Essential Research: 58-42 to Coalition
This week’s Essential Research poll gives Labor its worst result since the company opened for business in 2008: a primary vote of 29%, down two points on last week, and a two-party preferred deficit of 58-42. The former is particularly alarming for Labor, as Essential typically has Labor’s primary vote a few points higher than the phone pollsters. The Coalition and the Greens are steady on 50% and 11%.
With respect to the economy, 66% allowed that it had performed better than other countries’ over the past few years (although this was down from 70% in August last year), with 15% believing it to be worse (up from 10%). In the event of another global financial crisis, 42% would better trust the Liberal Party to deal with it than Labor, on 25%. Forty-six per cent anticipate the economy will get worse over the next 12 months against 23% who think it will get better (the figures when the question was asked a year ago were 37% worse and 27% better).
Sixty-two per cent believe a politician accused of an offence should stand down from their positions, against 27% who believe they should be allowed to continue. Questions on banking suggest the public to be well to the left of the elites on these matters: 55% would support the establishment of a government-owned bank, 74% forcing banks to charge rates in line with the Reserve Bank, 81% capping chief executive’s salaries, 92% limiting bank fees to the costs of the service and 59% a super profits tax on banks (the numbers opposed were respectively 23%, 16%, 12%, 5% and 21%). Fifty-nine per cent would support a levy on large transactions of currencies, bonds and shares, with 16% opposed.
Categories: Federal Politics 2010-
marky
a salutory caution – except politics is world of the possible and practical – actually a fundamental civility in making amends (if obama and clinton can do it so can rudd and rest of cabinet) nothing like the abyss to help overcome a few differences
by geoffrey on May 10, 2012 at 11:33 pm
Mick77 @ 6620
As the much derided (on PB) bimbo said on QANDA last Monday night: “I have never seen such a passionless and morally vacant person as JG”.
I think she put her finger on it. What does JG believe in? As opposed to what she thinks people want to hear her say?
by bemused on May 10, 2012 at 11:34 pm
I am certainly not convinced that Rudd is the answer, though obviously the current leadership is not working.
If it is the media, then that has to be addressed and challenged.
by swamprat on May 10, 2012 at 11:34 pm
They got nothing from the Budget because no one is listening to Julia anymore people hate the government and hate her unfortunately.
by marky marky on May 10, 2012 at 11:34 pm
“with respect” again. Yeah!
by This little black duck on May 10, 2012 at 11:34 pm
Last word; Huge swathes of the public does not like or respect Abbott, but huge swathes absolutely despise Gillard because of what they see with their own two eyes, not what the media says. She’s a turn-off and has no hope of being re-elected. It’s cut off nose to spite face territory, even if that means Abbott. Please Julia ….. move aside and help save something.
by Mick77 on May 10, 2012 at 11:35 pm
Yet to be determined.
by Gary on May 10, 2012 at 11:35 pm
Yes correct does she have any guts to state what she believes in?
No look at Gay marriage, Barack at least states what he believes in, Julia is lost in another world…
by marky marky on May 10, 2012 at 11:36 pm
There is a corner for concert rolls.
by This little black duck on May 10, 2012 at 11:36 pm
It must have taken you ages to interview them all.
by Gary on May 10, 2012 at 11:36 pm
Puff
I find it very hard to believe that women would think that way, today. Is that attitude peculiar to Australia? Even Pakistan has had women leaders!!
by swamprat on May 10, 2012 at 11:37 pm
The Book of the Year
_______________
“Rupert Murdoch;An Investigation of political power”
by David McKnight(pub Allan and Unwin)
__________________
I have been reading a truly insightful book..not a bio but an look at the politics of Murdoch on the stage of the english-pspeking world.which concerns us all
The author is an Australian academic.
It is great to see an Australian writing of the most powerful and in a way most evil tycoon in our history
The author shows that an understanding of the world we live in is not possible until you understand the malevolent power of this monster
Not even Hitler’s Dr Goebells was as much a master oi his political propoganda as Murdoch is shown to be.
He is first a foremost a political ideologue of the most right-wing kind
His special talent is to seem to attacki”the elites: and “the orthodoxies” and what he deems”liberal ideas”..this is “right-wig popularism”..as he takes the cause of”ordinary people against the liberal elites”
Read the columns of Andrew Bolt to see a pure essence of this tactic
In Britain these elites include the medical profession. the BBC. the Royals,and the ideas of the welfare state and anti-war movements..and scientific bodies which warn of climate change
To knoiw Murdoch one needs to understand that he ” fell in love ” with the ideas and actions of Maggie Thatcher and Reagan ..especially Thatcher
In the USA he was also at one with the neo-cons,and a special group of right-wing intellectuals,Poderetz.Kristol,Wolfowitz…and others around a journal The Weekly Standard…which is described as the “engine-room” of the new right movement which came to prominence in the 1990ies and paved the way for Bush and his imperial wars
The author puts the view that Murdoch made the Iraq war possible for Bush.Blair.Howard and that gang.using his media empire to publicise the lies that were produced about Iraq
and the case for war ..
Murdoch funds “The Weekly Standard” which like” the Australian” exists only by his generosity ,as they are both are big loss makers..all this he does to publicise the ideas he holds so dearly
In the US his Fox channel was the birthplace of the Tea Party which has now taken over part of the Republican Party. The Tea Party was generously funded and supported by Murdoch’s media at every stage.
He has always been generous towards various right wing idealogues…one such for example ..a US writer he published who advocated that all welfare to single mothers be stopped and their kids be consigned to orphanages..to have a proper unbringing.!!
..
The writer’s view was the subject of a lecture tour of the UK funded by the Murdoch media.. a return to pure Dickensian England
The book has a brilliant foreward by Robert Manne who sums up the real menace of Murdoch…not that the Murdoch clan are always behind the ideas of Big Daddy
.
His daughter Elizabeth helped fund-raise for Obama.,,,and a book by one of Blairs aides
Campbell.. tells of an amazing scene at “No 10″ when in Blair’s presence Murdoch and his son James,had a raging argument about the Middle East…given Murdoch’s passionate support for Israel…his son who doesn’t share his father’s zionist sympathies .. told his father in Blair’s presence that he must ” stop talking bullshit” on that subject
The book conludes with a last chapter recounting the current disasters surrounding Murdoch who seems like some embattled old emperor…or like Macbeth or King Lear
The old monster really deserves the treatment of someone like Shakespeare
His ending is obviously a classic case of hubris
by deblonay on May 10, 2012 at 11:37 pm
Are you saying she actually believes in gay marriage? What proof do you have of this?
by Gary on May 10, 2012 at 11:37 pm
bemused,
Well, stockholm syndrome on a grand scale. Doe s your wife hate Gillard, if I may ask?
by Puff, the Magic Dragon. on May 10, 2012 at 11:37 pm
I think the Spectator is close to the money. There is a good chance Abbott will be PM and an even better chance he won’t be a good PM. We are almost locked into that fate.
by davidwh on May 10, 2012 at 11:37 pm
Gary,
You will shortly be provided with the average income of both in the sample.
by This little black duck on May 10, 2012 at 11:38 pm
Gary
I don’t have to interview them – we have polls for that, but I can also walk down the street and get some anecdotal reaction to Gillard.
by Mick77 on May 10, 2012 at 11:39 pm
Jay is now on to payments in kind.
by This little black duck on May 10, 2012 at 11:39 pm
Andy denies.
by This little black duck on May 10, 2012 at 11:40 pm
It seems to me rather defeatist for Labor just to throw in the towel and blindly go over the cliff at the next election – which is what they’re doing if they stick with Gillard until the bitter end, in some vain hope that a miracle might occur to save them.
I’m afraid I think that the Australian public have made up their minds about Julia, and a load of cash handouts to certain interest groups or “working families” won’t change that.
Does she believe in anything? I wonder myself about that, other than making the next deal to keep herself in the top job.
by Thornleigh Labor Man on May 10, 2012 at 11:40 pm
The polls are not going into the detail you seem to think they are.
by Gary on May 10, 2012 at 11:40 pm
This is STUFF!
by This little black duck on May 10, 2012 at 11:41 pm
Andy Coulson …. A kind of clean skin version of Bill Sykes in Oliver Twist, complete with the Essex boy accent. Jay clearly views him with utter contempt.
by Rossmore on May 10, 2012 at 11:41 pm
Gary, get out in the real world where Julia is not liked by swinging voters.
A woman said to me the other day why did they ever put her as leader she bores me to tears and does not have anything going for her.. Than she added at least Kevin had some style and an image, i listened to him..
That is true statement. I feel sorry for Julia but it has never worked i feel.
by marky marky on May 10, 2012 at 11:41 pm
So the polls were wrong in New South Wales and Queensland elections.
by marky marky on May 10, 2012 at 11:41 pm
davidbewart@davidbewart
What’s the difference between a motion to suspend standing orders and a.budget.reply.rant #budgetreply#auspol take that as comment
by Schnappi on May 10, 2012 at 11:41 pm
That’s right. What they need to do is put Rudd in and split the party. We all know a split party does well in elections.
by Gary on May 10, 2012 at 11:42 pm
The Thomson thing is slowly killing Labor – why on earth was he reendorsed in 2010?
by Thornleigh Labor Man on May 10, 2012 at 11:42 pm
Rossmore,
Persacktly!
by This little black duck on May 10, 2012 at 11:42 pm
@bemused/6651
Who cares what JG believes in? she’s there to get stuff through Parliament.
by zoidlord on May 10, 2012 at 11:43 pm
Mick
Thatcher was despised in Britain. Her poll numbers were low. Yet they changed and were high when it counted.
Do you think that Julia Gillard cannot turn that around with all those good policies she has.
Especially when she can go to an election telling people the pension you get is going to be cut by $X. Same with Child Bonus. Same with all the rest. Plus whatever sweeteners are put in the next budget.
by guytaur on May 10, 2012 at 11:43 pm
middle man @ 6642
Not much fun if both wearing the same uniform.
Only difference would be I simply see Gillard as a failure and wife loathes her.
by bemused on May 10, 2012 at 11:43 pm
by This little black duck on May 10, 2012 at 11:44 pm
TLM
Ask Rudd he would have known just as much as Gillard as Deputy.
by guytaur on May 10, 2012 at 11:45 pm
The party is split now. Rudd’s still got his 31 votes and perhaps more than that – at least one Gillard supporter from last time, Tony Zappia, was seen in a conversation with Rudd & McClelland today in parliament.
And it seems that Oakeshott is about to revolt over the Thomson matter.
Gary, it’s not all rosy for your girl, much as you’d like to pretend that she’s really 10 points ahead.
by Thornleigh Labor Man on May 10, 2012 at 11:45 pm
Gary
There are better alternatives than Rudd, in fact a clear advantage that Labor has over LNP is the depth of talent with half-a-dozen acceptable relatively clean skins such as Smith, Combet and Roxon.
by Mick77 on May 10, 2012 at 11:45 pm
If the party is more interested in personality politics than winning elections and its core constituency than it deserves to lose.
by marky marky on May 10, 2012 at 11:45 pm
None are leadership material.
by marky marky on May 10, 2012 at 11:46 pm
Why would a politician be interested in getting a newspaper editor to join his party?
I have no idea. Anyone help me?
by This little black duck on May 10, 2012 at 11:46 pm
Anyone, 16 months out from an election, making such unequivical statements re its result are just kidding themselves. It was about at this same stage during Rudd’s term people had the Liberals gone for all money. We don’t know what is around the corner. The best anyone can say now is that chances are Abbott will win and chances are he will make Gillard look very good if he becomes PM.
by Gary on May 10, 2012 at 11:47 pm
Bermused
Phew – wife and I aren’t alone in the universe.
by Mick77 on May 10, 2012 at 11:47 pm
None is singular: you want “is”.
by This little black duck on May 10, 2012 at 11:47 pm
bemused
why does your wife “loathe” her? i am genuinely curious.
by swamprat on May 10, 2012 at 11:48 pm
But all you are saying is that you want the party to go from one form of split to another. Why bother?
by Gary on May 10, 2012 at 11:48 pm
think coulson models himself on james murdoch,similar speech and haircut
by Schnappi on May 10, 2012 at 11:49 pm
marky marky
I think they are leadership material, certainly after the disastrous Gillard experiment, blandness could be a virtue.
by Mick77 on May 10, 2012 at 11:49 pm
My parents, both long time Labor voters, absolutely loathe Gillard.
I think that Julia is only loved on Poll Bludger.
by Thornleigh Labor Man on May 10, 2012 at 11:49 pm
All those talking leadership change are calling for an election now.
The Greens and Crossbenchers signed an agreement with Julia Gillard not Labor.
Changing leaders would mean renegotiation. and raise interesting Constitutional questions.
by guytaur on May 10, 2012 at 11:49 pm
I’m not sure who the blondie on Jay’s right is but she should keep her emotions to herself.
by This little black duck on May 10, 2012 at 11:49 pm
That sounds like a good argument for staying with Gillard.
by Gary on May 10, 2012 at 11:50 pm