Last week Newspoll reported a dramatic slump in support for the government. This week it was Nielsen's turn. Newspoll executives must feel vindicated as many in the political class had suggested their poll was a "rogue" one. The discontent with the PM has been there for a while, but is now readily visible.

A survey by TNS puts three Australian universities at the top of the list for Indian students looking to study overseas. This is strongly at odds with the media narrative here and on the sub-continent, which suggests that Australia is regarded as unsafe and racist.

The ANZ Job ads series showed slower trend growth in February, and was the slowest increase since September 2009.
"In trend terms, the monthly growth rate in total job ads decelerated to 2.3% in February which, while still firmly positive, was the slowest pace of growth since September 2009. Annual trend growth improved to the ‘less bad’ rate of -9.2% YoY, from -18.4% in January, and has now been improving each month since June 2009 (see table 1)."

The latest Roy Morgan survey shows no statistically significant change in support for any political party since the previous poll. If an election had been held the last weekend of February and the first weekend of March Labor would likely have won 55.5% of the vote.