Rights in Australia 1991-1992: National Household Sample

The principal objectives of the Rights in Australia project were: to establish the level of support for civil liberties and civil rights among Australians; to determine the firmness or solidity of Australians' attitudes to civil liberties; to explore how Australians make up their mind in specific civil liberties controversies, especially where there are competing sides to a situation; and to identify principal characteristics which might affect the support or rejection of certain civil liberties. This data release represents the first stage in the project: the surveying of a representative sample of the Australian population. The second stage (ADA No. 619) comprises interviews with a 'decision makers' sample - individuals from three groups, the legislature, the judiciary and the executive (public servants, public prosecutors and police officers).

The household survey consisted of a telephone interview, followed by a questionnaire distributed by mail. The telephone interview began with questions designed to establish a general measure of the respondent's attitudes to equality of rights and tolerance of actions against the government. This was followed by a section dealing with more specific rights issues - freedom of speech, racial discrimination, and freedom of choice, including censorship, euthanasia, abortion and homosexuality. Further sections dealt with: legal rights - right to trial, right to trial by jury, contact with the police; sexual discrimination; racial prejudice towards Asians and Aboriginals; and the issue of a Bill of Rights for Australia. The mail survey consisted of additional questions covering the same range of issues. In the telephone interview, background information was collected on political orientation, vote at last election, interest in politics and compulsory voting.

Demographic information collected about the respondent included age, sex, country of birth and year of arrival in Australia, citizenship status, age starting and leaving school, type of school attended, highest qualification, religion and frequency of church attendance, marital status, numbers of children and numbers in the household, occupation and labour force status, trade union membership and household income.

Dataset ID:

au.edu.anu.ada.ddi.00618

Principal Investigator:

Subject:

Legal responsibility, legal rights, legal actions

Keywords:

Politics and Government - Civil rights and citizenship

Racial discrimination

Sex discrimination

Gender relations - Sex discimination

Document Description

The Document Description consists of bibliographic information describing the DDI-compliant document itself as a whole.

Document Title:

Rights in Australia 1991-1992: National Household Sample

Document ID:

au.edu.anu.ada.ddi.00618

Production

Producers:

Producer:

Abbreviation:

Affiliation:

Production Software:

Software:

Software Version:

Release Date:

Production Place:

Australian Data Archive 18 Balmain Crescent Canberra ACT 0200

Production Date:

6 Jul 2007

Version Statement

Version:

Version 1. 5 July, 2007

Date:

5 Jul 2007

Notes:

This version combines the files 00618-m, 00618-occ and 00618-t which are now superceded.

Bibliographic Citation:

Galligan, B., et al. Rights in Australia 1991-1992: National Household Sample. [Codebook]. Canberra: Australian Data Archive, The Australian National University, 2007.

Study Description

The Study Description consists of information about the data collection, study, or compilation that the DDI-compliant documentation file describes. This section includes information about how the study should be cited, who collected or compiled the data, who distributes the data, keywords about the content of the data, summary (abstract) of the content of the data, data collection methods and processing, etc. Note that some content of the Study Description's Citation -- e.g., Responsibility Statement -- may be identical to that of the Documentation Citation. This is usually the case when the producer of a data collection also produced the print or electronic codebook for that data collection.

Other Identifications / Acknowledgements

Researcher:

Role:

Affiliations:

Production

Producers:

Producer:

Abbreviation:

Affiliation:

Production Date:

Sun, 12/22/2024

Distribution

Distributors

Distributor:

Abbreviation:

Contact Persons:

Brian Galligan 
Political Science 
The University of Melbourne 
MELBOURNE VIC 3010

Affiliation:

Political Science, The University of Melbourne

Depositor:

Rights in Australia Project Research School of Social Sciences Australian National University Canberra 0200

Affiliation:

Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University

Deposit Date:

Tue, 04/14/1992

Version Statement

Version:

First version. 05 July, 2007

Responsibility Statement:

Australian Data Archive

Date:

Thu, 07/05/2007

Study Information

Research Collection Date:

Tue, 10/29/1991 to Sun, 12/15/1991

Fri, 11/01/1991 to Sat, 02/01/1992

Country:

Australia

Geographic Area:

National

Geographic Unit:

State

Unit of Analysis:

Individual

Universe:

Households with telephone numbers listed in Telecom's computerized White Pages (Condor) listings

Kind of Data:

survey

Methodology

Time Method:

Cross-sectional (one time) study

Data Collector:

Australian Data Archive

Sampling Procedure:

Stratified random sample The study aimed to achieve 1400 telephone interviews, consisting of 400 in ACT/NSW and 50 from each of Victoria, Queensland, SA/NT, Western Australia, and Tasmania. A random sample of 6000 telephone numbers was selected by Telecom from their White Pages (Condor) listings, excluding known business numbers and all silent numbers. The sample comprised 2000 numbers selected from NSW and the ACT, and 800 numbers from each of Victoria, Queensland, SA/NT, Western Australia, and Tasmania. Of the NSW/ACT sample, 400 were used for a pilot survey. The remaining 5600 numbers were divided into 16 replicates, each replicate containing a random subsample of 350 numbers (100 from NSW/ACT and 50 from each of the other five regions). These subsamples were created in order to test variations in the wording of the telephone interview. Within each household, the member selected for interview was the person with the most recent birthday. Number of cases from telephone interviews: 1522 Number of cases from mail survey: 916

Mode of Data Collection:

telephone interview

self-completion (mail out, mail back)

Type of Research Instrument:

structured

Class of the Study:

Level 2

Data Access

Access Conditions:

The depositor wishes to be informed (by the archive) of use being made of the data, in order to comment on that use and make contact with colleagues of similar interests.

Citation Requirements:

All manuscripts based in whole or in part on these data should:

(i) identify the data and original investigators by using the recommended bibliographic reference to the data file

(ii) acknowledge the Australian Data Archive and, where the data are made available through the Australian Data Archive by another archive, acknowledge that archive;

Galligan, B., et al. Rights in Australia 1991-1992: National Household Sample. [Computer file]. Canberra: Australian Data Archive, The Australian National University, 1992.

(iii) 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.

Deposit Requirements:

In order to assemble essential information about archival resources and to facilitate the exchange of information about users research activities, individuals are required to email ADA (ada@anu.edu.au) with the bibliographic details and, where available, online links to any published work (including journal articles, books or book chapters, conference presentations, theses or any other publications or outputs) based wholly or in part on the material.

Disclaimer:

Use of the material is solely at the user's risk. The depositor, The Australian National University and the Australian Data Archive shall not be held responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the material supplied.

Other Study Materials

Related Publications:

Dee, S. and Jones, R. Population Survey and Decision Makers Survey 1991-1992: Technical Report. Australian Rights Project, 1992