Australians are still sceptical of their trust in NGOs, businesses, government, and media, despite slightly improving from ‘distrust’ to a ‘neutral’ position over the last year.
The 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer found that Australians’ level of trust has risen to 52%, up from 48% last year.
Overall, Australians believe establishment leaders are not trusted to tell the truth and are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things that are false or gross exaggerations, according to the results.
Distrust in government leaders went up three percentage points to 59%. It was the same with business leaders, rising five points to 59%. Journalists and reporters saw a small increase of two percentage points of distrust, to 59%.
Australians believe government regulators lack an adequate understanding of emerging technologies to regulate them effectively at 64%, according to the barometer.
Nearly all APAC countries said that innovation is poorly managed. In Australia, 50% of respondents agreed with the sentiment; only 17% believed innovation is being well managed while the remaining 33% were indifferent.
Warren Fernandez, CEO of Edelman APAC, said that most Asian societies have an edge on innovation and technology because of the higher levels of trust in government and business among their people.
“To harness this advantage, our leaders must ensure that the already advanced rollout of technologies, such as artificial intelligence and green energy, are seen to be inclusive and working in the interests of the broad sweep of society.”
NGOs are trusted in 12 of the 28 countries surveyed, according to the barometer. This did not include Australia, which was grouped with countries in the neutral position at 58%, but it did see a small improvement of five percentage points from last year.
Scientists were found to be trustworthy when it came to telling the truth about new innovations and technologies among Australians at 71%. However, scientists were just outranked by peers or “someone like me” at 73%.
In the APAC region, 58% reported doing their own research on technology and innovation, while in Australia, that figure was 43%.
Unlike Australia and the rest of the world, in the wider APAC region, most people trust important institutions and embrace new and emerging technologies.