http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/ross-neilson/ Ross is a former political advisor to ministers in the NSW Labor Government and CEO of Auspoll. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/osama-a-victim-of-aggression-youre-kidding-right/ What a strange mob we’ve become, we in the ‘Western world’. On holidays in Europe the past few weeks I found I myself with a few days to fill in and began to watch a bit too much Western TV coverage of the biggest story in roughly nine and a half years - the death of bin Laden. It got me down more with each passing hour. If the USA and its President thought to earn the world’s gratitude and praise for this astonishing operation, they must have been scratching their heads. Let’s see, the cave dwelling, messianic mass murderer and his animal cronies declared war on America (and the rest of us in the ‘West’  while they were at it).  They did it formally, with an announcement on TV - and a press release for all I know. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Ross Neilson) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/osama-a-victim-of-aggression-youre-kidding-right/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/osama-a-victim-of-aggression-youre-kidding-right/#item5916 Tue, 24 May 2011 19:50:18 +0000 Ross Neilson | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/men-vs.-women-its-a-nuclear-power-thing/ Australian women hate nuclear power. Men quite like it, but women would rather go back to candles. This is the startling finding of Auspoll’s latest research, a poll of 1,500 Australians’ attitudes to the sticky problem of how we should generate the energy to run our homes, industries and, well, everything. Not so long ago we never thought much about energy - flick a switch and there it is. We hardly knew nor cared how it was generated, how it got to our kitchens or what fuel ran the generator. It was enough that the lights came on. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Ross Neilson) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/men-vs.-women-its-a-nuclear-power-thing/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/men-vs.-women-its-a-nuclear-power-thing/#item4740 Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:55:29 +0000 Ross Neilson | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/most-people-prefer-planes-when-bits-dont-fall-off/ By now there should be a persistent warning light flashing in the cockpit of the good ship Qantas. It’s indicating that a large mass of brand confidence among the Australian public is smouldering strongly, emitting smoke and may be about to drop off the starboard wing into the sea. It used to be welded on but there’s definitely a crack appearing. This week at Auspoll we thought it would be fascinating to test whether the recent run of technical problems which have plagued the Flying Kangaroo have made any tangible dent in our perception of the airline’s hitherto ‘safe as houses’ image. And it set the red light flashing. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Ross Neilson) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/most-people-prefer-planes-when-bits-dont-fall-off/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/most-people-prefer-planes-when-bits-dont-fall-off/#item4518 Sat, 20 Nov 2010 19:55:02 +0000 Ross Neilson | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/its-official-we-really-really-really-hate-the-banks/ Loathe as I am to use a dirty four letter word a nice family-minded website, here goes ... Bank. To many observers our major banks appear to be engaged in a kind of cruel sport. The rules are obscure but it seems to involve repeated, heavy crash tackles on ordinary people – people with savings accounts, credit cards, home loans, that type of thing. Also kids, debts, bills and other worries. They’re commonly known as bank customers. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Ross Neilson) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/its-official-we-really-really-really-hate-the-banks/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/its-official-we-really-really-really-hate-the-banks/#item4412 Sat, 06 Nov 2010 19:55:54 +0000 Ross Neilson | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/most-think-our-leaders-have-it-about-right-on-afghanistan/ When should Australia wage war? Has anyone asked you? Have you given it much thought or is that a job best left to the government? Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that twenty one Australian men lie dead, lost on the battlefields of Afganistan. Each of them is easy to admire - young, supremely fit, highly trained, brave soldiers. It’s pretty clear they all possessed courage and commitment to their task, their training and their mates most of us would struggle to emulate. They all have families and friends - even more tragically, a number of them have young children who will never see or know their dads. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Ross Neilson) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/most-think-our-leaders-have-it-about-right-on-afghanistan/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/most-think-our-leaders-have-it-about-right-on-afghanistan/#item4314 Sat, 23 Oct 2010 23:00:06 +0000 Ross Neilson | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/time-for-sunset-on-the-empire-games/ In writing about public opinion as measured by our Auspoll research, I try only to describe the findings, discuss what they may mean socially and politically, add any insights I can. My own opinions have no business here. This week I’m making an exception because there’s an elephant in the room, he’s getting on my wick with his noisy trumpeting of confected national pride and he’s wearing a swag of medals round his neck as though they mean something. I refer of course to the glorified Schools District Gymkhana known as the Commonwealth Games, formerly the Empire Games, before that, even more accurately, the British Empire Games. This one is best because the whole charade ceased being worth organising, watching or taking part in when the old Empire slipped into history – WWII at the most flattering estimate. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Ross Neilson) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/time-for-sunset-on-the-empire-games/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/time-for-sunset-on-the-empire-games/#item4210 Sat, 09 Oct 2010 20:00:37 +0000 Ross Neilson | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-issues-that-will-not-die-76-support-for-euthanasia/ We all have to pay tax. And then we have to die. These two fundamentals are well understood by most Australians - that’s what I surmise from our latest Auspoll. Somewhat astonishingly, to me anyway, a massive 76 per cent of Australians we asked this week said people with terminal illnesses should be allowed to choose euthanasia without breaking the law. 76 per cent is an extraordinary figure. It’s hard to get that for a tax cut. We thought we would find a modest majority on this question, but backing from four out of five Australians for the right to choose the timing and manner of our inevitable exit is very emphatic. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Ross Neilson) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-issues-that-will-not-die-76-support-for-euthanasia/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-issues-that-will-not-die-76-support-for-euthanasia/#item4116 Sat, 25 Sep 2010 20:00:20 +0000 Ross Neilson | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/sorry-officer-but-im-drinking-for-australia/ That’s it. We’ve arrived at what is officially termed the Dizzy Limit. NSW Police, warming to their recent self-appointment as a freelance social policy think tank, trustee of public morality and holy rolling temperance society, have announced that Australia Day should be as dry as the Nullarbor Plain. Starting now. They have reasonable cause. Shockingly, some people treat such occasions as an opportunity to get on the squirt and a small minority of those consequently get stupid and some proportion of those play up and a fraction of those become violent and commit felonies. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Ross Neilson) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/sorry-officer-but-im-drinking-for-australia/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/sorry-officer-but-im-drinking-for-australia/#item2161 Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:55:15 +0000 Ross Neilson | Author bios | The Punch