The Australian National Political Attitudes Surveys (ANPAS) were collected in 1967, 1969 and 1979 by Don Aitkin, but they are not strictly speaking election surveys. All three surveys were conducted by personal interview, using a multi-stage, stratified random sample of the electorate. Full details of the surveys can be found in Don A. Aitkin, Stability and Change in Australian Politics (Canberra: ANU Press, 1979, 1982).

When the AES began in 1987, a conscious decision was taken to replicate many of the questions in the ANPAS surveys (many of which had their origins in the American and British surveys of the time) in order to permit reliable, long-term comparisons of attitudes and behaviours.