The Federal Government has low standing among most Australians, but individual politicians are not considered to be overly corrupt. One in three Australians see the Government as being corrupt, but very few could point to elected officials as examples of politicians participating in corrupt activities, with 15% seeing ‘almost none’, and 42% only considering ‘a few’ as corrupt. This perception matches general global democratic trends, but is complicated by views on whether the Government is genuinely interested in taking care of citizen’s interests. An overwhelming 62% see elected officials as looking after themselves sometimes (22%) or usually (41%), while only 21% said they could be trusted to do the right thing nearly all of the time.
42% of respondents believed ‘a few’ federal politicians were involved in corruption.
Only 9% felt ‘quite a lot’ of federal politicians were involved in corruption.
A majority of respondents (41%) believed people in government ‘usually looked after themselves’.
Only 21% believed people in government could be trusted to do the right thing nearly all the time.
Australians’ view of ethical conduct in government is a knotty mix of institutional wariness, and a belief that elected representatives may not be corrupt, but are not necessarily there to serve the interests of citizens.
Australians have a low opinion of the trustworthiness of the Federal Government as an institution, but do not see elected representatives as being overwhelmingly corrupt. In fact, most Australians (67%) believe few, if any, elected representatives are involved in corruption. Only 13% believed that ‘quite a lot’ or ‘almost all’ representatives had dealings in corruption. This does not, however, translate into a high opinion of the motivations and altruistic intentions of elected representatives.
There is significant concern over how well the interests of citizens are being met. Nearly two in three Australians’ consider people in government to be serving their own interests, instead of looking after the interests of citizens. Less than a quarter feel that elected representatives can be trusted to do the right thing nearly all of the time.
Australians may have high levels of satisfaction with democracy, but show overall low levels of confidence in elected representatives who operate the institutions that make up the democratic system.