Australia is having a 'democracy bounce'. Anthony Albanese could give Donald Trump some lessons

Australia Broadcast Center

12 hours ago

As the Australian prime minister prepares to meet with the US president for their first face-to-face meeting, only one of them is leading a country where democracy is thriving and the public isn't bitterly divided.
American democracy is being eroded by a president deploying the National Guard and Marines against his own people, in scenes you'd think could only unfold in autocracies.
But something very different is going on here.
While there is mounting political pressure on Anthony Albanese to walk out of the meeting unscathed with a deal that looks to Australia's advantage, he goes in with a domestic advantage to Donald Trump.
Australians aren't mugs — they see what's unfolding in the US and they have made it clear they don't want to see our PM play a subservient role in this increasingly unreliable relationship because of a volatile president.
The contrast between Australia and America couldn't be starker.
Findings from the latest drop of the 2025 Election Monitoring Survey Series from ANU point to a notable uptick in public confidence in Australia's democratic system following our election.
Satisfaction with democracy reached its highest level since 2022, and perceptions of the country's direction also improved, particularly among younger Australians.
The patterns suggest a "democracy bounce" effect, where a combination of the orderly conduct of the election, the decisive outcome and smooth transition into the next parliament may have contributed to renewed optimism about the political system.
Australians are more satisfied with the direction of the country now than they have been since the start of 2024, with a significant and substantial increase from 57.7 per cent satisfied/very satisfied before the election to 62.9 per cent after.
However, we're still below the level after the 2022 election, when 73.3 per cent of Australians reported that they were satisfied or very satisfied with the country's direction.
Fascinatingly, those that are born overseas (particularly in a non-English speaking country) are more satisfied with democracy than those born in Australia, and they are substantially more likely to be satisfied with the direction of the country.
In terms of democratic resilience, Australia's migration integration is a real success story.
ANU's Professor Nicholas Biddle says trust in political institutions has also strengthened, particularly for the federal government, parliament, and political parties.
But of concern, this increase has not extended to media or religious institutions, indicating the post-election rise in institutional trust is narrowly focused on the political domain.
"While these trends are encouraging signs of democratic resilience, they should be interpreted with caution. The longer-term test will be whether satisfaction and trust can be sustained as the new parliament begins governing," he says.
Australians' perceptions of election and the newly elected parliament also reveal a broadly positive assessment of democratic integrity. The ANU paper explores how Australians view the conduct of the election, the legitimacy of its outcome, and the representativeness of the incoming 48th parliament.
While most Australians felt the election was fairly administered — with strong majorities endorsing the fairness of vote counting and election officials — there were notable concerns around media fairness and data misuse by candidates, reflecting a broader unease about the information environment in which elections are contested.
Perceptions of electoral legitimacy varied significantly by age, education, geographic location, and, most sharply, by who they voted for at the election.
Older Australians, inner-city dwellers and those with higher levels of education were more likely to view the election positively. Coalition and minor party voters, by contrast, expressed significantly lower levels of trust in the electoral process and its outcomes.
This pattern extends to views on representativeness: while most Australians felt that parliament would represent "people like them", belief in representativeness was unevenly distributed.
Those without Year 12 qualifications and voters for parties other than Labor were much less likely to feel politically seen or heard.
Furthermore, the demographic group that voters were most likely to see as being represented well by the new parliament is "rich voters".
Biddle says this belief aligns with other data from the long-term survey program.
"[It] shows that Australians think the current distribution of income in Australia is both unfair, and corrosive to democratic principles," he says.
"As we have seen in the US, if institutions and established parties won't respond to these concerns, then people will eventually take it into their own hands and tear these institutions down."
The results point to an underlying tension in Australian democracy. On the one hand, there is widespread confidence in the mechanics of electoral administration; on the other, substantial segments of the population — particularly those on the losing side of the election — question whether the system delivers fair outcomes or genuine representation.
Patricia Karvelas is host of ABC News Afternoon Briefing at 4pm weekdays on ABC News Channel, co-host of the weekly Party Room podcast with Fran Kelly and host of politics and news podcast Politics Now.