When comparing the standing of national leaders in their own countries, Australia's Albanese beats America's Trump hands down when it comes to job performance & public approval

 

NEWSPOLL, published 17 August 2025

Voting Intention at an Australian Federal Election*

*Newspoll survey of 1,283 respondents undertaken by YouGov Australia from 11-13 August 2025. Margin of Error ± 3.

First Preference (Primary Vote):

Labor (ALP) 36 (0)

Coalition (L/NP) 30 (+1)

Australian Greens (GRN) 12 (0)

One Nation (ON) 9 (+1)

Others 13 (-2)

Two Party Preferred Vote:

Labor (ALP) 56 (-1)

Coalition (L/NP) 44 (+1)

Preferred Prime Minister:

Anthony Albanese 51 (-1)

Sussan Ley 31 (-1)

Leaders Approval Rating:

ALBANESE: Approve 49 (+2) Disapprove 46 (-1) Uncommitted 6

LEY: Approve 35 (0) Disapprove 44 (+2)

Uncommitted 23

Comparing US President Donald Trump .......

PEW RESEARCH, 14 August 2025:

President Donald Trump’s current job approval rating stands at 38%, with 60% of U.S. adults expressing disapproval of his performance. This is a modest decline from two months ago, when 41% approved.

And perceptions of some of Trump’s personal traits are more negative than they were following his election victory (or in 2024 preelection polling). For instance, 37% of Americans today say “cares about the needs of ordinary people” describes Trump well. That share is 8 points lower than it was shortly after the November election, and 5 points lower than it was in late-summer preelection polling....

Much of the change in Trump’s approval rating over the last few months has come among his own 2024 voters and people who did not vote in 2024.....

NOTE: Australia's next federal general election occurs in 2028 as does the next US presidential election.

Trump rips $300,000 funding from Australian not-for-profit Positive Change for Marine Life Limited

 

Positive Change For Marine Life Limited, formed in in the NSW Northern Rivers region in 2012, is a not-for-profit registered corporation with a four member board of directors which has a stated community driven mission to empower ocean action, developing long-term initiatives that benefit the sea and the people who rely on it for survival.

Now headquartered in Queensland, it has teams on the ground in Australia (where it first was founded), India and Solomon Islands. These teams are made up of conservation scientists, community engagement specialists, spatial mapping & data specialists, as well as members of the volunteer and intern community - often marine biology or conservation science students.

Positive Change for Marine Life has also partnered groups in Brazil, Japan, Indonesia and Seychelles for specific projects.

Their work appear to complement the work of other Australian environmental groups, such as the NSW Nature Conservation Council.

Positive Change for Marine Life Limited's annual report and financial statement show it to be a responsible ad stable corporation.

However an overbearing, belligerent and volatile 47th President of the United States of America on the day of his inauguration unleashed a policy which resulted in this.......

ECHO, 5 February 2025:

With US President Trump axing funding for aid programs across the globe, it’s also forced a marine conservation group to start laying off staff and stop work while they ‘work around the clock to fill the $300,000 gap that has been created’.

Positive Change for Marine Life co-founder and CEO, Karl Goodsell, told The Echo the not-for-profit, formed in Byron Shire, and most of its Australian employees are located in the North Coast.

‘We started as a small, volunteer-led org in 2011 off the back of work that myself and the cofounder were doing in Japan around sustainable fisheries, dolphin hunting and shark finning issues. We registered in 2012 and have since grown to run programs in seven countries, with teams now in Australia, India and the Solomon Islands who focus on turning waste into wealth, rewilding coastal floodplains and coral reefs and developing sustainable fisheries within some of the world’s marine biodiversity hotspots,’ says Goodsell.

The Trump administration, under Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has frozen funds of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), impacting millions across the planet. It’s also put lives at risk in third-world countries, with food monitoring programs being reportedly defunded..... [my yellow highlighting]

Read the full article at

https://www.echo.net.au/2025/02/marine-conservation-group-hit-by-trump-funding-cuts/

Cartoons of the Week

 

Paul Hudson

 

Matt Golding

Simon Letch

Mark David

He's back

 

TIME's new Inauguration cover: Donald Trump's disruption is back https://t.co/f6thgzBMCY pic.twitter.com/LwsTz8sMyl

— TIME (@TIME) January 19, 2025

 

Cartoons of the Week

Cathy Wilcox

Alan Moir

Matt Golding

David Pope

David Rowe

 

Cartoons of the Week

Cathy Wilcox

 

David Rowe

Former Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison exceeding his authority and expertise while in the US this week

 

In the U.S. this week in an attempt to drum up sales of his meagre memoir, Scott Morrison meets with Donald Trump in New York in between Trump's criminal trial hearings. 

Heaven knows how indiscrete Morrison has been during this conversation. His own party was worried about the national security risk he may have represented in 2021 in relation to this AUKUS submarine deal.

Cartoons of the Week

 

A tale of two former leaders

Scott John Morrison & Donald John Trump at the height of their  political careers before the fall into public disgrace and infamy

Getty Image circa Sept. 2019

As both men are seen in Australia in July 2023

Blameless
Cathy Wilcox

In a pickle
Jon Shakespeare