Majority of Australians say they’re no worse off than before coronavirus, says Newspoll

The vast majority of voters ­believe they are now either financially better off or in about the same position as they were a year ago.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Picture: Daniel Pockett

The vast majority of voters ­believe they are now either financially better off or in about the same position as they were a year ago ­despite more than one million jobs being lost at the height of the ­pandemic.

Yet Australians are also dubious about the pace of economic ­recovery, with most claiming it will be several years before it has been fully salvaged.

An exclusive Newspoll conducted for The Australian shows that Labor voters are the most likely to feel they have not been impacted financially or are in a better position now despite Anthony Albanese claiming the government has left people behind in its fiscal ­response to COVID-19.

A total of 57 per cent of all voters polled claimed that their families were in about the same financial position as they were a year ago, before the outbreak.

A further 14 per cent claimed they were now better off than they had been, in a sign that the government’s $270bn stimulus and rescue plan — including increased JobSeeker payments and the JobKeeper scheme — had protected people from financial hardship.

The economic shutdowns, border closures and social restrictions had also bolstered people’s household savings, while some workers experienced effective pay rises in the first round of JobKeeper.

Among Labor voters, 60 per cent claimed they were in about the same financial position they were a year ago, with 13 per cent saying they were better off and 26 per cent being worse off.

This compared to 57 per cent and 15 per cent of Coalition voters respectively, with 28 per cent claiming to have fallen onto hard times. Minor party voters fared the worst, but a majority were also still spared from tough times, with 66 per cent of Greens voters either the same or better off and 62 per cent of those who supported One Nation and “others” declaring the same.

The poll of 1512 voters over January 27-30 showed that Australians were resigned to a long road to economic recovery, with 57 per cent claiming it would be “several years” before a return to normal and 27 per cent claiming the country to be fully back on its feet within a year.

Only 14 per cent were confident it would be six months or less.

At the same time, people were less inclined to be worried about the impact of the pandemic on the economy than they were in July last year, with 61 per cent saying they were worried about it now compared to 81 per cent seven months ago.

They also marked up the federal and state governments’ ­response to managing the economy through the crisis, with 62 per cent saying they were satisfied with their performance against 57 per cent saying the same thing in July. The level of support for governments at both levels was running at 60 per cent in May last year at the height of the pandemic.

There was also a continuing trend toward the economy as a priority over containment of the virus, although the protection of health still remained paramount for the majority of people.

The percentage of people concerned that governments were moving too slowly to relax lockdowns and harming the economy and people’s mental health had grown from 20 per cent in July last year to 34 per cent.

Those concerned that the government would act too hastily and risk the spread of the virus fell from 76 per cent to 62 per cent over the same period.