Today’s Essential Report still has Labor trailing on the 2PP vote, 49-51, despite a slight drop in the Coalition’s primary vote and a lift in the Greens’ vote. Labor is on 39%, the Coalition on 45% and the Greens on 10%, up from 8% last week.
Last week Essential asked voters about foreign affairs, the banks and same-s-x marriage. There is strong support across party lines for more banking competition — 68% want to see more competition and only 21% think there’s enough now. And voters trust Joe Hockey and the Coalition more in handling bank issues than Wayne Swan and Labor — 38-33%.
Asked about the importance of having close relationships with a number of countries, 90% of voters thought a close relationship with the US and New Zealand was very important or quite important, 87% thought a close relationship with the UK was important (although fewer thought it “very important”), and 89% of voters thought a close relationship with China was important. Then comes Japan (83%), Indonesia (78%), India (69%), Germany and South Africa.
Asked about which relationships we should be strengthening, China was most frequently considered the country we should be getting closer to — 30% of those polled thought we should be seeking a closer relationship with China, 9% thought we should be trying to put some distance between ourselves and Beijing. Only 20% wanted a closer relationship with the US, and 11% wanted us to have a less close relationship.
The UK was also on 20%; 29% wanted a closer relationship with New Zealand (rather hard short of actual union), and 23% nominated Indonesia, although Indonesia scored highest as the country we wanted a less close relationship with, at 15%. The Japanese also scored higher than the Americans and the Brits (21%), as did the Indians (22%), although India was second highest when it came to having a less close relationship.
60% of voters thought the influence of the US was becoming a little or a lot weaker, a view more strongly felt by Greens and Coalition voters than by Labor voters.
On gay marriage, 53% of voters believe people of the same s-x should be allowed to marry, compared to 36% who oppose it. Greens and Labor voters are the strongest supporters, but even conservative voters are divided – 45% of Liberal voters back gay marriage and 45% oppose it.
Trust Joe more? Can you say populist?
Meski – Yeah its no shock, People hate banks Joe tells them what they want to hear, people “trust” Joe. Absolutely nothing to do with the soundness of his plan.
I woundn’t trust Joe with a cake let alone the banks.
You are fooling yourselves. Australia’s military and intelligence systems are so deeply embedded into the Anglo American Empire, which includes Canada, NZ and dare I say it Israel, we can never escape. But I have to say, I get so embarrassed every time I see our lap dog politicians down on all fours at the site of an American politician moving towards them.
I cannot see a way out of this. The idea that somehow we could become an independent third party is a pipe dream. Even if we decided today to become the “Switzerland of the South”, we could not disentangle ourselves from the US imperial machine and its central banking warfare control system inside of 20 years. And that is assuming they would let us, which I seriously doubt.
Nope, we are stuck in the middle with no way out. And, although we can deal with the Chinese, I cannot see us being in any more than a tethered go-between. Besides, we don’t even own our own country any more and if those scalawag state governments continue to sell out the last of our sovereign resources – water and energy to the carpetbaggers, in 20-50 years, we will be nothing more than renters in this land now called Australia but by then Australasia.
Then for the first time, we will truly understand how the indigenous inhabitants of this land have felt for the last 200 years.
[29% wanted a closer relationship with New Zealand (rather hard short of actual union)]
How about military annexation? As a bonus, that might attract a US response, and please the 11% who want some “me time” from the Americans.