'; ?> The trust deficit | What The People Want
The trust deficit
Wednesday, 21 August 2013 10:08 | Written by Graham Young

It's a given that most people don't trust politicians as a group, but that doesn't stop politicians running on the basis of being more trustworthy than their opponents, and that's where this election started out.

On the basis of our polling, this is not a strong position for Labor as their leader is less well-liked and less trusted than his opponent by those who have applied their mind to the next election. (Our panel is made up of people who, while not necessarily experts, are much more interested in politics than the average. They tend to arrive at judgements that are similar to the rest of Australia, they just get there faster.)

On the question of whether they approve of the job Kevin Rudd is doing as Prime Minister, there is a net disapproval.

Rudd Approve 13 08 08

Significant factors are the disapproval ratings in the Green and Minior Parties, and that ALP voters are less likely to support him than Liberal voters are to oppose him.

Tony Abbott also gets net disapproval for the job he is doing as Opposition Leader, but he is still 18 points ahead of Rudd.

Abbott Approve 13 08 08

Here Labor and Liberal are almost evenly opposed, and Abbott gets a bare nod from the minor parties.

This translates into Abbott being the preferred prime minister (although one can take it from the above this is not an enthusiastic endorsement of him for this position).

Preferred PM 13 08 08

 In his opening comments of the campaign Kevin Rudd said that the election is about trust.

Party Trust 13 08 08

This is not a strong proposition for him. Only two-thirds of Greens and 18% of Minor Party voters trust the ALP more than the Libs.

Tony Abbott replied that it wasn't about trust it was about who was more "fair dinkum". This seems to be a reasonable proposition for him. 

Party Fair Dinkum 13 08 08

The propositions are similar and the results are smilar too.

So why would you trust Liberal rather than Labor?

A variety of reasons including past performance in general, and past performance in terms of telling the truth - the carbon tax promise still resonates.

Trust Why Thumb 13 08 09

 

Responses were different on the question of who was more "fair dinkum" and the carbon tax didn't make an appearance here.

Fair Dinkum Why Thumb 13 08 09

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Comments   

 
0 #1 RE: The trust deficit — Dion Giles 2013-09-02 10:55
Astounding that so many grade shifting sands during a minority government as more meriting distrust than lying our soldiers to their death and our country to disgrace.Carbon tax is a silly policy because CAGW is tosh, but a promise coming unstuck because the Greens had the government over a barrel seems of far less important than outright treason.

Perhaps a lot of people had forgotten. or perhaps they remembered Rudd teling the same lies though he didn't get the chance to act on them.
 
 
0 #2 media attempts at brainwashing... . — Kipling 2013-09-12 08:36
I think you left out an entirely important factor, how issues are reported, talked up and spun in mainstream media. That has a far more telling effect.

A curiosity to me for example has been the widely reported and never openly challenged idea of the Howard and Costello governments huge surplus as being the result of good economic management. That is a blatant lie given that up to about 80% of the surplus could be directly attributed to selling off of public assets. The fact this does not get challenged at all in mainstream media is as disturbing as it is telling.

In short, the media has blatantly driven public perceptions about honesty vs dishonesty and this position has not been challenged (or rather, given the same public space for challenge) in open and honest debate.
 
 
0 #3 RE: The trust deficit — Dion Giles 2013-09-15 13:37
What has been even more appalling during the 6-year Labor government than the blatant abuse of foreign monopoly media power is the total failure of top Labor pollies to supply the necessary rejoinders. For example to the best of my knowledge the Rudd-Gillard-Ru dd Government, unlike the Howard Government, didn't flog off any of the people's hard-won assets. Why weren't the PMs and Treasurers crowing this from the rooftops every time the Libs referred to Costello's surplus? Gillard was the worse in this respect - who can forget her near-silence in the teeth of Howard Sattler's pig-ignorant diatribe? Rudd got a lot of stick for outspokenness (though still too timid in my view) but the last thing a leader should be is hog-tied by advisers. Contrast Gillard when she was Deputy, brilliantly speaking her mind on the floor of Parliament (and brilliant too when as PM she broke free of the advisers and spoke her mind against the wall of misogyny).