About the Australian National Political Attitudes Surveys (ANPAS)
The Australian National Political Attitudes Surveys (ANPAS) were collected in 1967, 1969 and 1979 by Don Aitkin, but they are not strictly speaking election surveys. All three surveys were conducted by personal interview, using a multi-stage, stratified random sample of the electorate. Full details of the surveys can be found in Don A. Aitkin, Stability and Change in Australian Politics (Canberra: ANU Press, 1979, 1982).
When the AES began in 1987, a conscious decision was taken to replicate many of the questions in the ANPAS surveys (many of which had their origins in the American and British surveys of the time) in order to permit reliable, long-term comparisons of attitudes and behaviours.
The ANPAS Surveys
Note that the ANPAS Datasets are hosted by the Australian Data Archive Dataverse instance. Clicking on a Dataverse link will open the ANPAS Dataverse dataset in a new page.
1967
The 1967 Australian National Political Attitudes survey is the first of three precursor surveys to the Australian Election Study series. This study examines the political attitudes and interests of a segment of the Australian public a year after the 1966 Federal election.
1969
The 1969 Australian National Political Attitudes survey is the second of three precursor surveys to the Australian Election Study series (which is also available in this archive). This study was conducted during a period of about three months following the Federal Election held in October 1969 and examines the political attitudes and interests of the Australian electorate.
1979
The Macquarie University Australian political attitudes survey is a major study of Australian political behaviour and attitudes in 1979. The study assesses the respondent’s attitudes toward political news in the mass media, likes and dislikes about political parties and party leaders, …