The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has reported that its online tool for showing users how their personal views aligned with those of the major political parties competing for the Federal election on 21 May has received over 700,000 responses to date.
In a statement, the ABC said its Vote Compass showed users how their personal views aligned with the major parties across a range of key policy issues.
“Designed by political scientists, it asks a set of 30 policy-related questions, plus a range of extra “questions of the day” on other key issues,” the ABC said.
“The ABC draws on the responses to inform our reporting,” it said.
The Corporation noted that the independent candidate for NSW’s Warringah electorate, Zali Steggall had asked why independent candidates were not included in the Vote Compass.
“The criteria for parties to be included in Vote Compass have been the same for the past decade,” the ABC said.
“Any political party or coalition of political parties with at least five per cent nationwide support in recent, recognised and published independent polls will be included in Vote Compass if it meets a number of conditions.
“These include that it must be registered under the relevant Electoral Authority; that it is likely to field candidates in a majority of constituencies; and that it has a fully-developed policy platform,” it said.
“Independent candidates do not meet the inclusion criteria for Vote Compass.
“It would also be impractical at present to curate and validate the individual responses to each of the 30 propositions in Vote Compass for every independent candidate registered with the Australian Electoral Commission.”
The ABC said users were asked an optional question regarding their voting intention, which included an “independent candidate” selection.
No candidate was included by name.
The ABC’s Vote Compass can be accessed on the ABC website at this PS News link.
