Australians feel more financially secure despite the pandemic
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Australians are feeling more satisfied about their financial situation a year into the coronavirus pandemic than they were before it started, despite the first recession in 30 years creating a less secure jobs market.
However, the impact of the pandemic means it has displaced the economy as the most important problem facing Australia today, according to the Scanlon Foundation’s annual Mapping Social Cohesion survey.
People have applauded the government’s handling of the pandemic.
Alex Ellinghausen
The survey, of about 3000 people, showed Australian society had not frayed like other countries under the stress of the virus, report author Andrew Markus said.
Toughing out Covid: how Australia s social fabric held together during a once-in-a-century crisis
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Australians remain strongly supportive of immigration and multiculturalism, but a high level of negative opinion towards Australians of Asian, African and Middle Eastern backgrounds persists.
The Scanlon Foundation s 2020 Social Cohesion Report provides an insight into the attitudes of Australians, and in a year when faced with a major crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Two surveys - carried out in July and November last year - included more than 140 questions intended to gauge public opinion on population issues and community harmony.
“The surveys point to a resilient, resourceful, adaptive society - perhaps a result that will surprise many,” said the report s author, Emeritus Professor Andrew Markus.
To be certain of the findings, a second survey of 2,793 respondents was conducted in November. âIn November, we again got very positive data,â he says. By positive data, this is what Markus means. Stepping through his findings, a supermajority was on board with Scott Morrisonâs response to the crisis, and the level of trust in government in Australia hit the highest point in the history of the survey.
People had confidence in the public health response. More than 90% of respondents in the five mainland states said lockdowns to suppress transmission were definitely or probably required. While the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, endured a period of being flogged by the Murdoch media for locking down the state, 78% of respondents backed Andrews, and when they were asked whether the lockdown was required, 87% said yes.
Year from hell: nation needs time to heal before hustings begin
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Year from hell: nation needs time to heal before hustings begin
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg depart at the end of Question Time in August.
Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Events are famously the biggest worry for politicians trying to pursue their agendas, and 2020 has had no shortage of them.
The bushfires that bore down on holidaying Australians and blanketed much of the east coast in smoke as the year began were not yet out before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. It has been for many, as Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese put it bluntly in Federal Parliament, the year from hell.
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