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30 SEP 2026
Last year, we asked more than 4,000 Australians what they really thought about their democracy, their governments and the people who run them.
The answer was complicated. Australians had not given up on democracy. Three-quarters still believed it was better than any alternative, and institutions such as the Australian Electoral Commission continued to command high levels of trust.
But when we asked how people felt about politics and government in practice, the mood changed. Only 36% trusted federal politicians, fewer than four in ten trusted government and more than half were unhappy with the direction Australia was heading. While 76% backed democracy, only 54.5% were satisfied with how it was actually working.
There were warning signs beneath those national numbers, too.
People outside our major cities were less likely to believe the political system gave them a say. Younger Australians were more open to political violence and less comfortable maintaining friendships across political divides. Around one in six Australians told us their main reason for voting was to avoid a fine.
A year on, we wanted to know whether anything had changed. Do Australians feel any better about the way they are governed? Has another year of elections, political debate and government decisions shifted how they see our democracy?
We won’t give away the results just yet, but we can say this: Australia’s democratic report card hasn’t suddenly turned around. The warning lights we saw last year are still flashing, and some may be getting brighter.
That matters because one bad result can be dismissed as a bad year. When the same problems keep showing up, they become much harder to ignore. And if Australians are continuing to lose confidence in the people and institutions that govern them, we need to understand where that is happening and what is driving it.
On Wednesday, 21 October, we will launch the second McKinnon Index. We’ll see what has shifted, what hasn’t, and whether some of last year’s warning signs are becoming something more serious.
In this edition
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