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"Public Opinion on Britain, a Directly Elected President, and an Australian Republic:  22 Years of Survey Evidence"  Jonathan Kelley, M.D.R. Evans, Malcolm Mearns and Bruce Headey. 2002  Pps 113-130 and 243-252 in Constitutional Politics: The Republic Referendum and the Future (John Warhurst and Malcolm Mackerras, eds.) University of Queensland Press. 

Abstract: The 1999 referendum on becoming a republic with a president selected by Parliament was the first – but probably not the last – time these issues came to a vote in Australia. But the issues involved are far from novel. On the contrary, the Australian public has longstanding views on issues raised by the referendum. Indeed, most voters formed their opinions on these issues years before the referendum was called and few changed their opinion in the course of the referendum campaign. Our goal in this chapter is to describe the public’s views on these issues, show how these views combined to shape their vote on the question put to them in the referendum, and describe how opinion has developed in the first few years after the referendum.  To do this we examine the attitudes of the Australian public towards the Queen and the Royal Family, towards a republican future for Australia, and towards different methods for selecting the Head of State. We draw on data reaching back more than 20 years, mainly from the International Social Science Surveys/ Australia (IsssA) in which  we have queried large, representative national samples of Australians about their views on social and political issues since 1984 (Kelley and Evans 1999, 2001). Post-referendum data show little change in attitudes toward the republic.

Released December 2002.   Available now in libraries and from the University of Queensland Press.

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