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Trust in various Australian institutions

26 Sep 2011

Q. How much trust do you have in the following institutions?

Total Trust Total No Trust A lot of trust Some trust A little trust No trust Don’t know
The High Court 72% 19% 33% 39% 13% 6% 10%
The Reserve Bank 67% 24% 23% 44% 17% 7% 10%
Courts in general 65% 26% 19% 46% 18% 8% 9%
Charitable organisations 61% 30% 18% 43% 22% 8% 9%
Federal Parliament 55% 36% 15% 40% 21% 15% 10%
The ABC 46% 44% 12% 34% 31% 13% 10%
Environment groups 45% 46% 11% 34% 28% 18% 9%
Trade unions 39% 52% 10% 29% 30% 22% 10%
Business groups 38% 51% 6% 32% 34% 17% 10%
Religious organisations 29% 62% 9% 20% 27% 35% 9%
Please note: ‘Total Trust’ is an aggregate figure achieved by adding ‘A lot of trust’ and ‘Some trust’ together.  ‘Total No Trust’ is an aggregate figure achieved by combining ‘A little trust’ and ‘No trust’.

The institution in which respondents place the most trust is the High Court with 72% of respondents stating that they either have ‘a lot of trust’ or ‘some trust’ in the High Court.  The High Court is followed by the Reserve Bank (67%), Courts in general (65%) and Charitable organisations (61%).

Federal parliament features below these top four, ranking 5th with 55% of respondents having either ‘a lot of trust’ or ‘some trust’, followed by the ABC which ranked in sixth place (46% total trust).

The institutions for which respondents had the most distrust were trade unions (52% no trust), business groups (51% no trust) and Religious organisations, which attracted the highest proportion of distrust (62% no trust).

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