Election robo-call ‘panic’: Apology issued after Melburnians were woken at all hours

A company that woke Melburnians with robo-calls in the middle of the night has apologised and vowed to investigate.

3AW Breakfast was inundated with calls and emails from angry voters in the blue ribbon seat of Kooyong this morning after they were woken by their phones.

Many of the robo-calls came between 1am and 2am, prompting the recipients to fear the worst.

One listener said the call prompted panic from her elderly mother.

“Our son is on school camp this week and … we jumped out of bed panicking that something had happened to him and it was an election survey,” another caller said.

“Very frustrating.”

The robo-calls were conducted by Lonergan Research.

Chief executive Chris Lonergan wouldn’t tell 3AW Breakfast who commissioned the polling, but said it was an activist group with an interest in the May 18 federal election.

Mr Lonergan told Ross and John the polling was due to stop at 8.30pm, but something went wrong.

“”It appears that our system may have re-started overnight,” he said.

“I would absolutely like to apologise, not only the people of Kooyong but anyone else affected by this.

“We need to make certain this issue never happens again.”