Climate 200 has been accused of using a telephone poll in a key Liberal-held seat in Sydney to spread campaign messages about independent candidates and remind voters of other candidates’ issues.
The New South Wales Liberal party’s director, Chris Stone, on Friday wrote to the state’s electoral commission to complain about a poll in the North Shore electorate that had been arranged by the teal political-funding outfit.
Stone argued the calls were a push poll – an opinion poll designed to sway voters with loaded questions – and could be in breach of the Electoral Act that bans robocalls that contain “electoral matter” without a declaration of who was behind them.
Climate 200 has defended the “widely used” polling technique as a way for them to test messages and how they impact someone’s voting intention.
The independent North Shore candidate Helen Conway, who is hoping to unseat Liberal’s Felicity Wilson next Saturday, said she had not been aware of the nature of the polling and had not sanctioned it.
“Climate 200 doesn’t liaise with us in that respect,” she said.
“We don’t poll. We can’t afford to poll. I have not seen any of the material. The first time I heard those questions was when you articulated them to me.”
The poll contained information about Wilson, portrayed negatively, and a list of Conway’s credentials and key campaign policies presented favourably.
Conway said her campaign was being run “at a high integrity level”.
“We have tried very hard not to talk about personality but actually talk about policy,” she said.
She said her campaign had also not sanctioned negative flyers about her Liberal opponent that were distributed by Climate 200 and her volunteers “hate this stuff”.
The election and polling analyst Kevin Bonham said the calls could be considered a message-testing poll, but believed the script did contain electoral material.
“It is polling, but it’s testing messages that might also have the effect of spreading a view about a candidate,” he said.
“It contains statements that would influence the vote of an elector … [but] I couldn’t say for sure whether it was covered [by the Electoral Act],” he said.
Stewart Jackson, a senior lecturer in politics at the University of Sydney, said Climate 200 was “sailing as close to the wind as they possibly can” with an “extraordinarily biased” poll and leafletting strategy.
“If you then ask that sort of stuff then you’re actually attempting to influence the way people think about a candidate – that’s campaigning,” he said.
The senior NSW Liberal Natalie Ward said the strategy undermined the claim of the teal machine that it represented a different sort of politics.
“This behaviour makes a complete mockery of Climate 200 teal independents’ claims that they stand for integrity and positive politics,” she said.
On Friday, Stone argued the calls were in breach of section 187a of the Electoral Act because they contained “electoral matter”.
“This is a clear example of push-polling as these statements are designed to influence a respondent’s voting intention prior to asking who they would vote for,” he said in a letter to the state’s electoral commissioner.
Eric Goddard, pollster at Community Engagement, argued that because of the independent candidates’ lack of name recognition at the time of polling, context while taking the temperature of voters was important.
“Giving voters background information about candidates helps gauge the potential of a candidate by simulating conditions where their name, credentials and priorities are well known, as will be the case if their campaigns are successful,” he said.
A Climate 200 spokesperson said it was a “widely used and accepted polling technique” and confirmed Conway’s camp was not involved.
Ahead of the election, Climate 200 has also engaged Aussie band Lime Cordiale to educate young voters about the importance of preferential voting via social media videos, warning that failing to do so was like throwing a vote in the bin.
“Authentic, high-profile endorsements of independent candidates helps boost their chances of success,” the Climate 200 spokesperson said.
“Lime Cordiale appeared in some fun videos at the federal election and we’re stoked they were keen to get involved in this campaign.”
