A survey by Newspoll in March 2010 has shown that 59% of Australians believe a referendum on a republic in the the next few years is "important".
The Australian Constitutional Values Survey was conducted nationally for Griffith University by Newspoll and funded by the Australian Research Council. 1,201 respondents were interviewed in May 2008 and 1,100 respondents in March 2010.
The second result release from the March 2010 Survey was issued on Saturday, October 2 by project researchers Professor A J Brown and Dr Ron Levy of Griffith Law School.
The results focus on the prospects for successful referenda on Indigenous recognition and local government recognition in the next three years -- as recently promised by the Federal Government in its agreements with the Greens and Independents -- as well as asking about the republic.
"Asked how important it was to have referenda on these issues in the next few years, 75% of respondents indicated it was important to have a referendum about Indigenous recognition, and 73% about what levels of government Australia should have in its Constitution,” Professor Brown said.
“This compares with 59% who said it was important to have a referendum on becoming a republic, and 77% who said it was important to resolve which levels of government are responsible for what, in the federal system.”
The poll also showed that 38% of repondents believed a vote on the republic was "very important".
METHODOLOGY:
- Respondents aged 18 years and over.
- Respondents were selected via a stratified random sample process which included:
-a quota being set for each capital city and non-capital city area, and within each of these areas, a quota being set for groups of statistical divisions or subdivisions;
-random selection of household telephone numbers using random digit dialling (RDD);
-random selection of an individual in each household by a "last birthday" screening question. - Interviewing:
- Conducted by telephone over the period of 1-8 May 2008and 1-14 March 2010by fully trained and personally briefed interviewers.
- To ensure the sample included those people who tend to spend a lot of time away from home, a system of call backs and appointments was incorporated. - Weighting:
To reflect the population distribution, results were post-weighted to:
- Australian Bureau of Statistics data on age, highest level of schooling completed, sex and area;
- Federal voting intention (using the previous two Newspoll voting intention surveys) (2008 only).
- Results presented as weighted, with percentages based on these weighted figures. - Funding:
- Funded by the Australian Research Council, Discovery Project DP0666833, led by Griffith University, with Charles Sturt University, University of New England and the University of Melbourne.
Further details about this survey, including the slides relating to local government and indigenous affairs, can be found at www.griffith.edu.au/federalism.
