Labour MP denies intentional wrongdoing over polls

Rick Barker defended his polling strategy, saying that if pollsters said they were from Labour people may not give honest answers. Photo / Northern Advocate

Labour MP Rick Barker said he never intended to deceive when he told pollsters they could give false names and say they worked for a company which no longer existed.

The poll Mr Barker ran used volunteers aligned with Labour to ask questions about what issues were important to voters.

It emerged that pollsters were using fake names and saying they were calling from Data Research

Labour leader Phil Goff said this morning people should not have used false names.

He was unaware then that Data Research was no longer operating.

"Given the controversy around it", the polling was unlikely to continue in the same form and in the future the party was likely to continue with its traditional practice of using professional polling companies, he said.

Mr Barker told reporters this afternoon Data Research had been used by Labour pollsters in the past and he thought that would have been okay had the company not been deregistered.

However, he said: "You don't actually have to have a registered company to undertake polling."

While it was a mistake to say people could use false names, he could not see a problem with using a company name, because if pollsters said they were from Labour people may not answer honestly.

National people did not say they were party supporters when they did their own polling, Mr Barker said.

"I haven't done anything intentionally wrong."

Asked if the party would continue to use Data Research's name, Mr Barker initially said the party needed to sort out registration but under further questioning said the name would be shelved.

"The intention was never to deceive... the intention was to get data on how people felt about issues in various areas which is a very legitimate thing to do in politics."

None of the volunteers who did the polling was paid and worked in their free time. Phone calls were paid with taxpayer funds out of the party leader's budget. This was allowed for calls seeking opinion, but not for canvassing.

Acting Prime Minister Bill English this morning said party polling needed to be done openly.

"Labour are usually lecturing other people about being up front, so I think in this case they need to explain what they are doing," he said.

Mr English said the National Party had transparency around who paid for polls and who conducted them.

Speaking from Asia at the weekend, Prime Minister John Key said it was wrong to use false names and taxpayer money for political polling.

- NZPA