Galaxy Research and Essential Media Communications have thrown up some interesting qualitative results in the last few days in relation to perceptions of the ALP leadership change.
Before I get to that, I want to examine the AC Nielsen poll results from last month in relation to ALP voters responses on the question of preferred ALP leader.
AC Nielsen, preferred ALP leader, ALP voters 16th June: Julia Gillard 52%, Rudd 46%
Over the last three years, this sort of result was replicated month after month and many on the various social media platforms that discuss Australian politics used these sorts of results to suggest that Rudd wasn’t liked by ALP voters and it was all a Liberal Party/media conspiracy to destabilise Julia Gillard’s leadership.
On Sunday, Galaxy Research produced these results that suggest a very different narrative:
Q. “In your opinion did Labor make the right decision by rejecting Julia Gillard and endorsing Kevin Rudd?”
Total: Yes 57%, No 31%
ALP Voters: Yes 75%, No 17%,
Coalition Voters: Yes 50%, No 41%
Even more profound was Galaxy’s results for the actions of Bill Shorten who was one of the “faceless men” in the June 2010 leadership change:
Total: Yes 52%, No 30%
ALP Voters: Yes 75%, No 13%
Coalition Voters: Yes 40%, No 44%
Essential Media Communications from yesterday showed similar results however, they have breakdowns that show intensity of response. I find these results very interesting:
Q. Do you approve or disapprove of Kevin Rudd replacing Julia Gillard as leader of the Labor Party?
|
Total |
|
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
|
| Total approve |
55% |
77% |
40% |
48% |
|
| Total disapprove |
31% |
13% |
49% |
37% |
|
| Strongly approve |
24% |
45% |
12% |
8% |
|
| Approve |
31% |
32% |
28% |
40% |
|
| Disapprove |
15% |
8% |
22% |
23% |
|
| Strongly disapprove |
16% |
5% |
27% |
14% |
|
| Don’t know |
14% |
10% |
12% |
16% |
Of particular note is the strongly approved category in relation to ALP voters. If this leadership change was seen as a cynical manipulation of the political process, the intensities of response would not be so strong.
According to this Essential Media poll, 45% of ALP respondents strongly approved of last weeks events!
We aren’t talking about a mere passive approval of what happened which could easily fall off into neutrality and disapproval over the coming weeks and months. We’re talking about a very large group of ALP voters who are very satisfied with what happened. In order to change the perceptions of these voters, you’ve got to do A HELL OF A LOT of work as they’ve emotionally bought what has happened and are in strong approval of it.
It is also worth comparing the AC Nielsen polling above with the Galaxy Research and Essential Media polling from after the event because how people think they will respond to a potential event and how they will actually respond after that potential event has occurred are not mutually exclusive. Put simply: people are extremely poor judges of predicting how they will respond to potential and future events.
George Lakoff in his book “Don’t Think of an Elephant” has a great quote:
“To be accepted, the facts must fit people’s frames. If the facts don’t fit a frame, the frame stays and the facts bounce off”
If the Coalition attempt to try and play their game of “let’s all feel sorry for Julia because she was knifed by the faceless men and that evil Kevin Rudd” they will be paddling viciously upstream because first they have to deal with the fact that they will be contradicting the three year period they have spent deriding and destroying her leadership (to ordinary people, the events of last week were a consequence of this behaviour from the Coalition) and second they have to deal with the perception battle because people approved of what happened and in ALP voters case, a majority strongly approved of what happened (the emotional component).
The more they yell, shout and scream the sort of lines they have all parroted verbatim over the last three years, the more they will be building Kevin Rudd’s reputation, authority, credibility and approval from the community.
It’s not just the Liberal Party who have to deal with this uncomfortable reality. Author Kerry Anne-Walsh, whose book “The Stalking of Julia Gillard: How the media and Team Rudd contrived to bring down the Prime Minister” goes on sale today also will encounter this framing from people (that is of course if people actually bother to buy and read the book).
How this plays out with the emotional dynamic over the coming weeks and months should be fascinating.
Gordon's Thoughts 
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