How do you feel about politics? Do you see politicians as accessible, trustworthy and competent, or just the opposite? Do you feel that they are acting in our best interests, or that they are serving a select few?
If you are feeling disengaged and cynical about our political system, it turns out that you are in the majority. And that is concerning.
The Australian Election Study (AES) has been running out of the Australian National University, surveying voters and political candidates on a range of issues relating to elections and politics in Australia since 1987. They ask people questions about policy priorities, party affiliation, leadership popularity, voting choices, and their trust in politics.
In their most recent survey, conducted after the 2019 Australian federal election, the AES found that trust in the political system was stuck in a pattern of serious decline, with just 59 per cent of respondents being satisfied with democracy, just 25 per cent believing people in government can be trusted, and just 12 per cent believing the government is run for ‘all the people’ (with 56 per cent asserting instead ‘that the government is run for ‘a few big interests’). As the AES comment in their report, ‘[t]hat so few people believe the government is run for the Australian people, presents a serious challenge for a representative democracy.’
It really does, doesn’t it?
Out of curiosity, I recently asked people on Twitter if they’d ever considered running for parliament, and if they had but hadn’t actually run, what had stopped them. The responses were enlightening, and depressing.
'So, how do we improve our political system? How do we recover public trust and perceptions of accessibility? Better yet, how do we actually increase integrity, responsiveness and inclusivity in politics?'
Quite a few people commented that section 44 was a key barrier, in light of their dual-citizenship, which is kind of interesting in light of how many politicians were recently caught out by this very provision. A significant number cited personal scrutiny and attacks, including by the Murdoch media, as a huge deterrent, especially due to the potential impact of this on their families. This was exacerbated for many by a widespread belief that these attacks display a persistent and ugly seam of misogyny, racism and other discriminatory attitudes.
Many people cited their alienation from the two-party system and belief that the need to ‘toe the party line’ required politicians to compromise their