Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese is Australia’s most believable politician heading into next month’s federal election. This is among the key findings in Ogilvy PR’s Believability Index 2022 – Leadership Edition, following research with 1,000 Australian voters.
To request the report visit https://www.ogilvypr.com.au/believability-2022
The first edition of this Index was published ahead of the last federal election back in 2019. It was a time when fake news, clickbait, corporate scandals and rising inequality were undermining public faith in business, government and leadership.
“We’re still living in a ‘post-truth’ period of deep mistrust as Australians prepare to head back to the poll booths,” Ogilvy PR’s head of strategy and creative, Miriam Wells, said. “In times like this, we need leaders who we can believe. Leaders who we can believe in.”
For this edition of the Believability Index, research firm Lightspeed asked voters1 to rate federal, state and global political leaders against six attributes.
A sense of shared values (23 per cent) was the most important attribute in determining a leader’s believability, followed by relevance (19 per cent) and factual correctness (18 per cent). The other three attributes were commitment (15 per cent), integrity (13 per cent), and affinity (12 per cent).
Albanese has a believability rating of 48, two points higher than when we first conducted this research three years ago. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has seen his believability score fall by two points to 41. Morrison is less popular with regional voters and women, while Albanese has identity issues with younger Australians traditionally more likely to vote Labor.
Despite trailing in the believability ratings, Morrison (20 per cent) is still ahead of Albanese (16 per cent) when we asked Australians to pick their preferred PM. But in a damning assessment of 10 political leaders, 34 per cent selected ‘none of the above’.
State leaders have spent the past couple of years in the spotlight as a result of hardline stances on lockdowns and border closures during the pandemic. This has alienated voters at times, but refusing to be swayed by public opinion has also had a positive impact on their believability.
WA Premier Mark McGowan has the highest believability rating among state leaders (48), with Victoria’s Dan Andrews and Queensland’s Annastacia Palaszczuk just a point behind. New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet was the least believable of the four state leaders we included.
New Zealand Premier Jacinda Ardern is way out ahead with a score of 66, despite seeing a drop of 11 points from three years ago. United Australia Party’s Clive Palmer is Australia’s least believable political leader, scoring just 29 despite breaking records for political advertising spend.
Economic issues will be the defining issue at this year’s election, with Australians most likely to name the cost of living as a primary concern. Housing affordability and economic recovery are also top of mind. Other leading issues include management of the pandemic and energy reliability.
