Tony Abbott’s popularity:

David Hand writes: Re. “Marr on Abbott: nine things you didn’t know about Tony” (Monday, item 1). I’ve been reflecting on the fear and loathing in response to Monday’s article on David Marr’s essay and the received wisdom that Tony Abbott is deeply unpopular with voters.

The preferred prime minister ratings are only one indicator about this but I have been struck by the commentary that does not recognise the unusual nature of Abbott’s performance as an opposition leader in the preferred prime minister poll. The following is a four-poll rolling average (to remove extremes and to get smoother out curves) of preferred PM since Newspoll started keeping records.

What this shows is that apart from a couple of short periods of difficulty for Howard in 1998 and 2001 and of course Kevin’s stellar popularity as opposition leader in 2007, you’ve got to go right back to Keating to find a prime minister struggling to score well in this aspect of polling.

Don’t be too persuaded by the frequent rhetoric of left-wing journos such as Marr and the river of abuse about Abbott that flows from any cabinet minister on any given day. Look at the numbers and make up your own mind.

Asylum seekers:

Les Heimann  writes: Re. “No advantage? Nobody yet knows what that means” (yesterday, item 1). Asylum seekers who arrive on Australia’s doorstep via leaky boats may well obtain a “time advantage” as against those who wait in crowded camps or likewise.

Isn’t this the underlying issue that rankles with most Australians? That people risk their lives and pay lots of money to obtain this advantage is simply beside the point — if any of us were in the same position and had the cash we would probably do the same.

Australia, like most other peaceful and prosperous countries, must deal with the millions of genuine asylum seekers worldwide and we can only properly manage this through a system that is humane, fair and orderly. To be fair we should stick to a “level playing field” approach.

Is there a queue? Of course there’s a queue. The world combined cannot process all the asylum seekers without there being a waiting period — it’s how we manage the waiting period and the people in the queue. Let’s not kid ourselves: it’s time this mess was put to rest by creating some order and certainty for all.