DOI: 10.4225/87/cyjnsm
title: Australian Election Study, 2010

description: The 2010 Australian Election Study is the ninth in a series of surveys beginning in 1987 that have been timed to coincide with Australian Federal Elections. The series also builds on the 1967, 1969 and 1979 Australian Political Attitudes Surveys. The Australian Election Studies aim to provide a long-term perspective on stability and change in the political attitudes and behaviour of the Australian electorate, and investigate the changing social bases of Australian politics as the economy and society modernise and change character. In addition to these long-term goals, they examine the political issues prevalent in the current election and assess their importance for the election result. The 2010 survey replicates many questions from the previous Australian Election Studies, but also introduces new questions regarding internet usage in election campaigns. Other sections cover the respondent's interest in the election campaign and politics, their past and present political affiliation, evaluation of parties and candidates, alignment with parties on various election issues, evaluation of the current economic situation, and attitudes to a range of election issues including; global warming; taxation; unemployment; health and Medicare; refugees and asylum seekers; and population policy. Opinions on social policy issues including abortion, equal opportunities, and Australia's security were also covered in the 2010 Australian Election Study. 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. Version 1.0 of this data published 24/12/10 had an inherent bias derived from the sample supplied by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC). This bias resulted in significant underrepresentation of younger enrolled voters in the achieved sample. To address this skew a survey was conducted, focusing on enumeration of 18-44 year olds, in early 2011 to "top up" the Version 1.0 data. The 2010 Australian Election Study is the first in the series to provide the option of completing the questionnaire online via a unique password, or via hardcopy. The "top up" survey, involved telephone recruitment of a sample of age qualified persons from previous Australian National University phone-based projects (stage 1) and the MyOpinions online panel database (stage 2), to complete the existing online version of Australian Election Survey. The MyOpinions online panel database was used to enumerate age groups still under-represented from stage 1. This was considered the most expedient method, within the budget and time constraints to address the under-representation in version 1.0. The weighting methodology was developed for Version 2.0 and was used to determine numbers for the "top up" phase. This data file is also supplemented with division level election results from the Australian Electoral Commission election results website (http://results.aec.gov.au/15508/Website/). These variables are found under the variable group "AEC Election Results".