A leading poll question

Newshub reports:

In the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll, voters were asked: Is the Government doing enough to address the mental health crisis?

An overwhelming majority, 70.7 percent, said no, while just 18.2 percent said yes. 

Its not that I’m defending the Government’s performance in mental health (which has been no results for lots of money), but this is a very leading question.

First of all by using the term crisis, that in itself is a subjective term that will affect the results. A more neutral question would be “How satisfied are you with the Government’s management of mental health”.

The second aspect that is designed to gather a large percentage saying no is asking “Is the Government doing enough”. One can always think the Government can be doing more in an area, even if you think overall they are doing okay.

So while I do think the Govt’s performance in this area is lousy, this question by Newshub is designed to produce a large number saying no.