The Australian Polling Council is an association of
polling firms established to promote and maintain professional standards in opinion polling. Firms that join must disclose their public polls' full question wordings and preambles, sample sizes, and how responses were collected and weighted.
Following the
2019 federal election, the Australian polling industry suffered major damage to its reputation because of polls' failure to predict the Coalition's victory. In an attempt to revive the industry's reputation,
YouGov
YouGov plc is a international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm headquartered in the UK with operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
History
2000–2010
Stephan Shakespeare and Nadhim ...
,
Essential and
uComms, three major polling firms, announced in April 2020 they intended to form an industry body modelled on the
British Polling Council
The British Polling Council (BPC) is an association of market research companies whose opinion polls are regularly published or broadcast in media in the United Kingdom. The current President is Jane Green.
The BPC was established in 2004, ...
and the
National Council for Published Polls in the US. By October 2020, when the APC was formally established,
Ipsos
Ipsos Group S.A. (; derived from the Latin expression, ) is a multinational market research and consulting firm with headquarters in Paris, France. The company was founded in 1975 by Didier Truchot, Chairman of the company, and has been publ ...
, Lonergan Research, JWS Research, and Telereach joined as founding members. Other firms to have since joined include 89 Degrees East,
The Australia Institute, Pyxis Polling & Insights, Redbridge and SEC Newgate.
Not every major Australian polling firm is an APC member.
Resolve Strategic, which polls for the major newspapers ''
The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'' and ''
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...
'', is a prominent absence from the council's membership. Jim Reed, its founder, has cited the need to protect
trade secret
A trade secret is a form of intellectual property (IP) comprising confidential information that is not generally known or readily ascertainable, derives economic value from its secrecy, and is protected by reasonable efforts to maintain its conf ...
s and his belief some APC members are "
beyond the pale" as reasons for Resolve's decision not to join the association.
is another polling firm whose absence has been explicitly noted.
References
External links
*{{Official website, australianpollingcouncil.com
Code of Conduct– the rules on polling APC members must follow
Australian companies established in 2020
Opinion polling in Australia