Federal and state governments win public’s trust during COVID pandemic

Trust in the federal government and state government has skyrocketed through 2021 as COVID galvanises people’s support.

Eighty-five per cent of Aus­tralians consider Scott Morrison’s government has responded to the coronavirus pandemic either very well or well, a new survey finds. Picture Adam Taylor / PMO

Trust in the federal government is at its highest since at least 2007 and Australians have overwhelmingly backed their governments’ handling of the COVID crisis.

Eighty-five per cent of Aus­tralians consider the Morrison government has responded to the coronavirus pandemic either very well or well, a new survey finds, numbers rarely recorded on polls relating to political matters.

And several state governments fared even better, with 99 per cent of Western Australians and 92 per cent of Queenslanders saying their state governments were handling COVID-19 well or very well, the 3000-person survey conducted in July and November for the Scanlon Mapping Social ­Cohesion report found.

The NSW government received 81 per cent support, while the polling showed Victoria at 65 per cent in July, during the state’s COVID second wave, but increasing to 78 per cent by November.

 

The survey, conducted annually since 2007, has always shown a reluctance by Australians to trust politicians but it is clear that a crisis galvanises people around their governments.

Each year, people are asked whether they trusted the federal government “to do the right thing for the Australian people”. Between 2007 and 2019, an average of 32 per cent agreed the government did almost always or most of the time. This year it was 55 per cent, the first time there had been majority support.

And the proportion of people who considered Australia’s system of government worked well or needed only minor change increased from 57 per cent in 2018 to 72 per cent in November.

The report’s lead researcher, Monash University emeritus professor Andrew Markus, said the findings on trust in government showed Australian society becomes more resilient and cohesive when under significant stress.

“People have turned to governments in the crisis, true, but the governments have to be effective,” he told The Australian. “If they hadn’t been effective in handling the pandemic, we would have seen a change in the responses between our July and November surveys, which we didn’t. The only change was in Victoria, and that was a significant improvement in support.”

Professor Markus said people were positive about economic policies such as JobSeeker and also about the lockdown responses: 95 per cent of Australians supported the lockdown measures.

“They are seeing on the TV what is going on in the US and Europe and that is reinforcing what has been done here,” he said.

The survey also showed Australians retained an overall positive view about the country’s future, with 75 per cent expressing optimism compared with 63 per cent in 2019.

Despite being most affected by the economic consequences of the pandemic in the short term, the youngest were the most positive about the future, with 70 per cent of 18-24 year olds saying they thought their life in Australia would be “much improved” or “a little improved” in three or four years. This figure dropped to 31 per cent for 55-64 year olds.

There was generally strong support for multiculturalism, with high levels of belief immigrants are good for the economy and society.