In light of recent events
Who’s preferencing whom?September 17, 2012
Monthly Wire
A Note on the Shifting Polls
The latest Newspoll has Labor and the Coalition at 50–50 for the two-party-preferred vote.
By contrast the AC Nielsen poll has the two parties at 47–53.
Which poll is right?
In 2011, in Quarterly Essay 41, George Megalogenis addressed this question:
“There was a comical moment in the middle of [the 2010 election] campaign when the three competing published polls offered three different results. The Nielsen survey found the Coalition in front 52–48, Newspoll said it was 50–50 and Essential Research 54–46 Labor’s way.”
What to do? One option is to choose your preferred reality. The other?
“I thought then, and I am convinced now, that too much is being invested in these things – by the politician, the adviser, the journalist and even the audience.
I figure if I delete the paragraph that contains the phrase “Newspoll showed,” I’ll have to search beyond my comfort zone for a different way of looking at policy and politics.”
Ghost notes: Simon Tedeschi’s ‘Fugitive’
A virtuoso memoir of music and trauma, and his experiences as a child prodigy, from the acclaimed Australian pianist
The quip and the dead: Steve Toltz’s ‘Here Goes Nothing’
A bleakly satirical look at death and the afterlife from the wisecracking author of ‘A Fraction of the Whole’
Election special: Who should you vote for?
Undecided about who to vote for in the upcoming federal election? Take our quiz to find out your least-worst option!Election special: Who should you vote for?
Undecided about who to vote for in the upcoming federal election? Take our quiz to find out your least-worst option!
Remembrance or forgetting?
The Australian War Memorial and the Great Australian Silence
Property damage
What will it take for Australia to fix the affordable housing crisis?
Present indicative: Daniel Johns’ ‘FutureNever’
The former Silverchair frontman’s second solo album lacks cohesion, but affords him space to excavate his past
