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14 August 2007
Haneef
Our online qualitative poll of 1471 voters taken late last week shows little benefit to either government or opposition from the Haneef affair.
While the sample, unlike recent quantitative polls published in the mainstream media, showed voters were underwhelmed by the Haneef affair, both the Government and the Opposition copped blame.
Our sample, which leans to the left, disapproved of the overall handling of the issue by 64% to 28%. This is similar to their two-party preferred voting patterns.
The graph shows some interesting contrasts.
As the government’s role was disapproved of by 67% and the minister’s by 66%, voters clearly identified them as the most responsible. However, they also received approval from 27% and 26% respectively.
While 51% disapproved of the Opposition’s role, only 18% approved, making the net effect very close.
The DPP emerged with most credit – 33% disapproved, while 26% approved – followed by the AFP – 53% disapproval, but with 28% approval.
As always the main purpose of our online qualitative polling is not to measure percentage support, but to understand motivations.
Key themes for Labor voters were that the government had acted politically, the evidence was weak, and that Haneef was denied natural justice.
Liberal voters were interested in “information” rather than evidence, and they tended to believe that the police had good information on which to hold Haneef. Concern about terrorism was another strong theme – it is seen as being different from other crime, justifying exceptional measures.
The key argument centred around concepts of guilt and innocence with around 10% mentioning both words together. Some insisted that terrorist suspects should be innocent until proven guilty, while others reversed the onus.
In some ways these themes are consistent with themes from previous elections. Those voting Liberal are focused on ends, while Labor voters are much more concerned about means.
Posted by Graham at 11:32 AM | Comments (17)