REJIGGING THE MEDIA POLLS- HOW TO PUSH POLL AGAINST THE VOICE

Saturday's by-election following the retirement of Stuart Robert, the last Minister for the Robodebt fiasco, will offer the first evidence of the extent that media-managed pollsters have given up giving a voice to Australian households.

Opposition Leader Dutton says voters in a Queensland byelection this weekend are focused on the cost of living pain, not looking back at the robo-debt royal commission’s bruising findings against the Coalition.

Fadden voters are generally optimistic about the future and half of them are likely to re-elect a Coalition candidate to maintain their sense of personal and national security. More than half of these electors are more concerned with keeping the cost of living down and more than half are likely to vote down The Voice.

Albanese's minders expect that the result will be used to show that electors are about to sink The Voice in favour of legislative changes proposed by the Coalition. They believe that this will be different from Eden Monaro and Aston as this is a Queensland core conservative seat and voters will be more concerned with the value of their properties than the proprieties of politicians.

There has been a curious collusion of media-manipulated polls to avoid providing any accurate information about their efforts to provide any information on what the good folk of Fadden feel about being forced to the only poll that counts by Robert's resignation before the release of the report from the Robodebt Royal Commission.

As a case in point ACM which publishes the Canberra Times and 14 daily newspapers that service regional hubs in News South Wales reports that only 38 per cent support the Voice while 55 per cent will back the No vote. A further seven per cent are undecided and 72 per cent of the respondents are reported to feel that the Voice to Parliament has not been explained thoroughly enough.

It drops further in the regions, given some of those polled belong to the regional audience panel Crackerjack. The Yes vote slipped further to 35 per cent, while those against enshrining the Voice into the Constitution increased to 57 percent,

The media-manipulated pollsters give out margins for error in the national sample but refrain from releasing any information on the number of households visited in Fadden, how many refused to answer surveys and how they manipulate focus groups and panels to make up their efforts to show that support for the Government is fading.

The Essential Poll has just changed its methodology since the June poll which found 60% in favour and 40% opposed to the voice, offering respondents the “unsure” option to make certain people who have yet to form a view are accurately reflected in the report.

Like all of the media-manipulated polls, it also does not provide any information on the number of indigenous respondents it approached who live beyond the urban fringe. We get no information on why it is now push-polling a decline in support for The Voice by changing its methods to match the Murdoch media attack dogs - not even correctly presenting the wording of the Referendum question.

So, for the record, let us explore the reported decline in support for the Referendum according to the Essential Poll. Support for the Indigenous voice has dipped in the Guardian's reported results although more Australians intend to vote yes than no even once undecided voters are removed.

The latest Essential poll of 1,125 voters found 47% of respondents in favour of the constitutional change, 43% opposed and 10% who said they were unsure.

For the record, it should be stressed that Essential's Peter Lewis appears on The Drum as an active advocate for better consideration of the Yes case but respondents were told “There will be a referendum held later this year on whether a voice to parliament for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be enshrined in the constitution”, then provided the wording of the proposed question before asking, “Do you approve this proposed alteration?”

Queenslanders supported the no side by 50% to 42% for yes, with a further 8% unsure. The poll found the weakest demographics for the yes side were over-55s, just 34% of whom plan to vote yes, and Coalition voters (33% for yes). This poll also found the yes vote had big leads in South Australia (49% yes to 38% no) and Victoria (48% yes and 39% no) and narrow leads in Western Australia (49% yes to 47% no) and New South Wales (45% yes to 44% no).

The Essential poll found Australians had relatively low civic engagement. Less than half (44%) said they feel connected with people in their neighbourhood. On Sunday the Insiders will be able to report the direction for the future of Fadden, and the nation, as the only truly independent national survey conducted by the electoral commission.