Political and policy attitudes in an age of pessimism, March 2026

Abstract

This paper reports on political and policy attitudes collected in the March 2026 ANUpoll, a survey of 3,662 adult Australians conducted between 11 and 26 March 2026. The survey was conducted against a backdrop of acute economic anxiety and historically low life satisfaction documented in a companion paper (Biddle and Gray 2026), and during a period of significant movement in published polling on voting intentions. Australians in March 2026 retain broadly expansive views on the role of government, with majority support for government responsibility across all thirteen domains examined. However, the average value of the belief-in-government index declined between December 2025 and March 2026, consistent with falling institutional confidence over this period. Fiscal attitudes reflect a well-documented paradox: support for spending to stimulate the economy has declined, concern about public debt has reached a series high, and more Australians than at any previous ANUpoll wave describe their income taxes as too high, yet majorities simultaneously favour increased government spending across most budget areas. Environmental attitudes show a modest shift under conditions of economic strain. The proportion of Australians believing the country does too little for the environment has declined from pandemic-era levels, though it remains the most common view. Nearly three in ten Australians rate global warming as not serious or not very serious, a higher scepticism rate than for any other environmental issue asked about. The political analysis draws on voting intention data, party ratings, and three statistical models to examine the attitudinal and policy foundations of support for five political parties: the Liberals, Labor, Nationals, Greens, and One Nation. While demographic characteristics explain some of the variation in party ratings, attitudinal indices—covering financial stress, hope, belief in government, environmental concern, institutional confidence, and populist orientation—add considerably greater explanatory power. Confidence in institutions is positively associated with favourable ratings for the Liberal, Labor, National and Greens parties but has no significant association with the ratings of One Nation. The strongest attitudinal predictor of a favourable One Nation rating is populist orientation, with policy preference for stricter border control and less strict environmental laws emerging as the policy items most distinctively associated with One Nation support. Taken together, these findings suggest that the current rise in One Nation support reflects an internally coherent attitudinal configuration rather than a simple protest response to economic conditions, though financial stress remains an important contributing factor. Show more