While trust in government is up, Australians continue to see corruption as a major problem.

The number of Australians that view corruption as either a ‘very big’ or ‘quite big’ problem has risen 5 percentage points over the past two years – from 61 per cent in 2018 to 66% in October 2020.

The proportion of people who think the federal government is handling corruption issues “very badly” has risen from 15% to 19.4% over the same time period.

Meanwhile, trust in federal and state governments has improved. Trust in the federal and state level of government ‘to do a good job in carrying out its responsibilities’ has risen 15 and 14 percentage points respectively since 2018. This correlates with a recent PwC survey that found an increased trust in government during the COVID-19 pandemic.

About the Global Corruption Barometer

The Global Corruption Barometer is a tool developed by Transparency International for checking the public’s lived experience of public sector corruption. Since its debut in 2003, the Global Corruption Barometer has surveyed the experiences of tens of thousands of people confronting corruption around the world.

Whereas the Corruption Perceptions Index crunches the data on how expert analysts perceive public sector corruption, the Barometer looks at the lived experience and views of everyday people.

See also:

• Australia’s National Integrity System: The Blueprint for Action (report)
• New research lays blueprint for fairer, higher integrity government (media release)