Australia's 'stolen children': Which poll would a poll-following prime minister have followed?

A report into indigenous Australian children taken from their families reco mmended that the Government apologize. Three polls on the question of wheth er the Government should apologize produced three quite different results: a 'yes', a 'no' and one which was more evenly divided. This paper shows why this happened. It relates the results to three quite different understandi ngs of what opinion polls should model: opinion expressed through plebiscit es; 'real' opinion; and opinion based on some sort of deliberation. And it explores the relationship between what a poll-following Prime Minister migh t have done and scholarly judgments about 'quality' in public opinion polls .