KARRATHA COMMUNITY SURVEY GIVES BIASED RESULTS

A professor of marketing says the results from the City of Karratha’s community survey should be taken with a grain of salt because the sampling method encouraged biased resultS.

“it’s an idea of what public opinion might be but people who are more likely to fill out surveys with requests that they see on flyers or online surveys often have more time on their hands and they're generally not reflective of the population,” Professor Julie Lee Said.

“They can also be reflective of people that have a strong opinion on whatever the topic is.”

While the best figures Ngaarda Media can obtain showed more than four percent of the City of Karratha’s population lived in Roebourne, only one percent of the survey’s respondents were Roebourne people. 

University of Western Australia professor Julie Lee said it would cost money for the City to get a more reliable survey.

“Quotas in that sort of sampling don’t really guarantee that you’ll reflect the real opinions in society. For that, you need a random sample and they are very expensive.”

Deputy mayor Kelly Nunn, who chaired this week’s Council meeting, said she had no opinion about the sampling method.