Newspoll: 57-43 to Coalition
A bad result for the government in the latest fortnightly Newspoll, with the Coalition’s two-party lead out from 54-46 to 57-43. The primary votes are 28 per cent for Labor (down three) and 47 per cent for the Coalition (up four). Julia Gillard at least has the consolation that her personal ratings have improved from the previous fortnight’s dismal result, with her approval up three to 31 per cent and disapproval down four to 58 per cent. Tony Abbott’s ratings are unchanged at 32 per cent approval and 58 per cent disapproval, and there is likewise essentially no change on preferred prime minister (Gillard leads 40-37, up from 39-37).
Another consolation for Labor is the possibility that a bit of static might be expected from a poll conducted over the same weekend as a state election such as the one in Queensland. They can be fortified in this view by the fact that their standing improved in this week’s Essential Research poll, the most recent weekly component of which was conducted over a longer period than Newspoll (Wednesday to Sunday rather than Friday to Sunday). Very unusually, given that Essential is a two-week rolling average, this showed a two-point shift on two-party preferred, with the Coalition lead shrinking from 56-44 to 54-46. Given that Essential spiked to 57-43 a fortnight ago, and the sample which sent it there has now washed out of the rolling average, this is not entirely surprising. Labor’s primary vote is up two to 34 per cent, and the Coalition’s is down one to 47 per cent. Further questions featured in the poll cover the economy, its prospects, best party to handle it and personal financial situation (slightly more optimism than six months ago, and Labor up in line with its overall improvement since then), job security, Kony 2012, taking sickies and the impact of the high dollar.
Categories: Federal Politics 2010-
bemused
Why is Boerwar a troll?
by victoria on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:17 pm
and Twiggy is back in the HC for the third day of his appeal against ASIC. It would be good to see as I am in Canberra tm but wont be getting closer than Scullin
by shellbell on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:18 pm
Here is a list of all the nations and districts still with rights to Privy Council. Includes Pitcairn Island, maybe for family matters?
by shellbell on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:19 pm
How did your team go Victoria, and who will win Hawks or Colloingwood?
by Centre on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:19 pm
This time with the link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_Committee_of_the_Privy_Council
by shellbell on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:20 pm
bemused
Totally without foundation.
by Pegasus on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:20 pm
Centre:
Worse is that Abbott’s endorsement of Germaine Greer’s sexist crap was much, much earlier on in ABC news than the NBN rollout announcement, which was the last story.
WTF?!
by confessions on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:20 pm
Dio
Not at all. Let’s assume neutrality in 1941. Japan has been forced into a choice between going to war the US or pulling out of China – so no choice, really.
Let’s say we had sent a clear diplomatic signal to Japan that we would not fight in the coming war in the Pacific but that we were arming ourselves in case we were attacked. We would continue to trade with Japan where we could. After all, morally, there was nothing to choose between British, French and Dutch Empires. They were all based on fear and murder. They were all based on racism. They were all based on exploitation.
Look at it from Japan’s point of view. It was taking on the US, Britain, France, China and Holland. Why would it also take on Australai? It would not make sense. If it was defeated by the other empires, Australria was irrelevant. If it beat the other empires Australia was a ripe plum ready for the picking.
We had a choice but we were too embedded in British Empire to think our way through the mess.
Some of us still haven’t twigged.
by Boerwar on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:20 pm
Boer
my grandfather was the missionary who exposed Coniston and agitated for the Royal Commission (and I wrote my Honours thesis on same…)
by zoomster on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:21 pm
Lol. I believe the Family Law Act there covers most of the Crimes Act too.
by smithe on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:21 pm
Centre
My team Carlton just won comfortably against Richmond!L
by victoria on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:22 pm
Is WW2 here over yet?
by smithe on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:23 pm
Fil R
See my comments on just how deadly, racist, undemocratic and exploitative the British Empire was. It simply was not in a place to cast the first stone. I suggest you read up on the Amritsar Massacre by way of an introduction.
by Boerwar on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:24 pm
shellbell:
Further to your comments this morning about carbon pricing not being able to be separated out by electricity companies comes this story in the West.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/13299206/carbon-tax-to-be-shown-on-bills/
by confessions on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:24 pm
smithe:
It is for me.
by confessions on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:24 pm
He isn’t. Please stop being an idiot, Bemused.
by William Bowe on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:24 pm
victoria @ 3050
troll: “One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.”
Seems to fit.
by bemused on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:25 pm
Would it have been better to intervene against Nazi Germany earlier?
By the way, Appeasement was a policy that probably only lasted as long as it did because of the single member system in the UK. Under a proportional representation the Labour and Liberal parties and the anti-Appeasement Tories probably would have made a majority against appeasement earlier.
by Tom the first and best on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:26 pm
smithe, were these guys born back then
Victoria do you know the new format of your final series?
I understand it is now a top 9. How does that work?
by Centre on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:27 pm
z
I lived next to a bloke who had been a child in the massacre. His mother hid him in a bush. She was killed. At the time I simply did not understand these sorts of stories. They kept coming at me wherever I lived in the Northern Territory. Bit by bit it came to me: massacres were a normal part of the Australian frontier. I was hearing it from people who had participated, or who had had parents, uncles and aunties or grandparents killed in the massacres.
I will never forget the Winchester repeater proudly shown to me by a station manager in the Northern Territory. It has seven notches carved in the stock.
by Boerwar on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:27 pm
LL now reporting on asylum seekers in immigration detention in Darwin
by Pegasus on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:28 pm
3060
In Australia it is but Japan and the Soviet Union (and its successors) have never signed a peace treaty with Japan.
by Tom the first and best on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:28 pm
BW
If they were dumb enough to attack the US, they were dumb enough to attack us. I don’t understand why they didn’t just go after Brit, French and Dutch colonies.
by Diogenes on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:29 pm
bemused
I am interested to read Boerwar’s perspective on the wars. Are you not mature enough to read another point of view?
by victoria on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:29 pm
Centre
Where did you get that from? The final series has not changed. It is still top 8!!
by victoria on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:30 pm
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3919296.html
by Pegasus on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:31 pm
Boerwar re 3061
I’ve heard about the Amritsar Massacre – Wikipedia says that the largest estimate for fatalities is around 1500. You seem to see this as making moral equivalence between the British Empire and Nazi Germany – altho’ Stalin still seems to remain more evil than Htiler.
You also seem to want to avoid the implications of a Nazi victory in Europe – do you really believe Hitler winning the war would have been no worse that what actually happened?
Better still don’t answer; I find myself rather sickened by this entire approach.
F
by Fil R on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:32 pm
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/13299206/carbon-tax-to-be-shown-on-bills/
I have no problem with this at all.
So far as I am concerned it will force the public to finally face-up to the fact that the Carbon Scheme will be only adding tiny increments to their bill, If fact, I should like all States to do the same as well as identifying all other increases in a pie chart or somesuch comprised of: Increased usage, increased rates (due to Infrastructure extension/replacement, State charges and taxes, GST, all separately identified).
In short, every component of a price increase should be laid bare for easy comprehension and digestion.
Ths will put the lie to the hysteria we’ve been getting from the shock jocks, theMSM and, of course, the Fderal Opposition on this issue.
I note that this morning some Ytilities were saying they couldn’t do this.
I say tough tits. The Governemnt should force them to, by Regulation or, if necessary, Legislation.
by smithe on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:32 pm
Oh OK, I think I heard it from somewhere? We are told nothing about AFL here in Sydney.
by Centre on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:32 pm
Victoria
Boerwar’s perspective seems to be pacifism at all costs combined with revisionist history. I suppose you can call that “a point of view”.
by Mick77 on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:33 pm
Boer
The Royal Commission report was like something out of Monty Python.
The testimonies from the ‘hunting party’ went like this:
“We were riding towards a group of about thirty angry bucks. They were waving spears. Mr X was ahead of us and I could see he was in trouble. But then I heard a noise in the bushes and went to investigate. When I came back, all the aborigines were dead.”
There were (I counted) only about half a dozen bullets fired according to the testimonies. Yet somehow these half dozen bullets killed at least thirty (and more likely seventy or more) aborigines.
(My grandfather kept pointing out – to the day of his death – that apparently no one was merely injured. They were all killed).
The Royal Commission solemnly concluded that everyone was telling them the truth and that all of those involved were heroes.
by zoomster on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:33 pm
Smithe,
Hope the personals are resting comfortably, and all’s well in that department.
But, a question: What is the green and mean recommended
bait these days for Tories?
For mice, I use extra-special traps, loaded with freshly prepared
peanut butter.
For the rats in the roof, I use a couple of remotely controlled
Gatling guns.
This methodology appears to work, so far. However, I’m at a bit of a loss
when it comes to controlling plagues of Tories.
Is there a humane method of elimination?
by Scringler on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:33 pm
b
I am passionate about history, foreign policy, Australia’s defence posture. I have worked with Indigenous people who were shattered by a war of invasion. I have survived a war. I left that war on a refugee ship with my Mum. Over 80 babies were born on that ship. My family on both sides suffered horribly in a war. Dozens of my extended family fled europe as economic refugees.
I don’t intend to accept blind senseless orthodoxy on war, defence or foreign policy. Never have, and never will. I have no intention of leaving the field to the war mongers, evil creatures that they are.
As soon as you can’t argue the substance you start with the personal abuse.
So don’t talk stupid crap about ‘troll’.
by Boerwar on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:33 pm
And continue to remain formally unrecognised in most instances. The Pinjarra massacre for eg continues to be referred to in bland euphemisms (‘battle’ IIRC) by the Pinjarra council, much to the disappointment of local Noongars who are descendents of those massacred.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pinjarra
by confessions on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:34 pm
z
Yep. I know the Coniston stuff pretty well. You might like to read a book I have referred to several times recently: A Wild History by Darrell Lewis. It is about the frontier times in the Victoria River District.
Your grandfather was a good man.
by Boerwar on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:35 pm
smithe:
I’d be happy to see it as well. But there were comments this morning indicating power companies said separating out the cost couldn’t be achieved.
It makes Colin Barnett’s quoted comments look odd. Why is he wading into what is ostensibly an operational matter for WA’s electricity company? And if it turns out the separate line billing can’t be done, he’ll look like a fool for grandstanding.
by confessions on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:38 pm
M77
Not at all. Not sure where you got that from. My argument is actually entirely different from that. I know what it is like to lose a war. It is no fun.
My argument goes like this:
(1) we should only go to war in the last extremity. (Instead we trot off to war with monotonous regularity. Over the past century there have been very few countries that have been to war more than us. Most of our erstwhile enemies are now our allies.)
(2) we should be very well armed. (We are not)
(3) we should be prepared to make it quite clear that invaders will suffer heavily if they try to invade us. Our armed forces and weaponry should reflect a maximum pain for invaders. (Instead we have a force structure that is designed to be a deputy sherriff for the US)
(4) through neutrality, we should seek to profit from a balance between India, Japan, China and the US. (Instead we tie ourselves into relationships that suck us into wars in places as far apart as Crete, South Africa and Burma.)
(5) neutrality is preferable because we keep our options open for as long as possible and we might be able to avoid wars by doing this.
by Boerwar on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:42 pm
Fil R
That is a mere trifle. This will give you an idea of how disgusting the pomgolians were.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/dec/27/eu.turkey
by poroti on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:42 pm
And..on the other side of the ledger..my father in WWII fought for the Lithuanians and then the Russians, and was in both a German concentration camp and an American POW camp (from which he escaped)….
by zoomster on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:42 pm
confessions
The power companies should be able to display component of bill that shows the cost passed on to the consumers for carbon emissions.
by victoria on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:44 pm
Fil R
Not at all. What I am arguing is that if we were really concerned about evil, we would have to have invaded Britain in the 1920′s following the Amritsar Massacre. Or ourselves in 1927 when we conducted the Consiton Massacre.
BTW, why aren’t we invading Burma, China, Zimbabwe, Syria, Libya, North Korea and Iran now? Surely they are evil?
by Boerwar on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:46 pm
Actually, it’s Spring 1928 (that’s how we were taught it in primary school); in fact, 14 August to 18 October 1928. Read all about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coniston_massacre
by OzPol Tragic on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:46 pm
victoria @ 3072
There are serious fiction writers that do it better than Boerwar.
I have read a variety of serious histories.
by bemused on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:46 pm
z
I have heard similar stories. I have great admiration for the survivors of WW2. What many went through is unimaginable.
by Boerwar on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:47 pm
victoria
How easy would it be ? X gigawatts divided by Y carbon price seems pretty simple.
by poroti on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:47 pm
Boerwar 3085
A little of what you write here makes sense but conspicuous by their absence among all this “neutrality” are words like values, principles, standing up for what’s right, supporting allies in defence of these principles and values. I can only harp back to my example of the bully in the schoolyard, or the shopkeeper who is robbed.
by Mick77 on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:50 pm
I love:
Richmond
Facebook..new, but wow
Telstra (I have signal)
My car
Living where I do
Pierre de Ronsard roses
Chloe Fox
by crikey whitey on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:51 pm
Lucky sods.
by Scringler on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:53 pm
Scringler @ 3097
I’ll second that.
by bemused on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:55 pm
Mick77 @ 3095
Boerwar is a bit like having our own resident David Irving.
by bemused on Mar 29, 2012 at 10:56 pm