Pessimism

There has been a general downturn in sentiment about Australia’s direction since the last True Issues survey, five months ago. However, on balance, more still feel optimistic about their own personal situation and local community than pessimistic.

True Issues is a research tool to assist Australian businesses understand where their issues truly sit within the contemporary issues landscape. This poll was conducted as an online survey between 6 – 10 November among a representative national sample of 1,000 Australians aged 18+ years.

In the latest True Issues survey, three in ten Australians remain positive about their own personal situation: 31% feel they are heading in the right direction, more than the 20% who feel they are heading in the wrong direction. However, this is a less optimistic outlook than in June, when twice as many saw themselves heading in the right direction (35%) than wrong direction (18%).

After a post-May 2019 election bounce, there has been a pronounced decline in confidence about the future direction of local communities, business and state and national economies. While, on balance, Australians are optimistic about their local community, this has softened after peaking in June. Fewer now feel their local community is heading in the right direction (27%, down from 32%), more hold a neutral view, and almost one in five (19%) continue to feel their local community is heading in the wrong direction.

Confidence in business and industry has fallen back into the negative since June. Similarly, compared with five months ago, more now see their national (34%, up from 29%) and state and territory economies (35%, up from 30%) heading in the wrong direction. Only two in ten Australians (22% and 21%, respectively) see them heading in the right direction. This has pushed the net direction rating of both national (-12) and state and territory (-13) economies further into negative territory, with both ratings now slightly worse than this time last year (-11 each).

This was an excerpt from our latest True Issues report, to read the full report, click the link below.
For further enquiries or to include your issue in the next wave, please get in touch.