In brief
A survey conducted by McKinnon in June and July of 2026 found that 74% of Australians think the nation is more divided than a year ago, with trust in federal politicians and parties dropping sharply. Satisfaction with the country’s direction fell, and a stark divide appeared along education lines. John Thwaites, McKinnon’s interim chair, highlighted the growing gulf between university‑educated citizens and those with lower qualifications.
In a survey carried out by the independent think‑tank McKinnon in June and July 2026, Australian citizens reported that their country feels more divided than a year ago, according to a Xinhua report released from Canberra on 2 November 2026.
According to the poll, 41.9% of respondents strongly agreed that the nation is more divided, while an additional 32.5% somewhat agreed. 74% of Australians as a whole said the country was more divided than a year earlier, a figure echoed by the independent news site Thehawk and the Sydney Morning Herald, which reported a 74.4% share.
Trust in the political class fell sharply. 30.5% of respondents reported a high degree of trust in federal politicians, down from 35.9% in 2025, while trust in political parties dropped from 31.2% to 24.4% over the same period. 52.8% of Australians said they have a low degree of trust in the federal government, compared with 46.3% a year earlier.
Contentment with Australia’s future also slid: those who felt very or somewhat satisfied with the country’s direction fell from 28.8% in 2025 to 26.1% in 2026, and the proportion describing themselves as very dissatisfied rose by 7.2 percentage points.
Australians have considerably more confidence in the institutions of democracy than they do in the politics conducted within them.
John Thwaites, McKinnon’s interim executive chair and former deputy premier of Victoria, said the sentiment above was one of the survey’s most striking findings.
The poll also revealed a sharp education divide. 59% of Australians holding a university degree or higher expressed satisfaction with democracy, whereas only 39.7% of those whose highest qualification was a high‑school diploma or below indicated the same.
When asked if they felt understood and represented by federal politicians, 34.6% of respondents strongly disagreed, up from 27.0% in 2025.
The Sydney Morning Herald added that more Australians now view political discussion as unhealthy, in tandem with the broader sense of division identified by the McKinnon survey.