The Resolve Political Monitor takes an approach similar to political parties in their private research.Credit:
Our readers told us in the past they did not appreciate the “horse race” nature of the way we reported the results of TPP questions and they wanted something deeper.
It wasn’t just that all the major polls,including the one published by the Herald andThe Age,predicted a TPP win for Labor at the last election,although that was clearly a factor in our new approach. Years of leadership contenders using polling as a justification for knifing incumbent prime ministers led,understandably,to the perception the polling was distorting politics,not just examining it.
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I havewritten before about how we needed to consider the impact this “horse race” approach had on our reporting during the last federal election.
Chief political correspondent David Crowe,political editor Peter Hartcher and I have had countless conversations with people in the political research sphere since then and we all agreed we too wanted something deeper - why are voters responding the way they are - which is how we formulated this new plan with RPM.
RPM is conducted by Resolve Strategic,a firm run by Jim Reed,who has more than two decades of experience doing research for businesses and political parties.
“While we do collect people’s full preferences in a numbered ballot paper,it is their first choice that is the most important and reliable indicator of who truly likes you and wants you to govern,” says Reed.