Confidence in government among voters drops

There has been "a very large decline in confidence in Federal Government among Australian voters", new analysis from The Australian National University (ANU) shows, with those declines linked closely to views on sexual assault and harassment in the workplace. The longitudinal survey of 3,200 adults also found there has been a large drop in the number of Australians who say they would vote for the Coalition. Collected in April 2021 but linked to responses from the same individuals all the way back to prior to the pandemic, the survey forms part of the COVID-19 monitoring program led by the ANU Centre for Social Research Methods (CSRM), and is the largest study of its kind in Australia. Co-author Professor Nicholas Biddle said less than half of Australian adults were confident in the Federal Government. "This is a milestone," he said. "Confidence in government is a key indicator of people's view on institutions in Australia, and for the first time since the pandemic commenced, the majority of Australians no longer have confidence in the government. "There was a very large decline in confidence in the Federal Government in Canberra between January 2021 and April 2021, from 54.3 per cent who said they had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in January 2021 to 45.4 per cent in April 2021," Professor Biddle said.