Essential Report: yet another tight opinion poll for the main contenders in 2010 Australian federal election

From the Essential Report (2 August 2010) survey conducted online from 27th July to 1st August 2010:

Q. The Federal Election will be held on 21 August – to which party will you probably give your first preference in the House of Representatives? If not sure, which party are you currently leaning toward?

Q. If don’t know – Well which party are you currently leaning to for the House of Representatives?

Click image to enlarge

2,418 sample size

NB. The data in the above tables comprise 2-week averages derived the first preference/leaning to voting questions. Respondents who select ‘don’t know’ are not included in the results. The two-party preferred estimate is calculated by distributing the votes of the other parties according to their preferences at the 2007 election.
* Sample is the aggregation of two weeks’ polling data.

The questions in this week’s report include:

Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job Julia Gillard is doing as Prime Minister?

Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job Tony Abbott is doing as Opposition Leader?

Q. Who do you think would make the better Prime Minister out of Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott?

Q. What is the main reason you intend to vote for the Labor Party/Liberal or National Party/Greens?

Q. Tony Abbott has proposed to cut immigration from around 300,000 a year to 170,000? Do you approve or disapprove of this cut to immigration?

Q. Which leader and party do you trust most to handle immigration issues?

If my animals could vote in 2010?

If my animals could vote in 2010?

The dogs Blair and Tom would definitely be voting for Julia Gillard. She's a fine alpha bitch who got rid of the top dog and obviously knows were all the bones are buried.

The bathroom cat Venus would vote for Tony Abbott. He, like cats, knows that the world is divided into masters and slaves and how quickly he assured the big miners that his government would not tax them shows he respects the masters.

The goldfish think that the Greens have the best policies for them. The Greens are for a good environmental flow for all waterways and they have the kindest immigration policies - both these points are very important for foreign fish.

All the birds have agreed that they will put the Shooters Party at the bottom of their ticket.

Most of the geese will be voting for Family First since it pretends to be the moral majority. This falls in line with the unmated geese’s habit of attempting to disrupt the mating of any partnered birds.

The chooks are definitely swinging voters, they are keeping their cards and feathers close to their wishbones.

Arnold the poddy calf is still undecided; I think he's been talking to the chooks.

Original goose graphic

The Liberals descend to what looks suspiciously like defamtion...

Journalist Andrew Bolt and former Howard Government foreign minister, Alexander Downer plumb the depths with this comment by Downer repeated by The Bolter:

"I don't use the c-word, but I do use the f-word pretty freely, and I can tell you that Kevin Rudd is a f****** awful person."

Original 1 August 2010 article here.

Nats Kevin Hogan sets the record straight

 

Nationals candidate for Page Kevin Hogan appears to think that the Australian Rudd-Gillard Government has not delivered worthwhile funding to the NSW North Coast.

"Despite being one of the highest spending governments in our history, Labor hasn't managed to fund the projects that would have really improved our lives here on the North Coast."  he states.

 

Silly me! How could I be so wrong? Here I was thinking that the North Coast was doing rather well out of that Labor Government in Canberra.

 

Particularly in the Page electorate with this federal funding: $2.6M for a Grafton sports complex; "$597,000 for eight ready-to-go community infrastructure projects in the Clarence Valley"; $149,727 to help address local teenage binge drinking; "$19.7M upgrade to Grafton Base Hospital operating theatres and emergency department" currently underway; $1.3M in new housing completed and "more than $1 million for repairs and maintenance to 336 social housing units"; $105,000 for Clarence Valley Council tourism project and at least $9.4M for local infrastructure [The Daily Examiner 19.06.10, 27.02.10, 20.02.10, 29.01.10, 11.12.09, 17.10.09, 01.09.09].

 

After reading other local newspapers, I was also under the impression that the North Coast Area Health Service has received federal funding for public hospital and community health programs/projects right across the region and school halls and classrooms were going up in many a primary or highschool in the five shires courtesy of federal stimulus money.

 

I'm only sorry that the library has no local newspaper records from January 2008 to July 2009 so that I could further explore my complete lack of understanding.

 

Here in the Northern Rivers we are all so lucky to have someone like Kevin to set us straight by giving the 'real' facts of the matter and, reminding us that life is not "really improved" by the type and scale of funding I've listed here.

 

Will he next set us straight about Federal Labor's increase in fortnightly pension payments for single pensioners and state that this was really bad for their general wellbeing?

2010 Election Campaign Day 17 - Wot's on Abbott's mind

Wordle of Abbott's speech to the Sydney Institute 27th July this year

Once more around the park with Tony Abbott as he channels John Howard and George Pell.

"Laurie Oakes: They say people change their minds, but you change yours a lot for someone who wants to be Prime Minister. I mean, now, you're talking about changing the paid parental leave scheme again and you haven't held that position through you the election campaign?
Tony Abbott: Labor can't have it both ways. On the one hand, they can't say that I'm an old-fashioned ogre, and on the other hand, say that I change my mind too much.
Oakes: Do we want a Prime Minister who changes his mind all the time? And you can't believe what he says because he's a weather vain?
Abbott: As I said, I'll leave all of this to the public to judge. I mean, on the one hand, you've got the Labor Party saying that I'm desperately old-fashioned and reactionary and on the other hand you've got the Labor Party saying that I change my mind all the time so I think the Labor Party needs to...
Oakes: It's not the Labor Party saying it, I'm saying it.
Abbott: I think that Labor needs to get its story straight, Laurie.
Oakes: You know that I'm not spouting Labor Party lines. This is fact, I'm quoting you, not the Labor Party." {Televised interview Channel 9 Aug 1st, 2020}

"I want to caution people against expecting enormous dollars" {Jul 29th, 2010 Sydney Morning Herald speaking about Coalition's aged care policy}

"I certainly get women, but obviously I've got some marketing to do." {Jul 27th, 2010 swissinfo.ch}

"Ladies and gentlemen, my life is full of strong women. I have a wife, Margie, who is an independently minded career woman. I have three sisters. I have three powerful young women - they are my daughters...."{Jul 24th, 2010 Sydney Morning Herald}

"The immigration program should focus on immigrants who will make a contribution to our country and who are likely to be proud of their new nationality."{Jul 24th, 2010 Sydney Morning Herald}

“We'll stop the boats.” {Jul 20th, 2010 http://www.tonyabbott.com.au/}

"I say that interest rates will always be lower under a coalition government because spending will always be less under a coalition government." {Jul 19th, 2010 Sydney Morning Herald}

"I can't give an absolute guarantee about every single aspect of workplace relations. Obviously I can't say that there will never ever ever for 100 or 1000 years time be any change..." {Jul 18th, 2010 NEWS.com.au}

"We are ready to govern." {Jul 16th, 2010 Vancouver Sun}

"Don't forget that I'm a 52-year-old bloke from a fairly traditional background." {Jul 5th, 2010 Melbourne Community Voice}

"I probably feel a bit threatened" {March 8th, 2010 news.com.au reply when asked about his view of homosexuality}

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has confirmed that the Coalition is considering a scheme which could deny the dole to people under 30. {April 21st, 2010 ABC News}

"it is the greatest gift that you can give someone, the ultimate gift of giving and don’t give it to someone lightly, that is what I would say.” {Jan 27th, 2020 Australian Women's Weekly on the subject of virginity}

''Many pensioners are doing it tough, but $35 a week increase is an enormous hit on the revenue. We're talking here about possibly $6 billion a year. The economic circumstances of Australia are much different now than they were 12 months ago.'' {Feb 19th, 2009 ABC "PM"}

"religious faith is not some kind of contaminant to be driven out of our public life" {Feb 15th, 2006 House of Representatives in Open Australia}

''Mr. Speaker, we have a bizarre double standard in this country where someone who kills a pregnant woman's baby is guilty of murder but a woman who aborts an unborn baby is simply exercising choice'' {Feb 15th, 2006 House of Representativesin Open Australia}

Oops, fly's undone!

Came back from fishing to find that one of my drafts has sneaked its way into today's posts.
Now removed. Sorry all!

Incontinent Victorians and other southerners brown off one Northern Rivers cane farmer

From The Daily Examiner letters to the editor on 27 July 2010:

Browned off

IF you'll excuse my language, I write to say that I am sick of the s**t and the p*ss. No, I don't refer to the election.
I refer to the travellers through our region - almost exclusively Victorians in my observation - who think it reasonable to come onto my property to take a pee and a poop. I am sick of the toilet paper along the side of the road, the disposable nappies and the doggie doo.
I am sick of people pulling onto a cane pad 150 metres off the highway, down a gravel country road, hidden behind large cane, within sight of a single farmhouse, without a public notice anywhere evident, who think it is reasonable to say: "Oh, we didn't realise this was private property."
Apparently you and your dogs can take a crap on any piece of public property in Victoria.
Ferry Park, Maclean, is five minutes one way from my place and within half-an-hour drive in the other direction you will have come through Grafton, South Grafton, Ulmarra, Brushgrove and Tyndale village.
I believe there is a website now which lists public conveniences all over the country.
Is there an epidemic of incontinence from Victoria?
Then of course there are the decent people who call in to ask if they might have a closer look at a piece of sugar cane - mostly southern New South Welshmen,South Australians and Tasmanians.
Happy to oblige and put on a bit of an act with the old fashioned cane knife.
I get four or five a year, but I imagine there are more who just pull up somewhere out of sight and steal a bit.
Because, yes, it is theft, and it is trespass, and it is public indecency.
My front paddock is no more open to public utility than their balcony or driveway at home - unless it could be considered an invitation, a mutual exchange of convenience when next we travel south - is the garden state facing a compost shortage?
So I have started a log, if you'll again pardon the pun, of the rego numbers of the dumpers and slashers, the overnighters and the light-fingered.

JAMES MOLONEY
Tyndale