17 February 2003

HAVE YOUR SAY ON NSW ELECTION
NSW VOTERS' URGED TO REGISTER FOR NEW ONLINE RESEARCH PROJECT

What do voters really think of John Brogden? Is he too young to be Premier? Has Bob Carr done enough to be re-elected?

What are the key issues for voters and what issues will they change their vote on?

These are just some of the questions voters will be asked in the lead-up to this year's State election through a new online research project.

For the first time, the perceptions and attitudes of NSW voters' will be measured through an innovative project that will give the media and community access to the same research used by political parties on voters' moods.

The Online Focus Project will use the Internet and technologies such as chat rooms, discussion forums and surveys to research voters' true feelings, anxieties and frustrations through discrete online focus groups during the State election.

Voters wanting to participate in the project can register at: www.ozelections.com

Political parties spend tens of thousands of dollars on traditional focus groups to understand, shape and influence voters' attitudes.

The Online Focus Project will make it possible for the first time to track voting intentions, motivations and provide insights into voter behaviour, which have previously only been readily available to political leaders and campaign strategists.

A pilot project undertaken during the 2001 Federal election revealed a range of issues that mainstream polling missed or was not reported. These included:

• ALP leadership advertisements were missing the mark because voters actually preferred Costello to Howard or Crean;
• The ALP was leaking support from the left and right because of is stance on refugees;
• Tampa was much more significant in voters minds than the September 11 attacks;
• Labor's best argument for increasing its vote would have been that John Howard was going to win in a landslide; and
• The Democrats were losing ground to the Greens.

The Online Focus Project is recruiting voters now to participate in focus groups in the lead-up to, and during the election campaign. The results of the research will be regularly published throughout the campaign.

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Media enquiries: Tim Grau 0438 044 598 or Graham Young 0411 104 801

About OnLine Focus: The Online Focus project is being undertaken by On Line Opinion in partnership with public affairs firm Springboard Australia. On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit electronic journal owned by a number of institutions, including some Australian universities, that aims to provide a forum for public social and political debate about current Australian issues. It also aims to promote world's best practice in Australian use of the Internet to expand the boundaries and possibilities of our democratic system.