29 November 2024
Australians have expressed strong support for the nation’s democratic system, according to the latest McKinnon Poll from the Susan McKinnon Foundation. However, there were emerging areas for concern particularly around whether the public perceives that we are becoming more divided, and levels of support for undemocratic practices including encouraging or using violence, sending threatening or intimidating messages to Members of Parliament, damaging property, vandalising government offices and lying.
Overview
The Susan McKinnon Foundation has been running the McKinnon Poll since 2021. Over this time, 8 polls have been conducted into different significant policy issues. JWS Research conducts the McKinnon Poll on behalf of the Foundation.
The McKinnon Poll combines qualitative in-depth expert interviews and focus group discussions, as well as a quantitative online national survey of 3,000 Australian adults. Through this rigorous methodology, the program aims to encourage better policymaking by providing a richer and more in-depth understanding of public opinion as an input into the policymaking process.
Research scope
Our recent McKinnon Poll research delves into political partisanship, polarisation and social cohesion. This includes views of different groups on some challenging policy issues, how we think about political parties and trust in democracy and institutions.
Furthermore, this research also includes questions on the economy, particularly on the trade off between inflation and unemployment and future inflation expectations
These findings offer useful insights into the Australian political landscape and contribute to an evidence base that policymakers can draw upon when addressing ongoing concerns on social cohesion and extreme views.
Research insights
From a national survey of n=3000 Australians (> 18 y.o.) conducted in July 2024, key findings include:
- 61% agreed compulsory voting improves democracy, while just 14% disagreed. Some 58% believe their vote makes a difference, far outstripping those who think it doesn’t at 17%.
- 80% of Australians had complete, high or moderate trust in our electoral commissions.
- On political leadership, for 26% of Australians honesty and ethical behaviour is the most sought-after quality in our political leaders. With one in four Australians wanting political parties, leaders and candidates to prioritise fairness and equality foremost.
- 55% feel the country has become more divided when compared to five years ago, with 27% now feeling that Australia is extremely or very divided on key political, economic and social issues, with a further 50% thinking that Australia is somewhat divided.
- To advance a cause they care about, around one-third of Gen Z voters (18-24), and around a quarter of Millennial voters (25-40) were prepared to support practices including encouraging or using violence, sending threatening or intimidating messages to Members of Parliament, damaging property, vandalising government offices and lying. Support for those tactics fell along generational lines, with between just 2% and 4% of people over the age of 55 backing these practices.
- A majority of Australians believe both extreme left views (51%) and extreme right views (53%) are a serious threat to our country. However, the research found that those with stronger political views were more likely to blame the other side. 76% of those on the left thought extreme right views were a problem and 71% of those on the right thought extreme left views were a problem.
- 19% said they could not be friends with people with different political views to their own, although only 7% said that they wouldn’t help someone in need if they had very different political opinions.
- 72% agreed the Government should take action to address extreme views and intolerance in our community, with stronger laws to prosecute people who go too far (42%), stronger laws on social media companies to stop extreme content going viral (36%) and early intervention programs for at risk young people (33%) seen as most likely to be effective.
Research reports and materials
Further in-depth details, findings and insights relating to housing have been shared with relevant stakeholders, including Members of Parliament, government agencies and other interest groups.
All research outputs are now available for download:
- Media Announcement here.
- Full research report here.
- Summary research presentation here.
- Data set arising from the research here.
- Research quantitative survey here.
The full research dataset is available on request.