Australian Polling Council

{{Short description|Australian association of polling firms}}

{{Infobox organization

| name = Australian Polling Council

| logo =

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| abbreviation = APC

| established = {{start date and age|2020|10|28}}

| type = Industry body

| purpose = Promoting and maintaining opinion polling standards

| leader_title = Chair

| leader_name = Chris Lonergan

| website = {{URL|australianpollingcouncil.com}}

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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.{{cite news |last1=Briggs |first1=Casey |title=With election 2022 nearly upon us, can we actually trust the opinion polls this time? |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-05/election-2022-can-we-trust-opinion-polls-again/100965412 |access-date=14 May 2023 |work=ABC News |date=5 April 2022}}

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.{{cite news |last1=Visontay |first1=Elias |title=Will Australia's opinion polls be more accurate in 2022 than at the last election? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/16/will-australias-opinion-polls-be-more-accurate-in-2022-than-at-the-last-election |access-date=14 May 2023 |work=The Guardian |date=16 May 2022}} In an attempt to revive the industry's reputation, YouGov, Essential and uComms, three major polling firms, announced in April 2020 they intended to form an industry body modelled on the British Polling Council and the National Council for Published Polls in the US.{{cite news |last1=Bowe |first1=William |title=It's as easy as APC |url=https://www.pollbludger.net/2020/04/23/its-as-easy-as-apc/ |access-date=14 May 2023 |work=The Poll Bludger |date=23 April 2020}} By October 2020, when the APC was formally established, Ipsos, Lonergan Research, JWS Research, and Telereach joined as founding members.{{cite news |last1=Ho |first1=Kim |title=Australia's Leading Pollsters Come Together to Launch the Australian Polling Council |url=https://au.yougov.com/news/2020/10/28/australias-leading-pollsters-come-together-launch-/ |access-date=14 May 2023 |work=YouGov |date=28 October 2020}} Other firms to have since joined include 89 Degrees East, The Australia Institute, Pyxis Polling & Insights, Redbridge and SEC Newgate.{{cite web |title=Members |url=https://www.australianpollingcouncil.com |publisher=Australian Polling Council |access-date=14 May 2023}}

Not every major Australian polling firm is an APC member. Resolve Strategic, which polls for the major newspapers The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, is a prominent absence from the council's membership. Jim Reed, its founder, has cited the need to protect trade secrets and his belief some APC members are "beyond the pale" as reasons for Resolve's decision not to join the association.{{cite news |last1=Goot |first1=Murray |title=The Resolve poll that resolves very little |url=https://insidestory.org.au/the-resolve-poll-that-resolves-very-little/ |access-date=14 May 2023 |work=Inside Story |date=5 July 2021}} Roy Morgan is another polling firm whose absence has been explicitly noted.