Undecided Voice voters the big hope for Yes campaign: Pollinate
With less than a week until voting day, nearly one in five Australians remain undecided about the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum.
Exclusive data from strategic insights business Pollinate shows 18% of Aussies are still undecided, while 35% plan to vote ‘Yes’, and 47% intend to vote ‘No’.
Support for the ‘No’ vote has been steadily climbing over the past few months. In Pollinate’s first wave of ongoing research, done during the second half of August, 31% of people were planning to vote ‘Yes’, 39% ‘No’, with 30% undecided back then.
While the ‘No’ vote has gained significantly since then — with the gap between the two poles widening to 12% — there is some hope for the Yes campaign in the sentiment of these undecided voters.
The latest research found that 89% of those undecided voters agree with the statement: “I hope the Voice will make things better for Australia”, while 88% agree “I hope the Voice will make things better for First Nations people.”
These undecided voters aren’t merely fence-sitting, either. Pollinate’s research saw 55% of the undecided agreeing with the statement: “I am open to new perspectives and changing my values and beliefs” with only 11% agreeing “I live and stand by my values and beliefs”.
Significantly, 40% of self-declared ‘No’ voters also state they “live and stand by their values and beliefs.”
“While the ‘No’ vote has taken a bigger lead since our last wave of research, in the few days remaining until the referendum there is a huge opportunity for the ‘Yes’ campaign to sway undecided voters, who are more hopeful and open-minded than ‘No’ voters,” explained Pollinate CEO Howard Parry-Husbands.
“The challenge is reaching the undecided voters, who report hearing about the Voice from four sources, compared to both ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ voters, who report six or seven sources.”
The top channels to reach these undecided voters is through the news (63%), television advertising (53%), and through word-of-mouth, via someone they already know (43%).
Given this final statistic, Parry-Husbands, said, “there has never been a more important time to sit down with your undecided friends and family, and to objectively discuss the Voice.
“The path to a ‘Yes’ majority is paved with conversations of hope with those you know.”
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Nathan Jolly is the Deputy Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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