Maryborough Highland Society employs gambling consultant to run ‘unbiased’ survey

By Andrew McKenna

A gambling consultant is managing a survey of Castlemaine residents on whether we want a new ‘community-based club’ in Castlemaine. The club will include 65 poker machines.

Dr Rohan Miller has engaged a data collection company to poll residents, and that information will be fed back to the Maryborough Highland Society (MHS).

Dr Miller has consulted to not-for-profit organisations in the hospitality and gambling sector. He was formerly head of research and planning at Aristocrat Technology Australia, a leading manufacturer of poker machines.

This morning he threatened Castlemaine Independent with legal action, insisting the survey was not biased.

All letter writers to CI, however, allege the poll is biased, and so does a further reader who contacted us by phone. (Dr Miller has a PhD and  also works at the faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Sydney and he assures us the poll is not biased.)

Earlier today we published a reader’s letter on the front page.

The letter alleged that staff at the data company agreed the survey was biased. The writer alleged that when challenged about bias, staff at the market research company “conceded that questions were loaded and biased”.

The writer alleges they said words to the effect that “most of our surveys are not like this, but we have to do our clients’ wishes”.

We published the letter in full this morning, and there are more on our letters page.

Senator Xenophon weighs in

Independent South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon today weighed into the issue.

“I am deeply concerned by reports from Castlemaine locals about this survey,” Senator Xenophon said.

“The questions, as reported, seem loaded and designed to manufacture the impression of support for more poker machines, when the community of Castlemaine has made it overwhelmingly clear that they do not want more poker machines.

“Given these reports, you would have to take any survey by the MHS may produce with a grain of salt.”

Keep them out

“If the Maryborough Highland Society really wants to benefit the Castlemaine Community, they would keep additional pokies out of town. This venue will not only bleed Castlemaine residents, but Castlemaine businesses as well.

“The questions appear to be a crude form of push polling.

“The people of Castlemaine must speak out if they receive phone calls asking similar questions.

“I would be deeply concerned if the polling was being conducted by someone who had been heavily involved with the gambling industry.

“If the MHS wants to prove there is nothing bogus about this survey, I would urge them to publicly release the full list of questions.”

Deleted paragraph

CI has now deleted the paragraph over which Dr Miller threatened us with legal action. He said the data survey company ‘categorically denied’ any conversation, other than the polling, took place between their staff and any interviewees in Castlemaine.

The truth has eluded someone here in this sorry business.

Let us know at CI if you are surveyed:

Curious tactics and demographics:

Three further people who read CI have let us know that the surveyors called them. Two of them are women, and the surveyors from Data Harvest declined to interview them as they wanted ‘a male over 18′.

The surveyors then called the home of the editor of CI, and spoke to his wife. They declined to interview her and asked for a male. ‘Amanda’ then interviewed the editor of CI. Yes, I can confirm what the letter writers are saying.

And they are explaining this sorry business better than us.

Read the archive of poker machine stories by clicking the machine