Inquiry Finds Australian Poll Standards 'Inadequate'

In Australia, trade body AMSRO has released an interim discussion paper relating to its inquiry into the performance of last year's pre-federal election opinion polls. The association says the inquiry has found disclosure standards relating to the polls to be 'inadequate'.

A year ago, AMSRO (the Association of Market & Social Research Organisations) announced it would be conducting a review of methods to discover why all polls called the outcome of Australia's 2019 election incorrectly. The AMSRO Polling Inquiry Panel, Chaired by Darren Pennay (pictured), founder of the Social Research Centre (SRC), was established last June, with an invitation for pollsters, media organisations and others who commission election and political polling to contribute.

Following the discussion paper's release, Pennay stated: 'It's our view that the current disclosure standards as they apply to publicly released election and other political polls in Australia are inadequate. Australian pollsters have less rigorous disclosure obligations than pollsters in the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand'. The discussion paper - released ahead of the inquiry's main report scheduled for October - recommends that a new and comprehensive minimum set of disclosure standards be adopted by the industry, and lists 23 such standards. These include some based on existing International Standard Organisation (ISO) and Australian Press Council (APC) requirements and guidelines, as well as new recommendations.

According to the panel, pollsters should provide, and publishers must make available the name of the research organisation undertaking the poll/survey and the name of the organisation providing the funding. The panel also recommends including the name of subcontractors used for fieldwork and/or providing the sample, the in-scope population, geographic scope for the poll, and description of the sampling frame and its coverage of the population, along with details about which language/s the poll was conducted in. Methods for recruiting respondents should also be included.

'The majority of polling companies in Australia remain unregulated and there are no mandated standards set by government or others' says Pennay. 'It is the view of the Inquiry Panel that this needs to be rectified to ensure the most transparent and accurate polling practices are adopted and to restore public faith in election and political polling. We now look forward to active participation and responses from the polling companies and other stakeholders'.

The Discussion Paper and further information on the AMSRO Polling Inquiry can be found at: www.amsro.com.au/amsro-polling-inquiry .