Who we are

Australian Social Attitudes: The First Report is "the first authoritative assessment of public opinion in the Howard years. It draws on 4270 responses to Australia’s major social survey, the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes, conducted by the Australian National University in collaboration with a network of universities around the country."

Some highlights:

- Support for immigration up; economy seen as stronger;
- Family more important to Australians’ identity than work;
- Younger Australians adopt a more inclusive idea of the family, right to choose;
- Job insecurity low; poor relations at work lower job satisfaction;
- Australians want economic growth and more say in their jobs and communities;
- Australians don’t want a privatised Telstra, support award wages;
- Family payments drive in welfare spending, Australians prefer public delivery of most services;
- Australians wary of global engagement, support tariffs and local TV content;
- Perceptions of crime out of kilter with reality; support for death penalty falling;
- Confidence in defence forces up, down for major Australian companies and churches;
- Most get news from commercial TV, think media causes violence; and
- Majority see benefits in genetic testing, but wary of potential misuse;