Results just in from the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index shows a fall in satisfaction with Government, decreasing a massive 4.6 points since September 2009.
Professor Bob Cummins of Deakin University and author of the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index said this is the largest fall recorded in 10 years of the index.
“Satisfaction with Government started to rise in October 2007, seemingly in anticipation of the Labor victory in November of that year,” Professor Cummins said. “Satisfaction then rose to unprecedented heights, peaking in April 2008 and maintaining a level until September 2009, a remarkable two years of strong electoral endorsement.
Now this period is at an end, with satisfaction falling to the same average level as was prior to 2007,” he said.
The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index asks Australians to rate their “satisfaction with government” as a broad, generic question and does not refer to a specific political party or individual politicians.
“Most remarkable about these results is the way our other measures of personal and national wellbeing have remained steady at this time. No other measures of Personal or National Wellbeing have shown this collapse in satisfaction,” Professor Cummins said.
“So the fall in satisfaction with Government is quite specific and not due to some overall population malaise.”
In other results from the Index, satisfaction with business and the economic situation have both returned to pre-recession levels indicating the financial crisis could now be a distant memory.
The wellbeing of Australians is currently at a high level. Both the Personal Wellbeing Index 76.0 points and the National Wellbeing Index 63.9 points are higher than normal by +1.0 and +2.4 points respectively.
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For further information please contact Sarah Kulman, Australian Unity’s Public Affairs Adviser on 0400 006 295 or Professor Bob Cummins on 0402 917 972.