Govt trust at decade high amid COVID-19 but concerns over pandemic-related racism: report

The Scanlon Foundation's Mapping Social Cohesion report, released Thursday, revealed trust in government was at an all-time high for the survey, which first began in 2007.

The results of the national surveys, which asked nearly 3000 living in Australia in July and again in November 2020, revealed the public's trust in government had reached 54 per cent in July, peaking at 55 per cent by November.

It represents a nearly 20 per cent increase on the previous year's results and an almost 30 per cent spike on 2018's figure.

Report author, Emeritus Professor Andrew Markus, said the results were surprising, bucking a global trend of decaying government trust and social cohesion caused by the pandemic.

"In parts of the world, social cohesion has started to fray as the pandemic has evolved, but such fraying has not been observed in Australia," Professor Markus said.

"Here, governments have succeeded in controlling the spread of the virus and there are signs of economic recovery. In November, nearly nine months since the COVID-19 pandemic began to disrupt life across the world - a large majority of Australians remained positive about the future."

While trust in the governments' handling of the crisis was marked and the country scored well in social cohesion overall, the report highlighted racism was still being felt by certain groups within Australia.

When asked if discrimination had increased since the COVID-19 pandemic had begun, respondents born in an Asian country recorded the highest percentage at 39 per cent compared to 14 per cent of those born in Australia.

The survey also asked how respondents viewed specific nationalities within Australia with Iraqis and Sudanese both recording negative responses at 49 per cent. Chinese followed marginally behind at 47 per cent while Lebanese recorded 42 per cent.

Multiculturalism, however, was viewed favourably as a whole.

Asked if multiculturalism was good for Australia, a majority of respondents, 84 per cent, said they supported the statement, marking a 4 per cent increase on 2019's response.

Nearly three-quarters also agreed that accepting more immigrants into the country was a positive outcome.

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Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said he welcomed the report's findings but was concerned about the levels of racism targeted at specific groups in the country.

"Racism is still an unwelcome and unacceptable feature of too many attitudes," Mr Hawke said.

"This is why the Morrison Government will continue to heavily invest in Australia's social cohesion, and work to counter the extreme elements that promote racism and disinformation about our multicultural communities."

Mr Hawke added the government had committed $63 million in funding toward social cohesion strategies in the 2021 federal budget, including $37.3 million to tackle racist information online and promote Australian values and identity.

But shadow multicultural affairs minister Andrew Giles said it wasn't enough and urged the government to adopt a national anti-racism strategy in order to tackle negative sentiments.

"Rising concerns about racism, requires action and consistent leadership," Mr Giles said.

"Labor continues to call on the Morrison Government to tackle racism by committing to a national anti-racism strategy."

A study released in November last year by the Australian National University's Centre for Asian-Australian Leadership found discrimination against Asian-Australians had risen to 84.5 per cent during 2020 - a 2.5 per cent rise on the previous year.

The findings also showed Asian-Australians were more likely to be trusted at 65 per cent when compared to Anglo-Australians who came in at 55 per cent.