The Civic Health of Australia

Report – Samuel Wilson, Eddie Kowalski, Vladimir Demsar, Swinburne University of Technology, 27 June 2024

The civic health of Australia: a national portrait in 30 charts

In recent years, as chronicled in countless news stories and reports into trust, integrity and accountability, leaders and institutions in general, and political leaders and institutions in particular, have become seen as self-serving, putting self and vested interests ahead of the wider public interest. There is now a deep and pervasive sense among Australian citizens that they are not well served by their social institutions or those who lead them.

Public trust in and satisfaction with Australia’s institutions of government, including democracy itself, has declined sharply, with trust and satisfaction lowest among those who do not believe that our political system allows them to influence government decision-making and policymaking.

Furthermore, social cohesion in Australia is declining. Many Australians say it has gotten to the point where we are incapable of having constructive and civil debates about the issues on which we disagree.

There is no shortage of information about these social trends. We see it reported in daily news stories, public opinion polls, research reports and public inquiries. However, this deluge of information can be difficult to integrate into useful knowledge, let alone a practical understanding about the state we’re in and what to do about it.

In this review, drawing on scores of publicly available reports from a variety of Australian and international research teams, the authors present a comprehensive picture of the state of civic health of Australia.

Read the full report here: https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2024-06/apo-nid327220.pdf