Political Performance and Political Trust in Australia

Abstract

While political trust has declined in Australia, reaching its lowest level ever recorded in 2019, there remain very few studies on what explains the variation in political trust and therefore what leads to such change in political trust is less certain in Australia. This paper examines the role of political performance, grounded in the valence model of electoral support, in shaping the political trust of citizens in Australia, using Australian Election Study data from 2001 to 2019. Political performance is measured by economic performance, partisanship, leadership image, political satisfaction, and leadership change, based on the valence model of electoral support. The results demonstrate that economic performance, leadership image, and political satisfaction have contributed to a change in the level of political trust in Australia, whereas partisanship and leadership change have not been significantly associated with variation in political trust.