There’s some good news for the Gillard government, in the wake of the release by Malcolm Turnbull’s copper-centric broadband plan by the Coalition last week. Today’s Essential Report shows it’s gone down badly with the public, with just 23% of voters preferring it over the government’s NBN plan. Fifty four per cent of voters prefer the NBN, including 31% of Liberal voters.
Younger voters were particularly underwhelmed with the Turnbull fibre-to-the-node vision, 61-15%. (However, the more important metric for the Coalition on broadband is far harder to measure: how many people will no longer be concerned about the Coalition’s intentions on broadband sufficient to vote against them on that basis.)
But that’s about where the good news ends for Labor. Julia Gillard’s personal approval ratings remain poor even as Labor’s vote recovers from its recent nadir, Essential shows. Labor’s primary vote has lifted back to 34%, up 2 points, a significant contrast with its performance in the wake of the non-spill in March when it threatened to go below 30%, while the Coalition dropped a point to 48%.
With the Greens on 9%, it means the Coalition leads on a 2PP basis 55-45%, just five months out from the election.
However, the Prime Minister’s personal approval rating edged downward, with approval dropping two points to 34% and disapproval remaining on 56%. Tony Abbott has remained steady on 37% approval and 52% disapproval, up a point. Abbott has also returned to the lead as preferred PM, 39-37% for the first time since August last year, compared to 37% each in March. Nearly a quarter of voters profess “Don’t Know” about their preferred PM.
The government’s plan to reduce tax concessions for superannuation payouts for high income earners has also fared poorly, with only 40% of voters supporting it and 46% of voters opposing it. While the result splits on partisan lines, interestingly Greens voters, stereotyped as raving Lefties, only support the cuts 47-39%. Interestingly though, voters with the greatest focus on super, over-55s, actually supported the cuts 48-42%.
And Julian Assange’s run for the Senate from asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London doesn’t appear to have excited voters. Exactly 50% of voters think Assange would either be unlikely to, or would not, make a positive contribution to federal Parliament, though Greens voters are more positively disposed to him than others, and Labor voters more positive than Liberal voters. But 43% of voters said they had only heard a little, or nothing at all, about Assange.
Since the release of the Coalition’s broadband policy on Tuesday it has become clear that the policy is designed to fail. Even if taken at face value it is clear that the plan will not be able to meet its targets. So why devise a policy destined to fail?
One simple answer is to keep the ‘free market’ free – free from regulation, free from anti-monopoly legislation and free from responsibility.
The policy itself is made redundant by the three separate reviews the Coalition is planning for the NBN – a strategic review, an ‘independent’ audit and a cost/benefit analysis. Having these codified into the policy ensures that no matter the promises made, the Coalition can build a case to limit or even cancel the rollout, or cancel it in line with its 2010 election policy, using its long-running austerity narrative.
@sortius on how and why the Coalition’s NBN policy is designed to fail
In Kieran Cummings, NBN, Telecommunications on April 12, 2013 at 4:19 PM
Technology experts such as Geoff Huston, chief scientist at the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, claim the Coalition’s plan would see internet capacity frozen, and require the network be rebuilt down the track in order to connect fibre to the home.
The Coalition claims that even over existing copper it could deliver up to 100Mbps in a second term, and the network could be upgraded to fibre-to-the-home in future.
But is this feasible, and who will pay? Networking experts derided the suggestion that Australia’s ageing and corroded copper could deliver anywhere near 100Mbps in practice. Telco engineer Mark Newton calls it ”faith-based network engineering”. In 2003 Telstra said its copper lines were ”five minutes to midnight”.
Tucker says the Coalition may be able to get 50Mbps out of the copper, and this was assuming it was not degraded, whereas Labor’s network would be upgradeable to 1Gbps and beyond.
”The Coalition is offering 5 per cent of Labor’s speed. But the cost of the Coalition’s network will be two-thirds of the cost of Labor’s network,” he says. ”It will be obsolete by the time it is completed.”
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/building-todays-tech-tomorrow-20130412-2hqt0.html#ixzz2QUwogE3f
My comment. When was the poll, who was polled, where was the poll, what time of day was the poll taken and even perhaps the age group. Also who audited the result. To much to ask perhaps?
What a Greched return for Malcolm’s investment?
Bernard, I seriously hope you are saying only 43% of those polled had little or no idea that Assange was running for a seat, not that they had little or no idea who Assange is – OMG!