Australian Candidate Study, 1993

The 1993 Australian Candidate Study is the third in a series of election studies on federal election candidates. In 1993, candidates from the following political parties were surveyed - Labor, Liberal, National, Democrat, The Greens, The Greens (Western Australia) Inc, The Green Party of South Australia and the Green Alliance Senate-New South Wales. The study examined the prominent election issues, including attitudes to particular economic issues, employee control of industry and Australia's trading relationship with foreign countries. Opinions on other political issues such as defence spending, the need for new security arrangements, countries perceived to pose a threat to Australia, and the republic issue were also sought. A section on social policy includes questions on contemporary social and moral issues, including abortion, Aboriginal rights, pornography, the death penalty and many others. In addition, the survey asks questions relating to political background, such as electoral history, party political involvement and membership of community organisations, and questions on the role of the representative, such as important aspects of the MP's job. A section on campaigning asks for candidates' perceptions of the personal attributes and experience which they think are required to make a successful candidate, how long before the election they organised and started their campaign, and what deciding factors led the candidate to run in their first Federal election. ALP candidates were also asked a series of questions on ALP factions. Background variables include age, country of birth, parents country of birth, age when left school, number of years of tertiary study, religion, frequency of attending religious services, marital status, house contested, and party affiliated.