AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM STUDY, 1999 USER'S GUIDE FOR THE MACHINE-READABLE DATA FILE SSDA Study No. 1018 Principal Investigators Gow, David John University of Queensland Bean, Clive Queensland University of Technology McAllister, Ian The Australian National University User's Guide Prepared by Social Science Data Archives March, 2000 Copyright © 2000 The Australian National University This publication may be copied in whole or in part by any copying or duplicating process, provided it is not sold except to recover duplicating costs. Social Science Data Archives Research School of Social Sciences The Australian National University ACT 0200 Australia Telephone: (02) 6249 4400 Email: [email protected] Fax:(02) 6249 4722 National Library of Australia cataloguing in publication: (printed User's Guide only) Australian Constitutional Referendum Survey, 1999 ISBN 0 7315 5212 1 1. Constitutional amendments – Australia – Data processing – Handbooks, manuals etc. 2. Monarchy – Australia – Data processing – Handbooks, manuals etc. 3. Republicanism – Australia – Data processing – Handbooks, manuals etc. 4. Referendum – Australia – Data processing – Handbooks, manuals etc. 5. Australia – Politics and government – 1990- - Public opinion – Data processing – Handbooks, manuals etc. 6. Australia – Social conditions – 1990- – Data processing – Handbooks, manuals etc. I. Gow, David (David John). II. Bean, Clive. III . McAllister, Ian. IV. Australian National University. Social Science Data Archives. (Series : SSDA study). 025.06328294 SSDA Study Series (User's guide only) ISSN 0728-9766 SOCIAL SCIENCE DATA ARCHIVES MRDF CATALOGUING DURING PRODUCTION DATA (Machine-readable data file plus user's guide) Australian Constitutional Referendum Study, 1999 [computer file] / Principal investigators David John Gow, Clive Bean and Ian McAllister. Canberra: Social Science Data Archives, The Australian National University [distributor], 2000. 1 data file (3431 logical records) + accompanying user's guide. Summary: The 1999 Australian Constitutional Referendum Study was conducted to investigate the Australian electorate's attitudes towards the significant political issues surrounding the 1999 constitutional referendum. As part of the Australian Election Study series, the 1999 ACRS provides a perspective on the political attitudes and behaviour of the Australian public which, in turn, can be compared to those attitudes recorded at past and future electoral events. The 1999 ACRS also functions more specifically as a means of investigating the patterns of public opinion concerning the republic and its specific features. Variables include voting preference; degree of exposure to media reporting of the Referendum; level of interest in the Referendum debate; past and present political affiliation; party voted for in the last (1998) election; evaluation of parties, politicians and key participants in the Referendum debate; views on national identity, preferred head of state and the importance of the Queen and the Royal Family to Australia; knowledge of the current role of the Queen and the Governor General and future role the President if Australia became a republic; perceived changes to powers held by the Prime Minister and the President, political stability in Australia, Australia's standing in the world, and ease of future constitutional reform; attitudes to a range of issues including unions, big business, income distribution, law enforcement, equal opportunities for migrants/women, Aboriginal land rights; and views on the preferred function of society, government and the law. Background variables include level of education, employment status, occupation, type of employer, position at workplace, trade union membership, sex, age, own and parents country of birth, parents' political preferences, religion, marital status, income, and where applicable, the occupation, trade union membership and political preference of the respondent's spouse. SOCIAL SCIENCE DATA ARCHIVES The Social Science Data Archives (SSDA), established in 1981, is located within the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University. The role of the Archives is to collect and preserve computer-readable data relating to social, political and economic affairs and to make that data available for further analysis. The SSDA actively seeks social science data from universities, government organisations and market research companies within Australia to ensure that data which might otherwise be lost is preserved for future use. The SSDA also obtains data from overseas data archives on request from Australian researchers. The Archives accepts only computer-readable data, preferably on disk or CD-Rom, and requires documentation describing the data - for example, a questionnaire, coding frame, and a copy of any written documents or publications describing the data collection procedures. These assist the SSDA in processing the data so that they may be reliably stored, catalogued, indexed, and accessed by standard statistical software – and made available to users for secondary research. The SSDA holds over 1000 datasets, including opinion polls, Census data, and survey data from many fields of social science. Complete information about the SSDA and its holdings is available on its WWW pages at http://ssda.anu.edu.au/ For further information, please feel free to phone or write to us. SOCIAL SCIENCE DATA ARCHIVES Research School of Social Sciences The Australian National University CANBERRA ACT 0200 Phone: + 61 2 6249 4400 Fax: + 61 2 6249 4722 Email: [email protected] CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF ASSISTANCE vi STUDY DESCRIPTION vii CODEBOOK xiii Table of contents for codebook xv Codebook Information xix Variable description and frequency distributions 1 Section A: The Referendum Campaign 2 Section B: Political Parties and Leaders 9 Section C: National Identity and the Head of State 19 Section D: Issues and Social Policy 39 Section E: Education and Work 48 Section F: Personal Background 53 CODEBOOK NOTES 67 FREQUENCIES ADDENDUM 83 QUESTIONNAIRE 91 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF ASSISTANCE All manuscripts based in whole or in part on these data should: (i) identify the data, original investigators and data distributors by including the bibliographic reference for the data file given below: Bibliographic Reference Gow, David John, Clive Bean and Ian McAllister, Australian Constitutional Referendum Study, 1999 [computer file]. Canberra: Social Science Data Archives, The Australian National University, 2000. (ii) declare that those who carried out the original analysis and collection of the data bear no responsibility for the further analysis or interpretation of them. In order to assemble essential information about the use of archival resources and to facilitate the exchange of information about users' research activities, individuals are requested to deposit two copies of each completed manuscript, thesis abstract, or reprint with the Social Science Data Archives. vi Study Description: Australian Constitutional Referendum Study, 1999 STUDY DESCRIPTION IDENTIFICATIONS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Title of Study Australian Constitutional Referendum Study, 1999 Local archive where study is stored Social Science Data Archives Research School of Social Sciences The Australian National University ACT 0200 number of study (data set): 1018 Depositor Dr David John Gow Centre for Public Administration University of Queensland QLD 4072 Date of Deposit 25 February, 2000 Principal Investigator(s) Gow, David John University of Queensland Bean, Clive Queensland University of Technology McAllister, Ian Australian National University Funding Agency Australian Research Council Grant No. A79937265 Other Identifications/Acknowledgements Data Producers: Social Science Data Archives ANALYSIS CONDITIONS Research Topic (Abstract) The 1999 Australian Constitutional Referendum Study was conducted to investigate the Australian electorate's attitudes towards the significant political issues surrounding the 1999 constitutional referendum. As part of the Australian Election Study series, the 1999 ACRS provides a perspective on the political attitudes and behaviour of the Australian public which, in turn, can be compared to those attitudes recorded at past and future electoral events. The 1999 ACRS also functions more specifically as a means of investigating the patterns of public opinion concerning the republic and its specific features. Variables include voting preference; degree of exposure to media reporting of the Referendum; level of interest in the Referendum debate; past and present political affiliation; party voted for in the last (1998) election; evaluation of parties, politicians and key participants vii Study Description: Australian Constitutional Referendum Study, 1999 in the Referendum debate; views on national identity, preferred head of state and the importance of the Queen and the Royal Family to Australia; knowledge of the current role of the Queen and the Governor General and future role the President if Australia became a republic; perceived changes to powers held by the Prime Minister and the President, political stability in Australia, Australia's standing in the world, and ease of future constitutional reform; attitudes to a range of issues including unions, big business, income distribution, law enforcement, equal opportunities for migrants/women, Aboriginal land rights; and views on the preferred function of society, government and the law. Background variables include level of education, employment