Just 38% of Australian voters have confidence in the federal government, a level approaching the lows before Scott Morrison was voted out of office in May 2022.
That is one of the key results of an Australian National University study, which nevertheless found the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, had “significantly higher” favourability than Peter Dutton leading into the 2025 election.
Women were more likely to say they were unsure who they would vote for ahead of the federal election, the study found, with 12.1% undecided compared with 6.7% of men.
The ANU’s Centre for Social Policy Research surveyed 3,622 respondents between 15 and 25 October for its paper on perceptions of democracy and other political attitudes in Australia.
Satisfaction with democracy was high, with 64% satisfied or very satisfied. Young people were particularly happy with the direction of the country, with 67% of those aged 18 to 34 satisfied or very satisfied compared with 60% of the general population.
But the study contained some concerning results for the Albanese government, with 17.4% of respondents saying they had no confidence at all in the federal government; 44.8% with “not very much confidence”; 32.8% “quite a lot” and just 5% “a great deal of confidence”.
Long-run results showed that confidence in the federal government peaked at about 60% in mid-2020 during the Covid crisis, then fell away to the mid 30s in April 2022 before the Coalition lost the election.
Although confidence recovered to above 50% during the honeymoon period of the Albanese government, it has ebbed steadily down to 38%.
With gen Z voters and millennials predicted to be an influential voting bloc outnumbering baby boomers for the first time, the study found almost half (47%) of respondents aged 18 to 34 years had quite a lot or a great deal of confidence in the federal government. This fell to 42.5% for those aged 35 to 54.
Trust in the federal government had also eroded, with the proportion of the total population saying they don’t trust it rising from 40.4% at the previous election to 48.1% today.
Nearly half of respondents, 48.8%, agreed or strongly agreed that politicians are corrupt.
The judiciary is the most trusted institution of the seven tested, with 63.5% trusting judges. Social media remained the least trusted institution.
Although voters had a slightly more favourable opinion of the Liberal party than the Labor party, the results were better for Albanese personally.
On a 10-point scale, Albanese was the most popular leader with an average rating of 4.56, similar to Nationals leader David Littleproud (4.55) and significantly ahead of Dutton (4.31). The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has the lowest rating of all party leaders (3.83).
The study found Australians “appear reluctant to identify as either left or right on the political spectrum”, with 41.9% of Australians identifying as being exactly in the centre of the distribution.
“Of the remainder, 23.3% gave a value of 0 to 4 (left-wing) whereas 34.8% gave a value of 6 to 10 (right-wing).”
Study co-author Prof Nicholas Biddle said it was “worth noting that dissatisfaction around six months out from the next federal election, if parliament goes to full term, is more or less the same as dissatisfaction was in April 2022, just prior to the Morrison government losing the subsequent election”.
The study found more than three in 10 Australians reported finding it difficult to get by on their current income, with younger and middle-aged groups particularly affected.
“Financial stress correlates with lower satisfaction with democracy and reduced political trust,” Biddle said.
“Similarly, loneliness, experienced by 42% of Australians in some capacity, aligns with disengagement from politics and institutions.”
