A special Roy Morgan End of Financial Year (EOFY) webinar with Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine and Nine Network Finance Editor Chris Kohler discussed Australian perspectives on corporate Australia, particularly the growing level of distrust across the economy.
Distrust of any organisation or industry has skyrocketed since the pandemic began, when there was more trust than distrust. Although trust levels are now nearly comparable to those in early 2020, distrust has grown significantly over the last year.
Now, 66% of Australians distrust any organisation or sector, compared to less than 41% who trust any organisation or sector – a net result of -25% points, down from -17% points a year ago – an 8% drop.
Advertisement
According to 26% of respondents, the overt pursuit of profit or commercial interests by companies, along with greed, is one of the main reasons for the rise in distrust in sectors or organizations. This is up from 9% when the pandemic first began, an increase of 17%.
When asked directly, 54% of Australians said they trust Australian businesses no more than they did in the past, while only 10% said they trust them more than before.
Just over a third (36%) of Australians believe Australian business confidence has remained unchanged.
Advertisement
Commenting on the results, Michel Levin, CEO of Roy Morgan, said:
“Distrust of Australian businesses has risen in recent years due to anger over high corporate profits – not helped by a series of high-profile corporate scandals.”
“Until the early days of the pandemic, in the first few months of 2020, confidence was higher than distrust across the economy. However, the perception that major companies were enjoying record profits during the cost of living crisis left many Australians clearly dissatisfied with ‘uptown’.”
“Record corporate profits are a sign of rising revenues and profit margins and suggest that Australian businesses are one of the main drivers of the cost of living crisis by raising their prices to capture a greater share of consumers’ wallets.”
Australians have been exploited at every turn while seeing their real wages collapse:
Advertisement
Price gouging is expected to continue with the announced 10% increase in gas bills set to take effect on August 1.
The Australian economy has become a corporate capitalist system, and Australians are fed up with it.
Advertisement
