| Ongoing Report Wednesday (25 Sep) |
| Sunday, 07 October 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||
Page 1 of 8 Update 1:50pm:
Just briefly - I may have been incorrect in saying that the Therese Rein story this morning originated in The Age. The Australian also ran a piece - Rein Faces New Union Claims - this morning. However, it seems that this story is at least somewhat over-exaggerated. According to a story on the ABC website , the UK unions deny having any issue with Therese Rein's company and that their qualms lie with the UK government taking the privatisation route. Specifically, Martin John from the British Public and Commercial Services Union says: "I don't think we have any specific concerns about WorkDirections UK... We are very concerned about the views of some in this government in this country that they would like to follow an Australian model and contract out unemployment services... [But] we haven't got a particular problem with this company as against any others." This then begs the question - how did this become headline news? Questions need to be asked to the media responsible for printing this story without checking their facts. The bias of The Australian comes into question time and time again. In an editorial , the Australian also criticised the increasing objective analysis by many on the polls with these words "The rise of the Galaxy Poll and Fairfax newspapers' attempt to become competitive against Newspoll with its AC Neilson survey have produced a continuous stream of numbers and percentages for all to analyse. This has allowed the media to indulge in the reporting of politics as if it were a sporting match.". Furthermore they say that "We at The Australian have been innundated with complaints from Howard-haters when we have not splashed with every poll result showing a commanding lead to Labor. Howard-haters? Hardly words befitting the country's only national paper. Smells like bias to me.
Update 11:30am: The Australian is reporting that a WA state Newspoll shows "growing numbers of swinging voters intending to back John Howard". This poll was taken over the July - September quarter and the number of voters interviewed is put at 851. The complete WA State Newspoll figures can be found here . Just briefly on the numbers - they show a 4 point improval for the Coalition, at the expense of the minor parties. At the same time, the preferred premier result puts Carpenter in front 59-14. I seem to remember much from the Australian on how the preferred prime minister result is very important in the Federal poll. I wonder if they hold the same opinion for the states. Turning back to the Federal implications, considering that this is a state Newspoll, I don't see how The Australian can justifiably claim that there is much good news in this for Howard. Australians have shown time and time again that they are perfectly capable of differentiating between their state and federal vote. It appears to me that this manner of reporting the state Newspoll is designed to prop up the leaked internal Crosby-Textor polling which showed Labor's Federal primary vote "stagnant at 40 percent" - or, looking at it another way - 5.25% higher than their 2004 result. On a 2pp basis, it puts Labor at 51-49 - that's 5.4% above their 2004 result. Funny, couldn't have discerned that from the leading text of that article - "JOHN Howard's vote in the west remains rock solid, with internal Liberal Party polling showing the Coalition would have held all of its 10 West Australian seats and snatched Labor-held Cowan if an election had taken place two weeks ago.".
Published Earlier: There's a storm-a-brewing. The Age is running a story on Therese Rein. Looks like her business dealings are coming under scrutiny once more. This time for dealing in contracts for welfare-to-work recipients in the U.K. that has "infuriated charities and unions, who say the contracts fail to guarantee union access or generous civil service entitlements for staff". Let's see where this goes - if anywhere. No doubt it'll get a good run in the media today. In the News Corp stables, the tabloids don't look like they're running much in the way of political stories today as far as the headlines go. There are a couple of State politics stories - Bligh on the equine Industry relief and a story on how Iemma will start a union war. Just on that second story - I wonder how the staff at the Tele can justify their lines on Labor. On the one hand a Labor government will deliver massive amounts of union power, but on the other - one of the Labor premiers is preparing for war with these same unions. The logic is baffling. There's an article in The Australian by Sol Lebovic, the former head of Newspoll, suggesting there has been a growth in the proportion of swing voters in Australia. I wonder if it's possible that these voters simply have grown weary of a Liberal government that has been in place for 11 years. Who'd have thought? More later. Views: 959
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