Confidence in the federal government across measures of leadership and integrity has rebounded since the election, with the new Albanese government recording a significant bounce in public support.
Data from Swinburne University’s Australian Leadership Index, which tracks public perceptions of a range of institutions in one of Australia’s largest ongoing research studies, found that after hitting a low of 52 points out of 100 in the March quarter, public confidence in the country’s leadership has rebounded to 61 points in the September quarter.
There has been a similar boost on the measure of integrity. While the Morrison government scored between 50 and 52 points out of 100 for integrity from October 2021 to the May election, the Albanese government scored 60 points out of 100 in its first full quarter.
The integrity index measures qualities such as transparency, genuineness, reliability, honesty and care for community, among other traits.
On competence, public support is sitting at 62 points after reaching a low of 53 under Morrison before the election.
There has also been a slight improvement in the public’s view of the government’s “contribution” – which tracks a range of metrics such as employment, knowledge and education outcomes – with support increasing from 55 points before the election, to 61 now.
Dr Vlad Demsar, an Australian Leadership Index researcher said the figures showed that public faith in the government was heading in the right direction, after the low figures detected ahead of the election under former prime minister, Scott Morrison.
“It is an uptick, but there’s still quite a bit of room to improve,” Demsar said.
“I think that some of the initiatives that we’re seeing emerging now, particularly around the federal anti-corruption body and the more aggressive targets on climate change, and other initiatives that the Albanese government is taking, they’re probably going to push that shift further in the coming months and quarters – that’s certainly what we’re expecting.”
He said the survey had not always judged the former Morrison government harshly, with index results showing strong support for the federal government in the early days of the pandemic.
“Throughout the pandemic, [we saw] people really come together and there is this kind of sense of unity that the government was doing what it could to protect people,” he said. “So sentiment actually became quite positive.
“As the pandemic started to wear off, and the vaccine rollout was botched, and we had all of the different transparency and public integrity issues coming towards the end of the term, sentiment just fell off a cliff and it became overwhelmingly negative.”
He said while the change of government had seen public confidence lifting, the positive rating was still below that shown for other institutions.
Demsar said that the index found the national average across public and private institutions for leadership was 64, above the public perceptions of the federal government, even with the recent improvement.
The public sector had the highest leadership rating at 70, compared to 64 for the non-for-profit sector, and 62 for private institutions.
“The first step is getting above their national average and being seen as really contributing to leadership in Australia,” Demsar said.
“But then how high can they go? I think the mid-70s would be a really, really great look for the federal government.”
The survey gauges the views of 1,000 Australians each quarter on a rolling basis, with the results weighted to be a nationally representative sample for age, gender and state.
