Roughly one in three Australians have confidence in the Morrison government, which is the lowest approval since the 2019-20 summer bushfires, according to a survey.
The latest instalment of the Australian National University’s research of wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic found that in January satisfaction in Australia’s direction and the federal government both dropped.
The longitudinal survey of 3,472 Australians was conducted in the final two weeks of January, as the Omicron wave and eased restrictions resulted in some days with more than 100,000 new Covid cases, and new records for the deadliest days.
The ANU’s Centre for Social Research and Methods found 34.5% of adult Australians had confidence or were “very confident” in the federal government, down from a peak of 60.6% in May 2020.
The result is only slightly higher than the low of 27.3% recorded during the 2019-20 bushfires.
Confidence also declined in the public service, down to 57.6%, and in state and territory governments, down to 52.3%, but these institutions were still rated higher than the federal government.
Between October 2021 and January 2022 satisfaction in the direction of the country fell to 63.6%, about the same level as the Delta wave of Covid in mid-2021.
In January, just 40% of Australians thought “the worst of the pandemic is behind us”, down from 54.6% in October when lockdowns that successfully suppressed the Delta wave began to be lifted.
As infection rates rose, so did Australians’ expectations that they would get Covid in the next six months, up from 40% in October to 80% in January.
Almost a quarter of the adult population (22.4%) reported that they could not get tested when they wanted to. Of those, three-quarters (75.6%) blamed being “unable to find a rapid antigen test in my local area”.
In early January Scott Morrison’s government promised to make rapid antigen tests free for concession cardholders after Labor promised free tests for all, but the scheme got off to a slow start due to supply issues.
In February Morrison started the political year in an appearance at the National Press Club in which he offered an apology, of sorts, for the handling of the pandemic.
“We’re all terribly sorry for what this pandemic has done to the world and to this country,” he said.
Morrison conceded the government had been “too optimistic” and that “in raising those expectations about the summer, that we heightened the great sense of disappointment that people felt” when the Omicron wave increased cases, hospitalisations and deaths.
The ANU study concluded that it was “always going to be necessary to open the country and ease restrictions that have been some of the most draconian in the developed world” and that it was inevitable this would “lead to a large increase in Covid-19 cases”.
“But it was not anticipated that the opening would coincide with the new Omicron variant of the virus that while milder in terms of health consequences was far more infectious,” the study said.
“It would appear from the data presented in this paper that at least in the short term the positive impacts of the easing of restrictions … have not outweighed the impact of a dramatic increase in infections and a smaller, but still considerable increase in hospitalisation and mortality.”
Study co-author Prof Nicholas Biddle said the survey also found a “decline in confidence in hospitals and the health system, the largest we have seen during the pandemic”.
“Although people are still quite confident in the health system, clearly the handling of the pandemic and the ongoing wave of Omicron infections is starting to take a real toll on how all major institutions are viewed by Australians,” he said.
In January, Guardian’s Essential poll also showed Morrison’s approval reaching its lowest point of the Covid pandemic, although voters’ anger cooled in February after the Omicron wave had peaked.
