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Portrait of a Nation 2003: Reporting on the inaugural Australian
Survey of Social Attitudes (AuSSA)
Convened by Dr Rachel Gibson, Dr Shaun Wilson, Dr Gabrielle
Meagher (ACSPRI Centre for Social Research (ACSR), Research School
of Social Sciences, The Australian National University; School of
Economics and Political Science, University of Sydney). Canberra,
7-8 June 2004.
Policy e-Paper Summaries of some of the presentations can
be downloaded below:
The Workshop Report is also available: <download
(pdf - 64kb)>
As we enter a new century, Australia has entered a period of uncertainty
and introspection. Many questions are surfacing about Australia's
identity and direction, as well as its place in the world. Do Australians
really think they live in the 'lucky' country? What do the norm
of a 'fair go' and the mantra of 'no worries' mean if anything to
contemporary Australians? Has economic rationalism damaged the consensus
that underpinned the Australian settlement? Australians are renowned
for taking up new technologies faster than most other peoples will
this appetite for the new extend to gene technologies? Is the rich
ethnic mix of the Australian population producing greater racism
or increasing toleranceor both?
Not surprisingly, more people are seeking considered answers to
these questions. Alongside this popular interest, many Australian
social scientists recognise the need for a robust and regular social
survey to provide accurate information for teaching and research.
Meanwhile, policy-makers increasingly aim to make policy evidence-based.
However, they have had to fall back on opinion polls in the absence
of a more comprehensive and rigorous account of the Australian people's
attitudes and behaviour.
The Academy sponsored workshop provided a forum to present the
findings from the first Australian Survey of Social Attitudes (AuSSA)
conducted in August 2003, linking attitudes, behaviour, and demographic
characteristics. The AuSSA is a new biennial national survey of
an estimated 5,000 citizens, developed by researchers at the ACSR
in conjunction with a nationwide team of experts, and conducted
by the Australian Social Science Data Archive (ASSDA). The workshop
also provided the first opportunity to publicly disseminate the
findings of the survey, and will be attended by a range of eminent
social scientists from universities across Australia with skills
in empirical analysis of opinion data. The papers presented covered
a wide range of topics including attitudes to government taxing
and spending, criminal justice policy, family life, immigration,
uses of genetic information, and the treatment of indigenous people.
Participants discussed the implications of the survey's conduct
and results for policy, social science, and Australia's self-understanding.
The workshop sought to:
- analyse new data about specific social problems
- develop an overview of significant social trends
- strengthen participants' material for publication
- build networks for the development of the quantitative social
sciences in Australia
- discuss future developments of AuSSA
In addition, since AuSSA has become the official carrier for the
questions fielded by the prestigious International Social Survey
Programme (ISSP), there was also a strong focus on the issues of
citizenship and national identity, the thematic concerns for the
ISSP module for 2003.
As well as being of interest to the academic community, it is expected
that the findings presented at the workshop would have relevance
to a broader audience that would include federal and state politicians
and government officials, journalists, and interested members of
the public.
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