Parliament push for Premier’s secret polling to be revealed unsuccessful

A push for Annastacia Palaszczuk’s secret, taxpayer-funded polling to be made public took a bizarre twist overnight, when scrutiny turned to self praise.

Secret taxpayer-funded polling to guide Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s decision making before the next election won’t be released despite a push in parliament for the results to be revealed.

The state government has spent $393,000 for polling agency Ipsos to gauge the sentiments of Queenslanders every six weeks until the next election.

The polling contract was launched by Ms Palaszczuk on May 9, just a fortnight after polling in The Courier-Mail put Labor in an election-losing position.

Members of parliament on Wednesday night heard a motion which called on the Labor government “to immediately cease the taxpayer-funded Ipsos polling” and for Ms Palaszczuk to “immediately release to the public the full results received to date”.

It was not successful, with the government amending the vote to instead praise the government for its ability “to continue listening to Queenslanders”.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk came under fire yesterday over her secret, taxpayer-funded sentiment polling. Picture: Dan Peled

Opposition Integrity spokeswoman Fiona Simpson said the taxpayer-funded polling was being used to run Ms Palaszczuk’s re-election campaign.

“Executive government should not be the engine room for labor’s campaign machine,” she said.

There is simply no justification for this secret polling to continue to be locked away from public view.”

“It is an abuse of the public purse and it is an abuse of the public’s trust.”

Employment and Small Business Minister Di Farmer defended the government, arguing the almost $400,000 polling was being used to “deliver the best services” to Queenslanders.

She repeated Ms Palaszczuk’s declaration on Tuesday that polling was not uncommon for governments.

The Courier-Mail revealed Ms Palaszczuk would not commit to releasing the results of the taxpayer-funded “secret sentiment polling” despite it being reviewed by Cabinet.

From the first quarter of next year Cabinet documents will be released within 30 days under major reforms to be implemented following the Coaldrake Inquiry.

Ms Palaszczuk faced criticism during the Covid-19 pandemic for polling Queenslanders’ response to tough border closures and other decisions.