Newspoll quarterly breakdown
The Australian today brings us Newspoll’s regular quarterly breakdown of its federal polling by state, sex and age group. Compared with the last quarter of 2011, it finds Labor gained a point to lead 51-49 in South Australia, was steady at 50-50 in Victoria, cut the Coalition lead in New South Wales to 54-46 from 57-43 (59-41 in the July to September quarter), and took a point out of the still enormous Coalition leads in Queensland and Western Australia, which are now at 58-42 and 56-44. The Coalition’s two-party lead in the five main capitals is steady at 53-47 and down from 57-43 to 55-45 elsewhere.
Whereas last week’s Nielsen showed a dramatic widening in the gender gap between polls conducted in late February and late March, Newspoll records no such trend between its October-to-December and January-to-March surveys, which may of course conceal a very recent shift. It is interesting to note that the expectation Tony Abbott would poll badly among women was not realised in his earliest polls as Opposition Leader, but has been over time. Breaking it down by age group, the only change which skirts the roughly 3 per cent margins of error is among the 18-34s: Labor is up four points to 33 per cent, the Coalition down four points to 37 per cent and the Greens down three to 17 per cent.
Both leaders were down three on approval in New South Wales, Julia Gillard to 29 per cent and Tony Abbott to 33 per cent, but Abbott was up five in Queensland to 40 per cent. Abbott took a knock in Western Australia to be down five on approval to 31 per cent and up three on disapproval to 56 per cent. Preferred prime minister was essentially unchanged, although a shift in Gillard’s favour in South Australia – from 40-33 to 44-32 – pokes its head above the margin of error.
UPDATE: Oh yeah, Essential Research. As tends to be the case with polls these days, it’s very, very bad news for Labor, who have suffered a two-point shift away from them on two-party preferred compared with last week’s result – with the Coalition lead now at 57-43 – which is rare given that Essential publishes a two-week rolling average. The Coalition is up two points on the primary vote to 50 per cent – a new high for them so far as Essential is concerned – with Labor down two to 31 per cent and the Greens steady on 11 per cent.
Further attitudinal questions show 73 per cent believe the government should delay returning the budget to surplus if that’s what is required to maintain services and invest in infrastructure, with only 12 per cent supporting cuts to services and tax increases to restore the budget surplus. Although it may be that many respondents can instead be restored by “economic management” 28 per cent blame the present government’s lack of it for the present deficit, with 59 per cent choosing four other options available (16 per cent showing awareness of “lower tax revenues because of the Global Financial Crisis”).
On the question of Tony Abbott’s proposed childcare rebate for nannies, 44 per cent are in favour and 33 per cent opposed. Sixty-eight per cent support means testing as a general principle, while 24 per cent believe “people should receive the same subsidies and benefits regardless of income”. A “party best at” question draws the intriguingly dissonant response of a 12-point advantage to Labor on “representing the interests of Australian working families”, but a 6-point advantage to Liberal on “representing the interests of you and people like you”.
Finally, 78 per cent of respondents believe workers should get a “higher hourly rate” on weekends against only 18 per cent opposed, though how much higher exactly remains a subject for further investigation.
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Categories: Federal Politics 2010-

Good morning Dawn Patrollers.
A “blood boiler” to start the day. I just get so angry about this and the institutionalised cover up, aided and abetted by gutless governments frightened of religious backlash.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/churchs-suicide-victims-20120412-1wwox.html
Now refresh your memory with this.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/06/01/1022569845430.html
Have a nice day, George.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/cardinal-apologises-for-describing-jews-as-intellectually-inferior-20120412-1wwng.html
Alan Moir on Fatty’s Public Service.
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/opinion/cartoons/alan-moir-20090907-fdxk.html
Cathy Wilcox nails the CC debate.
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/opinion/cartoons/cathy-wilcox-20090909-fhd6.html
Ron Tandberg may have a point.
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/opinion/cartoons/ron-tandberg-20090910-fixc.html
David Rowe’s take on green tape.
http://www.afr.com/p/home/cartoon_gallery_david_rowe_1g8WHy9urgOIQrWQ0IrkdO
by BK on Apr 13, 2012 at 7:09 am
morning all.. . cando giving the pm a bit of advice this morning on breakfast… what a little twerp!!
by Lyne Lady on Apr 13, 2012 at 7:22 am
Oh dear, Pell fell for his own big mouth, has gone international:
and what the Romans have ever done for us anyway.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9199453/Australias-most-senior-ranked-Catholic-says-Jews-intellectually-and-morally-inferior.html
by The Finnigans on Apr 13, 2012 at 7:31 am
It was the gas bill that brought down the Third Reich is what he is trying to say.
by castle on Apr 13, 2012 at 7:40 am
Morning all.
Finns:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/cardinal-apologises-for-describing-jews-as-intellectually-inferior-20120412-1wwng.html
by confessions on Apr 13, 2012 at 7:41 am
KFC has Pell’s disease!
by confessions on Apr 13, 2012 at 7:49 am
Bk we can rely on u , to find some religious stories
by my say on Apr 13, 2012 at 7:52 am
http://turnleft2013.wordpress.com/
of image: @latikambourke Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey ‘I’m on a meagre income.’ Latika Bourke is the Political and Social Media Reporter at Parliament House Canberra.
The fact that any politician can describe their exceedingly generous pay, entitlements, allowances, and superannuation – all courtesy of the taxpayers – as being “meagre” shows just how disconnected from the rest of Austraian society the Liberal Nationals really are.
by my say on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:00 am
All the above is from turn left 2013
by my say on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:01 am
my say
I’m afraid the stories find themselves.
by BK on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:12 am
A boatload of 60 AS is missing off Indonesia.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/national/13408532/refugee-boat-missing-off-indonesia-report/
by confessions on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:16 am
Any response by Pell to the stories of the kids killing themselves after being abused by priests.
I would expect Pell to say that the priests have suffered more than the children, blisters on their dicks perhaps.
by castle on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:18 am
Centre @ 2088 & 2089
Your ad-hominens are noted.
Clearly you have nothing better to offer.
by bemused on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:19 am
Richo and Hewson doing their best to talk COAG down with Fool Gilbert, saying there will be lots of posturing and little substance.
Just what one would expect with the presence of more Liberal premiers.
by confessions on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:21 am
CWA pushing for the NBN to be extended to small rural towns:
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/women-of-the-shire-brigade-fight-for-nbn-link-20120412-1wwmy.html
Strangely no mention of the advantages of faster porn.
by zoomster on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:22 am
You’re meant to read that between the lines. Everyone knows what a bunch of randy old ravers the CWA are.
by Dan Gulberry on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:27 am
brings to mind the scene from Wild Hogs, “Do you want granny to take her teeth out”
by castle on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:30 am
zoomster @ 2114
Fascinating stuff! The ladies of the CWA ‘get it’ but the opposition just doesn’t.
I can’t help but feel there must be scope to run fibre to a lot more locations once the NBN as currently planned is in place. After all, they are connected by coper cables now.
NBN is now unstoppable.
by bemused on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:31 am
La Stupenda does her bit in the war against governance itself:
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/the-more-things-change–20120412-1wwj8.html#ixzz1rrnv4tLV
A nice “one-two” there.
1. The Premiers are armed with guns.
2. “The Council Of Australian Governments” is a pretentious name.
Of course the Premiers are not armed with guns, probably not even with baseball bats. I’d be willing to bet that Julia Gillard doesn’t even have a target on her forehead.
But what’s this with COAG? It’s a council, isn’t it? They’re Australian governments, aren’t they? Why slag off at the name, for Christ’s sake? It’s a name, nothing more, or less.
Does Old Coke bottles want it called “The Federal-State Gabfest”? Perhaps “The Annual Premiers’ Dole Queue”?
Suddenly things that nobody thought much about before are now “pretentious” (a pointless, gratuitous comment if ever I saw one).
Now “Guns” are being carried into meetings. The whole thing is so wild west. Typical of this mob in Canberra: up themselves with names and about to be assassinated… er… politically of course.. heh-heh.
She repeats the “guns” motif:
What guns? I didn’t hear about any guns anywhere else. Why did she feel the need to use the word “guns”? Has Michelle finally scored one of those “scoop” thingies?
Oh… it’s a metaphor?
A pretty stupid one, I’d say, one which if uttered by Tony Abbott in the house would have him grovelling before Peter Slipper in obsequious non-apology.
Yes, yes, we know that Michelle thinks it’s all a farce (and wants her readers to think so too…. “How pretentious, dahling!”). The “guns” angle is good too. Gillard could be knocked-off at any moment.
But I do wish she’d try straight reporting. It’d be a definite improvement over the rubbish she usually churns out.
by Bushfire Bill on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:31 am
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/abbott-in-disability-plan-pledge-20120412-1wwne.html
More Hockeynomics:
I’m ignoring the rest of the article, because we all know that Abbott always begins by saying he’ll support a government initiative before he finds out that it’s evil.
by zoomster on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:35 am
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/churchs-suicide-victims-20120412-1wwox.html#poll
Truly disgusting. Those in the hierarchy of the church should be put on trial.
by Lynchpin on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:35 am
BB:
Grattan’s commentary is going from appalling to something much worse than that. I really don’t know how she keeps her spot on RN breakfast; I can think of many more press gallery hacks who are more insightful than she is.
by confessions on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:37 am
This way of commenting on everything…
… is starting to sound rather childish.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/abbott-in-disability-plan-pledge-20120412-1wwne.html#ixzz1rrvp1YBk
by Bushfire Bill on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:42 am
Jeff Kennett on 24 earlier saying COAG shouldn’t meet on Fridays as everyone just wants to go home – a committed lot obviously.
Having subcommittees is a waste of time ( could be worried that broad standardising might erode state powers?
)
COAG should be focused on ‘defining the roles of Federal and state (and local) government – there we go: let’s have a constitution convention …
What a tool.
by CTar1 on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:43 am
Good Morning Bludgers,
Can-Do-You-Over is already kicking garbage cans. The rest of QLD, and now Australia, is about to get a BrizVegas makeover.
JG move over because Newman is GOD.
by Space Kidette on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:46 am
Revealing commentary on the GOP attitude to women, contrasted with “modern” Obama.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/romney-needs-to-man-up-and-start-to-narrow-the-gender-gap-20120412-1wwj6.html#ixzz1rrwRUh6C
by lizzie on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:46 am
Good Morning Bludgers,
Can-Do-You-Over is already kicking garbage cans. The rest of QLD, and now Australia, is about to get a BrizVegas makeover.
JG move over because you know Newman is GOD.
by Space Kidette on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:47 am
Out bluntly, she is trading on her reputation as the “Doyen Of The Press Gallery”.
In reality, her questions to the PM are usually brushed off with a curtness that, if it was directed to a more junior journalist, would be a career breaker. I can’t think of one that hasn’t been dealt with in any other way for a long time.
Time after time Grattan turns up to pressers, and time after time The Age’s investment in her is shown to be wasted on questions that don’t merit proper answers.
What is the point of being there if your questions are so stupid and transparently hostile, tripping up on their own convolutions and irrelevance that they never get answered?
Then she goes back to her laptop and writes bitchy pieces that destroy any last skerricks of impartiality she may have had.
Grattan’s dislike for Gillard is legendary and public. Put another way, Grattan’s partisanship is getting in the way of her informing her readers about anything else but her hatred for the Prime Minister.
Why should we care? On one side we have a Prime Minister trhing to run a country, and on the other a clapped-out has-been who’s been sacked from more senior roles than she managed to hold on to.
by Bushfire Bill on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:53 am
by Space Kidette on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:55 am
North Korea has just launched the missile.
by Space Kidette on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:55 am
Sounds like another excuse for having a whinge about how Gillard hasn’t solved all the nation’s problems in 20 months.
by Bushfire Bill on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:56 am
Re COAG
Given that it is Friday 13 the whole lot of them will come out feeling unhappy.
Hope they cook all the food well.
by daretotread on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:56 am
Apparently Peter Walsh, the Vic Water minister, believes that the environment should just learn to manage with less water:
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/strike-3-for-murray-basin-plan-20120412-1wwmw.html
Yeah, we’re making efficiencies! Time for that slacker, Mother Nature, to get off her fat arse and make an effort!
by zoomster on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:56 am
Can Can-Do be Prime Minister without being elected to Federal Parliament?
by zoomster on Apr 13, 2012 at 8:57 am
zoomster
Heard this morning that the MDB report has not taken climate change into consideration.
The “Barnaby” influence?
by lizzie on Apr 13, 2012 at 9:00 am
Any Salmon Mousse on the menu??
by imacca on Apr 13, 2012 at 9:01 am
Bushfire
I would respect what you say about Grattan much, much more if you also took the same blow torch to Cassidy, whose use of the ABC to destroy a PM, was bordering on treason.
Also looking back to Gratan’s articles of 2001, she was saying exactly (almost word for bloody word) things about Howard. If she is biased now, was she biased then?
I really find it sad when clearly intelligent posters here (BB) are so emotionally bound up that they cannot take an objective look at the political reality
by daretotread on Apr 13, 2012 at 9:02 am
Imacca
Hope not. I think they should avoid mouses, mayonnaise, sea food today.
by daretotread on Apr 13, 2012 at 9:04 am
Alan Kohler’s pissed off, suggesting that, for all practical purposes, the banks are running a protection racket:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-11/kohler-high-frequency-trade-parasites-at-heart-of-asx/3943052
by Bushfire Bill on Apr 13, 2012 at 9:04 am
I bet none of you realised that the environment still relies on flood irrigation.
Put the Barmah forest on drip feed!!
by zoomster on Apr 13, 2012 at 9:05 am
DDT, you don’t believe that it’s possible to be biased against more than one person?
Grattan’s obsession is with herself, and whoever she decides is her enemy of the week. She runs vendettas, writes sloppy journalism of little persuasive or informative content, and trades off a supposed “reputation” that has long since faded.
Among other journalists she is a standing joke. Her questions are rarely answered. Her articles reveal few insights. Her style is emotional and bitchy.
Not saying that my own style isn’t emotional and bitchy a lot of the time too, but I’m not trying to put myself up as some kind of impartial oracle.
by Bushfire Bill on Apr 13, 2012 at 9:09 am
On the front page
http://www.afr.com/p/national/business_strikes_deal_with_gillard_EUNIvQFgjtyS5XKRyyuWgK
http://afr.com/p/opinion/dollar_dictates_focus_on_monetary_q5aoqsNz9URWWnYOG2McUI
more in each article
by Leroy on Apr 13, 2012 at 9:15 am
Rocket launch has failed.
by Space Kidette on Apr 13, 2012 at 9:16 am
20 days without insurance in Queensland.
by Son of foro on Apr 13, 2012 at 9:17 am
DTT is wrong to assume the criticism is about bias. For me it’s about substance. Quite simply, Grattan rarely, if ever, displays any.
by confessions on Apr 13, 2012 at 9:24 am
The Daily Telegraph is running a nice little airport stoush. This will be the gift that keeps on giving:
Residents are already “furious”.
It was only a couple of days ago that the Tele was castigating Barry O’Farrell for NOT seriously considering Wilton… or anywhere else.
It’s all there, linked on the same page as the “Wilton Fury” story. There’s even a piece about how Victoria is taking over because we can’t land enough business people at Mascot.
Now they’ve gone out and found some Wilton locals who don’t like their backyard being dug up.
All the regulation arguments make an appearance…
* “It’s too far from the City” (so is everywhere else except Mascot).
* “New developments will be stymied” (read: “I was going to sell my back 40 to a property developer”).
* “Groundwater and dams will be polluted”… round up the usual suspects.
In fact, the Wiltonites are “furious” about it.
All Albo’s fault, too, it appears.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/wilton-gets-the-willies-over-second-airport-study/story-e6freuzi-1226325282962
There’s even an on-line poll.
It’s the full Tele bootstrap: start a campaign against Barry O’Farrell on the old “airports” chestnut, get Albo to make a statement about it, whip up the locals, run polls… article after article. The second Sydney airport has been a producing well for decades.
I doubt whether the Tele even cares who wins.
by Bushfire Bill on Apr 13, 2012 at 9:24 am
Only if u go looking for them ,
by my say on Apr 13, 2012 at 9:25 am
Somehow I don’t think Cassidy’s commentary of the Howard govt had any bearing on Howard losing his seat.
by confessions on Apr 13, 2012 at 9:25 am
Geez… who’d be a North Korean rocket scientist today?
by Bushfire Bill on Apr 13, 2012 at 9:25 am
BB,
Did you see the ‘control centre’ they showed in that North Korean PR exercise yesterday. It looked like they stole the set from a Robbie the Robot movie.
by Space Kidette on Apr 13, 2012 at 9:29 am