National

Confidence in government at pandemic low

By AAP Newswire

Feb 14, 2022

QUESTION TIME — Confidence in the Morrison government is at its lowest level since the start of the pandemic. -AAP Image

Australians' confidence in the Morrison government is at its lowest level since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The Australian National University study of 3472 people in January found only about a third had a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the government.

This is down from 60 per cent of people in May 2020 and only slightly above confidence levels of 27.3 per cent during the Black Summer bushfires.

"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," study co-author Professor Nicholas Biddle said.

Between October and January, satisfaction with the direction the country was going dropped.

The proportion of people satisfied or very satisfied with the country's direction went from 69.8 per cent to 63.6 per cent.

"One of the potential reasons for this drop ... is that respondents don't feel that key institutions are handling the pandemic as well as they have in the past, or as well as they should be doing given the current circumstances," Professor Biddle said.

During the bushfires, 59.5 per cent of people were happy with where the country was headed.

The survey is part of the ANU's ongoing study about the effects of the pandemic.

It found 80 per cent of people thought they'd be infected with COVID-19 in the next six months. In October, only 40 per cent of people thought the same.

A Newspoll published online by The Australian on Sunday shows the Liberal-led coalition's primary vote remains on a post-election record low of 34 per cent.