MEMBER for Mildura Ali Cupper says an “official research poll” being distributed by text message to constituents in the Mildura electorate about the Reason Coalition is both ridiculous and misleading.
Ms Cupper said she had been contacted by many people who had received the survey, which asks questions about the alliance struck with Reason’s Fiona Patten last Friday.
“There are so many errors in this so-called official poll it can not go unchallenged,” Ms Cupper said.
“Firstly, it says the poll is about me becoming ‘deputy leader of inner Melbourne’s Reason Party’. This is wrong.
“It then asks people if they ‘support Ali Cupper and the Reason Party’s policy to build more injecting rooms, like the one next to a school in Richmond’.
“This question is deliberately misleading.
“From the outset, both Ms Patten and I have made it clear there is no need for an injecting room in the Mildura electorate.
“What we do need, and what we will be fighting for, is a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre – and that will be part of Reason for the Regions policy platform.”
She said a question asking people whether they were disappointed Ms Cupper was no longer an independent by becoming deputy leader of the Reason Party was also deliberately misleading and provocative.
Ms Cupper said there was a lot of confusion about the source of the poll.
“I will leave it up to people to draw their own conclusions about who would try and benefit from such a pathetic, grubby poll like this – full of errors and attempted gotchas,” she said.
“My focus is on the issues that are important to my electorate. This petty politics is of no interest to me.”
