Trust in various Australian institutions
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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