Picture: Grant Dixon
Picture: Grant Dixon
Pic: Bob Burton
Kevin Bonham ( Kevin Bonham blogspot here , On TT here, includes links to previous TT articles) has identified some major flaws in Adrian Bold’s survey regarding his proposal for a cable car on Mt Wellington.
There are other flaws.
Mr Bold’s media release ‘Record-breaking survey reveals all’, 7 April 2013, claims that his survey found that ‘78% of Hobart supported the cable car project’. But the survey report he has released is incomplete and fails to back up this finding. So, even if Mr Bold had a valid sample (which Kevin Bonham disputes), his results fail to demonstrate support from ‘Hobart’ people.
From the outset of the survey Mr Bold said its purpose was to demonstrate the level of support for his cable car proposal amongst ‘Hobart’ people. But Mr Bold made no attempt to limit the survey to Hobart residents, so it cannot be assumed that all respondents are from Hobart.
Mr Bold states in his media release that he collected information regarding where people reside but this information is omitted from his survey report. His report fails to provide a break down showing how many respondants supporting the cable car came from Hobart, from outside Hobart and those who did not identify where they live. Without explanation, Mr Bold’s analysis omitted any reference to survey questions 3, 10 and 11 and one of these questions related to place of residence.
While this information is not made public, I am suspicious that most of the supporting respondents may have been Mr Bold’s Facebook friends from outside of Hobart and that they are misrepresented as being from Hobart.
The alternative explanation is that 78% of Hobart respondents do support the cable car but this only represents a small proportion of the total number of respondents. Did all 1713 supporters live in Hobart or was it 78? We are not told.
Mr Bold, please release the missing information in relation to where survey respondants live and let us find out whether your claims are accurate.
Does anyone know if survey participants have legal rights to ensure their views are not misrepresented?
Tasmanian Conservation Trust Inc
Ph: 03 62 343552
2nd fl, 191-193 Liverpool St, Hobart 7000
Email : [email protected]
Fax: 03 62 312491
Web: www.tct.org.au
