How the survey is conducted

The survey is conducted by phone by the Social Research Centre (SRC), Melbourne. The SRC is a member of the Australian Market and Social Research Society (AMSRS) and the company has completed extensive survey work for academic staff at ANU and for the Australian Government.

The sample size of 1,000 allows for a margin of error of about plus or minus 3 per cent (±3%).

Method

Potential participants are contacted at random by telephone using a technique called random digit dialling (RDD). RDD is considered superior to electronic white pages (EWP) as the sampling frame is consistent with best practice social research methods. The advantage of using RDD approaches is that they overcome the problems inherent in EWP listings, including:

• non-coverage of households with unlisted numbers (ie silent numbers, which can be in excess of 25% in metropolitan areas) and new listings / households in growth areas
• the potential for under-representation of specific demographic groups in EWP samples, such as younger persons (aged 18–40), persons of lower socio-economic status, transient groups (persons in rented accommodation and group households), recent migrants, single person households, divorcees / separated persons, high income households and young / middle family households.

The person selected for interview is the person aged 18 years and over having the next birthday.

Consent

The purpose of the study, including the voluntary nature of the survey and the confidentiality and privacy provisions, are explained to respondents over the telephone prior to commencement of the survey. Only if respondents are happy to continue once they have been taken through the introduction do they proceed through to the survey questions. Respondents’ consent is captured as part of the data collection process in the computer assisted telephone interview (CATI) system.

Sample representativeness

The sample is drawn from all states and territories and uses a disproportionate stratified sampling methodology. This ensures that at least 100 interviews are undertaken in each state / territory with the remaining 200 interviews distributed across the five most populous states on a probability proportional-to-size basis.

Confidentiality

The ability to convincingly assure members of the community as to the privacy and confidentiality of the information they provide is a very salient issue when undertaking general community research.

From a practical viewpoint, in order to ensure compliance with professional and legal obligations, the interviewing team emphasises the rights of the respondents to privacy in the training materials produced for the survey and also in the interviewer briefings.

From the point of view of allaying any privacy/confidentiality concerns amongst sample members, the respondent’s information is protected by:

• the Commonwealth Privacy Act
• the AMSRO Market and Social Research Privacy Principles
• the AMSRS’s Code of Professional Behaviour.

Respondents are also assured that their telephone number has been randomly generated, that they can choose not to answer one or more questions, and that the information they provide during the course of the interview will only be used for research purposes, and then only at an aggregate level.

Strict data processing security controls apply and remain in place over the period of the study. The data security procedures adopted comply with the AMSRO Privacy Principles and the Code of Professional Behaviour of AMSRS, and include:

• physical security (storage of confidential information in locked cabinets / in locked rooms)
• data transmission
• prohibition on copying sample files containing identifiable information
• clear-desk policy
• use of multi-level password protection on all electronic storage systems
• limited access to information (i.e. access limited to the project team and other agreed persons on a need-to-know basis)
• server room security
• de-identification of data
• system cleansing at the conclusion of the project.

Each survey dataset, without any individually identifying factors, is deposited in the Australian Social Science Data Archive at ANU under their standard confidentiality and ethical protocols.