Greens primaries, as they’ve only started to advertise in the last two weeks, and bad preference allocation depress what should be 53/47 to 52/48.

    As a Labor supporter, yes, there has been a tightening in the polls, but only because the 60/40 stuff was outrageous and never going to happen. Remember, the most popular Labor PM ever, Hawke, got 53.7% of the TPP in ‘83. And Rudd ain’t Hawkie (neither is Howard’s Government as unpopular or as economically beset as Fraser’s was). So Rudd was never going to get 55% at the ballot box.

    My prediction? 53-47 tomorrow, and ultimately 82-84 seats for the ALP. Along with a lot of big swings in safe seats, and a couple of potential upsets, eg North Sydney. Some margins cut down to become low-hanging fruit for the ALP in their first tilt at re-election come 2010.

  37. 137
    KT
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:32 pm | Permalink

    Effectively you have seen the gap close from 16% at the start of the campaign to 4% on Election Eve.

    http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/files/poll.gif

    Doesn’t look a narrowing to me. The sequence makes this poll look like an outlier.

    Only the Galaxy has shown a genuine narrowing of sorts.

  38. 138
    neophyte
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:32 pm | Permalink

    primaries 44 43 according to rumour at PP

  39. 139
    Gary Bruce
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:32 pm | Permalink

    Well, that’s the narrowing over and done, bring on the election. Still Labor’s election.

  40. 140
    10pse
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:33 pm | Permalink

    incidentally, in case Ruddites were hoping that the 52 was rounded down from 52.4 for instance, i am reliably informed from party sources that it was in fact rounded up…. just trying to get exact number… sounds like 51.7 – 48.3

  41. 141
    red wombat
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:33 pm | Permalink

    Hahahahahaha….look at the lib backers…..like a 13 y/o boy who has found dads stash of porn………in the end still not the real thing :-)

  42. 142
    Big Blind Door Knocker
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:33 pm | Permalink

    So does that mean that if the Libs win tomorrow

    EVERY POLLING COMPANY WILL HAVE EGG ON THEIR FACE?

  43. 143
    dovif
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:33 pm | Permalink

    It is funny how happy some of the Labor supporters are at the prospect that John Howard will lose this election. And they are so happy that Kevin Rudd will win this election, so who is Kevin?

    He is a fiscal conservative, whose wife is one of the most successful entrepreneur in Australia. He is from a business background and his whole campaign has been “that we will do everything that Howard has done”. The policy of the 2 is so similar, that it is almost impossible to differentiate between them ….. yes Kevin will agree to Kyoto, no target in the near future, but Australia will reduce emmition by 50% by 2050 (ie when Kevin is dead)

    He wants to be the next John Howard, the nerd his own party didn’t like, but was at the right place and the right time to win an election. Rudd’s policy is so far to the right that he might have won the Liberal leadership challenge if there was one.

    There is really no choice on Saturday, we can vote for the Liberals or the Liberals under Rudd. And people here are so happy. LOL

  44. 144
    Lose the election please
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:34 pm | Permalink

    yes 10pse, Isabella was talking about a 51.5/48.5 earlier.

  45. 145
    Kina
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:34 pm | Permalink

    Accept it, we are probably at lowest ALP 53% at highest ALP 55% but most likely close to 54% This will be a landslide or at worst a comfortable win.

    The real worry for Howard is if the AC Nielsen did pick up a trebd of a lot of dissafected voters because of his disasterous campaign and the interest rate rise and were on exodus.

  46. 146
    red wombat
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:34 pm | Permalink

    We will just change it dufus……hahahahahahaha

  47. 147
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:35 pm | Permalink

    New Boothby poll thread, if anyone’s interested.

  48. 148
    Pathological Logic
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:35 pm | Permalink

    Battening down the hatches, are we, dovif?

  49. 149
    Rob
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:36 pm | Permalink

    Jim @ 125

    Forget the pollsters (we always knew these were nothing more than a rough guide). The real ‘egg on face’ brigade will be the bookies.

    It might be you that has egg on your face tomorrow Jim. If the polls are only a rough guide, how can you say there is a narrowing based on one or two polls? There’ve been over 100 polls averaging 55/45 yet you choose the two lowest in the set to demonstrate that the rest are wrong?

  50. 150
    dovif
    Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 at 4:36 pm | Permalink

    pathological logic

    no, just happy the right will remain in power

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