Australian Politicians ‘Fail’ Public Interest Poll Australian Politicians ‘Fail’ Public Interest Poll Comments Off on Australian Politicians ‘Fail’ Public Interest Poll CANBERRA, Australia — Even before recent scandals rocked the state and federal parliaments, Australians overwhelmingly felt politicians were failing to meet their public interest expectations. The latest Next 25 Navigator study, a poll of 2,825 people from last December to February, has found the political class fared the worst of six key institutions on public interest performance. As per the annual report (released on Wednesday), only 22 percent of respondents thought politicians were acting in the public interest. “One conclusion we can draw from our data is that whatever the government is doing, it isn’t working,” said Ralph Ashton, executive director of Next25 (a non-profit group that runs regular leadership courses for parliamentarians).