Public Opinion Data and Policymaking During COVID-19 and Beyond: Insights from Interviews Across Policy and Politics

Abstract

The use of Public Opinion Data (POD) in decision making and policy development processes was highly significant during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Australia and New Zealand School of Government partnered with the Australian Public Service Commission to commission the Monash Sustainable Development Institute to assess the impact and challenges of POD in decision making through the initiative titled “Bridging Public Opinion and Policy: A Mixed-Methods Analysis”. This practice review is one of the four key research activities of the initiative. It explores the practical applications of POD in policymaking during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in business-as-usual scenarios, by capturing high-level insights through semi-structured interviews with eight senior decision makers from different jurisdictions and various parts of government. It identifies three primary uses for POD in policymaking: To improve understanding of community beliefs and attitudes. To identify ways to influence behavioural changes. To test social license by assessing public’s acceptance of policies. In addition, this review compares the purpose of POD from the perspective of public servants and politicians. It also discusses the critical role and purpose of POD during the COVID-19 pandemic. The essential value of POD in understanding the experience of the public in an uncertain environment was highlighted by participants. POD also helped the government improve strategic communication throughout the pandemic. Finally, this practice review highlights the importance of ensuring a rigorous and collaborative approach in designing, collecting, translating, and disseminating POD. This includes upholding the credibility of data and soundness of the methodology. The risk of politicisation was identified to be a major challenge in the use of POD in policymaking. It potentially leads to tensions between political application of POD and the public sector’s political neutrality. This has led to underutilisation of POD and lack of transparency in the decision-making process. These findings emphasize the importance of further work to integrate POD into effective and ethical policymaking.