As is often the case with large community infrastructure projects, there are strong views for and against in areas where construction will take place.

The City of the Gold Coast commissioned independent market research agency, Insightfully, to conduct Community Representative Research to measure up-to-date community views of City residents on the proposed Gold Coast Light Rail Stage 4 (GCLR4) project.

The full report is published online by the City of the Gold Coast here and the methodology statement is below.

Significant Community Interest

The Research survey conducted by Insightfully, and the issue more broadly, have created quite a bit of local community and media interest. The City Council, at its full meeting on 8 April, 2025, resolved to write to the Queensland Premier and the Prime Minister with a copy of the scientific research report.

It’s important readers of the report understand the statistical science behind this Community Representative Research project.

Explaining the Science

Q: In the context of this Gold Coast Light Rail research project, what is Community Representative Research, and how does it differ to community consultation often undertaken by local and state governments?

A: Broadly, there are two main types of community consultation. One is Community Representative Research which surveys a representative group of people chosen, as much as possible, at random to represent the community on broad geo-demographic attributes such as age, gender, location and so on. The other is community listening which invites any person with an interest in an issue to put forward their responses. Both types of consultation, scientific measurement and community listening, are important; they are very different. Community representative research is a scientific measurement of community views. Community listening emphasises participation from people who are highly engaged on an issue.

Q: Why did the survey ‘boost’ the number of locals interviewed from the key southern suburbs along the proposed Gold Coast Light Rail Stage 4 Route from its representative sample size of approximately 90 residents (representing a little over 9% of the Gold Coast population) by over four times, to n=401. Does this skew overall city-wide results to southern suburb residents?

A: In community representative research, it’s possible to undertake a ‘sub-sample boost’ of a particular group who may have a specific interest, or be particularly affected, by an issue. When this is done, statistical methods are applied to ensure this group are accurately measured, but their views do not skew the results of the whole community’s views. The southern suburbs adult residents make up about 9% of the Gold Coast adult population. With an n=1001 survey, to achieve an accurate representation from this group, the survey would have interviewed about 90 people in that area. However, a sample of n=90 is less statistically accurate. So the survey asked roughly four times as many people from that area to participate (n=401) to ensure the sub-sample of respondents from that region more accurately measured the views of residents from that area. The sub-sample of southern residents is down-weighted in the final sample using statistical methods to ensure the views of the boosted population do not skew the total, community-wide results.

Q: How many questions were asked in this research, how and why were the questions framed the way they were?

A: Eleven geo-demographic questions were asked (such as age, gender, location, housing type, employment status, etc). These ensured respondents were representative of the community, and that views of certain sub-groups (e.g. renters, homeowners, etc) could be considered. Thirteen topic-specific questions were asked to measure people’s awareness and views on Gold Coast Light Rail Stage 4 and expected usage. These were a mix of closed questions (i.e. responses chosen from a list) and open questions (i.e. seeking respondents’ opinions in their own words and recording them verbatim). These verbatim responses were coded after data collection by experienced coders to a code frame developed to cover all the themes and topics provided by the community. Questions were framed in a balanced way to enable residents to put forward their positive, negative or neutral views, and to ensure reasons for those views, could be collected and measured.

Q: The research interviewed 1,001 Gold Coast residents 18+. The Gold Coast has a population of around 493,000 adults 18+. How can a survey of 1,001 people be said to accurately represent the views of the whole population?  

A: Statistical science allows us to understand that, among a population of 490,000 adults, responses from n=1001 respondents (chosen, as much as possible, at random with some geodemographic specifications like age, gender and location) will represent the views of the community to within a margin of error of +/-3.1%. Here is an article from Associated Press explaining the science in layperson’s terms.

Methodology Statement

Agreed objectives of the Community Representative Research Project were to understand current community opinions and sentiments regarding GCLR4, focusing on:

• General awareness and understanding of the project;
• Light rail travel behaviours – current frequency of use vs expected frequency of use upon project completion;
• Community concerns / barriers of use; and
• Overall public sentiment towards light rail

Summary Survey Methodology

The 12-minute locally representative hybrid online/CATI (Computer Assisted Live Telephone Interview) survey was fielded from December 6-17 2024, among n=1001 Gold Coast Residents 18+. This included a sub-sample of n=401 residents who are representative of the population along the GCLR4 corridor, including the suburbs of Burleigh, Tallebudgera, Palm Beach, Currumbin, Tugun, Coolangatta and Bilinga.

Data were post-weighted to ensure representativeness. Survey results on the total n=1001 sample are representative of the Gold Coast community to within a maximum margin of error of +/-3.1% (at the 95% confidence interval), and the n=400 GCLR4 sub-sample results are representative of the community along that route to within a maximum MOE of +/-4.9%

Leanne White is Founder & Managing Director of Insightfully, one of Australia’s most highly respected and accurate opinion research agencies.