Republicans Reject latest Ipsos poll

The ARM has rejected the latest poll conducted by Ipsos because it shows a marked decline in support for a republic. They have, instead, pointed to last year’s YouGov poll which showed better results for them. However, the Australian Monarchist League claims that the question asked in the YouGov poll was particularly slanted to produce a higher republican vote whereas the Ipsos poll asked plain and simple questions.

Philip Benwell, National Chair of the Australian Monarchist League (AML) said “It is typical of republicans to reject out of hand a poll which has shown a decline in support for them rather than learning from it to better their performance which is what we have always tried to do.”

The Ipsos poll indicated public support at only 34% but with 26% undecided. Ipsos director Jessica Elgood said that it showed the lowest recorded support for a republic by Ipsos and Nielsen polls since 1979.

Ms Elgood also said that “former US president Donald Trump had not made a presidential system a particularly appealing prospect for most of Australia.” However, Peter FitzSimons said “I don’t accept that poll … we have been getting phenomenally strong support.” He mentioned that that support had grown by 19% and that “The other factor is that we’ve been very active in things like social media, we are getting far more professional.”

Mr Benwell said that AML has been active in social media for many years and has completely digitised its Internet and social media operations and has seen a 40% increase in signups over the past six months. For over 10 years many of the League’s operations have been handled by young people with a number of its spokespersons being under 20 years of age.

Mr Benwell commented that there is little interest in a republic nowadays and that the general public have many more important issues to be concerned with. He added that a reason why many people support the League is because it has always been truthful and factual and doesn’t attempt to lure people in with childish adverts and blatant misinformation.

He said, “we anticipate support for the monarchy to increase dramatically over the next year with the Queen’s 95th birthday occurring on the 21st of April 2021 and the Duke of Edinburgh’s 100th birthday on June the 10th this year and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrating 70 years on the throne occurring on the 6th of February 2022.”

“It will be an opportunity for all people, whatever their political preferences, to honour the Queen for a lifetime of service.”