First published on The Drum: 22/02/2011
If there is any silver lining from the mining industry’s 20,800 per cent return on investment for knocking over the Rudd Government’s Resource Rent Tax, it’s that the punters are beginning to wise up.
As interest groups around the nation hone their scare campaigns in expectation of a price on carbon, this week’s Essential Report suggests the mining industry has dealt themselves out of any credible role in the debate.
With record profits the size of many sovereign nation’s GDPs and ongoing plans to extract even more of the national wealth, a majority of the public say they support forcing the mining industry to pay a greater share of their profits in tax.
Q: Would you approve or disapprove of higher taxes on the profits of large mining companies?
| Total | Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
|
| Total approve | 56% | 75% | 36% | 83% |
| Total disapprove | 27% | 13% | 49% | 6% |
| Strongly approve | 21% | 32% | 6% | 46% |
| Approve | 35% | 43% | 30% | 37% |
| Disapprove | 20% | 11% | 35% | 4% |
| Strongly disapprove | 7% | 2% | 14% | 2% |
| Don’t know | 17% | 13% | 15% | 11% |
15
Memo Tony: Shit’s happening
First published on The Drum: 15/02/2011
That philosopher to the common-folk, Tony Abbott, is this week dealing with his own slings and arrows as he enters the political twilight zone of disapproval from which some never return.
Despite ongoing difficulties within the Labor Government, Abbott is showing no signs of establishing himself as anything more than an attack dog whose fortunes rise when he runs negative on issues that happen to also be currently unpopular with the public.
This leaves him exposed when he has a bad week, such as the past one when he split his front bench by attempting to come up with a way of paying for flood reconstruction by cutting back anti-terrorism programs before nearly jobbing a TV reporter.
As this week’s Essential Report shows the response has been a sharp rise in disapproval to 46 per cent and drop-off in approvals to 37 per cent. To put this into perspective, the ALP moved on Kevin Rudd when his disapproval rating hit 47 per cent, with 41 per cent approval.
Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job Tony Abbott is doing as Opposition Leader?
| 18 Jan | 29 Mar | 5 Jul | 16 Aug | 20 Sep | 18 Oct | 22 Nov | 20 Dec | 17 Jan 2011 | 14 Feb 2011 | |
| Total approve | 37% | 33% | 37% | 41% | 43% | 39% | 40% | 39% | 42% | 38% |
| Total disapprove | 37% | 50% | 47% | 44% | 37% | 45% | 40% | 39% | 37% | 46% |
| Strongly approve | 5% | 8% | 8% | 9% | 12% | 8% | 6% | 9% | 7% | 8% |
| Approve | 32% | 25% | 29% | 32% | 31% | 31% | 34% | 30% | 35% | 30% |
| Disapprove | 20% | 28% | 23% | 22% | 21% | 22% | 22% | 21% | 22% | 24% |
| Strongly disapprove | 17% | 22% | 24% | 22% | 16% | 23% | 18% | 18% | 15% | 22% |
| Don’t know | 26% | 16% | 16% | 15% | 19% | 17% | 19% | 22% | 20% | 16% |
First published on The Drum: 08/02/2011
When the floods have receded, the cyclone has blown, the bushfires have burned out and Sydneysiders can sleep again, one question will remain: what if the hippies are right?
Willingness to convince the public there is a link between extreme weather and climate change will go a long way towards determining whether the Prime Minister can meet her own KPI of securing a price on carbon.
Recent history shows that the public responds to the need for action on climate change when warnings are being reinforced by their own experiences and observations. It is no coincidence that support for action peaked in the middle of the last drought and fell away as weather patterns returned to something close to normal.
Now we have a summer from climate apocalypse central casting – but as this week’s Essential Report shows – climate change is barely on the radar.
First published on The Drum: 01/02/2011
The nation opened their hearts to Queensland as floods threatened communities and cities over summer, but now they are being asked to open their wallets it appears to be a very different story.
After more than two decades of being conditioned to expect prosperity without sacrifice, Australians seem in no mood to kick the can when it comes to rebuilding Queensland’s infrastructure.
In the first public polling of attitudes towards the proposed floods levy, Essential Research has found majority opposition to the modest impost proposed by the Prime Minister.
Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the Government introducing a one-off levy on taxpayers to pay for damage caused by the recent floods?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Qld | NSW | Vic | Other states | |
| Total approve | 39% | 63% | 23% | 48% | 46% | 35% | 37% | 43% |
| Total disapprove | 53% | 31% | 73% | 41% | 46% | 57% | 56% | 51% |
| Strongly approve | 12% | 24% | 3% | 19% | 11% | 10% | 12% | 14% |
| Approve | 27% | 39% | 20% | 29% | 35% | 25% | 25% | 27% |
| Disapprove | 24% | 20% | 28% | 21% | 21% | 25% | 27% | 22% |
| Strongly disapprove | 29% | 11% | 45% | 20% | 25% | 32% | 29% | 29% |
| Don’t know | 8% | 6% | 5% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 6% | 9% |
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