Victorian election 2014: Majority support same-sex adoption, fewer restrictions on abortion, Vote Compass reveals

Updated

A majority of Victorians support the right of same-sex couples to adopt and only a small minority want more restrictive abortion laws.

Only 14 per cent of 60,000 people surveyed said they wanted more restrictive abortion laws.

When asked "how restrictive should abortion laws be in Victoria?" 38 per cent supported the status quo.

Despite Victoria having some of the world's most liberal abortion laws, 44 per cent of survey respondents wanted fewer restrictions.

Twenty-five per cent said they wanted much less and 19 per cent wanted somewhat less restriction.

The breakdown of results by religion would surprise many.

Only 17 per cent of Catholics want more restrictive abortion laws, while 35 per cent wanted less restriction and 42 per cent were happy with existing laws.

Abortion in Victoria was decriminalised in 2008 after an emotional parliamentary debate followed by a conscience vote of MPs.

The Victorian Coalition has been dogged by suggestions Coalition MPs want to reopen debate on the state's abortion laws to tighten restrictions, but the Vote Compass results show there is no public appetite for rolling back the 2008 reforms.

Vote Compass results on a separate question about same-sex adoption confirm Victoria's reputation as Australia's most liberal-minded state.

Fifty-seven per cent of people surveyed support same-sex adoption, although 20 per cent were strongly opposed.

Young Victorians are far more likely to support same-sex adoption.

Adults under 35 are three times more likely to support same-sex adoption than people over 55 who are nearly three times as likely to strongly disagree.

The religious breakdown shows Protestants are more conservative on this issue than Catholics.

Twenty-nine per cent of Protestants were strongly opposed to same-sex adoption compared to 18 per cent of Catholics.

However, both Protestants and Catholics are more likely to be in favour of same-sex adoption than oppose it.

Overall, 57 per cent of Catholics and 44 per cent of Protestants were in favour of same-sex adoption.

Only 28 per cent of Catholics and 41 per cent of Protestants were opposed.

Victorians overwhelmingly support voluntary euthanasia for terminally ill patients, putting them at odds with the Coalition and Labor parties on the issue.

On the question, "Terminally ill patients should be able to legally end their own lives with medical assistance", more than three quarters of survey respondents supported medically assisted suicide.

FAQ

What is this?

The ABC launched Vote Compass Victoria on Sunday November 2, in the lead-up to the state election.

It is a tool that allows voters to see how their views compare to the parties' policies.

The data was weighted across a range of demographic factors using the latest population estimates to be a true representation of opinion at the time of the field.

The findings are based on more than 60,000 respondents to Vote Compass from November 2 to November 18, 2014.

Vote Compass is not a random sample. Why are the results being represented as though it is a poll?

Vote Compass is not a poll. It is fundamentally an educational tool intended to promote electoral literacy and stimulate public engagement in the policy aspect of election campaigns.

That said, respondents' views as expressed through Vote Compass can add a meaningful dimension to our understanding of public attitudes and an innovative new medium for self-expression. Ensuring that the public has a decipherable voice in the affairs of government is a critical function of a robust democracy.

Online surveys are inherently prone to selection bias but statisticians have long been able to correct for this (given the availability of certain variables) by drawing on population estimates such as Census micro-data.

The ABC applies sophisticated weighting techniques to the data to control for the selection effects of the sample, enabling us to make statistical inferences about the Australian population with a high degree of confidence.

How can you stop people from trying to game the system?

There are multiple safeguards in place to ensure the authenticity of each record in the dataset.

Vote Compass does not make its protocols in this regard public so as not to aid those that might attempt to exploit the system, but among standard safeguards such as IP address logging and cookie tracking, it also uses time codes and a series of other measures to prevent users from gaming the system.

Topics: abortion, community-and-society, family-and-children, adoption, state-parliament, elections, vic, melbourne-3000

First posted