Yes, but how? Amanda Vanstone, The Age, also yesterday:

IN 2004 … the numbers of children of boat arrivals in detention centres was going down ... When the Howard government left office in 2007 there were none. Labor’s change in policy resulted in the boats flooding in and ... the numbers went from zero to well over 1000. In the face of the incredible increase, the silence from the Human Rights Commission was deafening. On the return of the Coalition to office in 2013, the boats again were stopped and the numbers of kids in detention declined rapidly — and yet with things clearly on the improve, the Human Rights Commission decided to have an inquiry. Asked about the decline in numbers under the incoming government ... Triggs noted that a 20 per cent decline was not a lot because “you are dealing with human beings” ... Given the apparent understanding that we are dealing with human beings, Triggs’ evidence about planning a report for the 10th anniversary of a previous report seemed embarrassing. It merely reinforced the notion that bureaucracies all too often focus on themselves rather than their duty.

Ipsos follows Newspoll back towards the government. Mark Kenny, Fairfax, yesterday:

VOTERS have thrown Tony Abbott a lifeline just as his internal opponents were shaping to dump him.

The Sydney Morning Herald political editor Peter Hartcher offers an idiosyncratic interpretation:

AS Australia’s collective expectation moves to a Turnbull prime ministership, Bill Shorten becomes a less attractive alternative. This explains the sharp fall in his popularity. Abbott made him popular by default; the prospect of Turnbull is making him less so.

As does Ipsos’ Jess Elgood, the SMH:

IT possibly indicates that the voters have already moved on from Mr ­Abbott. But they have not despaired of the Liberal Party.

Naturally these ideas appeal at the ABC. Radio National Breakfast’s Fran Kelly goes one step further talking to Mathias Cormann:

ONE interpretation of this poll is that voters are returning to the government, supporting the government because they … actually have already made up their minds that Tony Abbott’s time is up and Malcolm Turnbull will soon be prime minister. What do you think of that interpretation? Does that bolster the case for a change for a leadership switch sooner rather than later?

Anti-Semitism rises. Trends in Religious Restrictions and Hostilities, Pew Research Center, February 26:

IN recent years, there has been a marked increase in the number of countries where Jews were harassed.