In a country blessed with natural beauty, a relatively high standard of living, and democratic stability, it may come as a surprise that so many Australians feel so little when it comes to local politics.
While passions run hot over sports, culture wars, and international affairs – from Donald Trump’s foreign escapades to the Israeli-Iranian conflict – domestic concerns often elicit little more than a shrug. Even as Australians grapple with a housing crisis, healthcare delays, and cost-of-living spikes, political engagement remains frustratingly low.
Apathy, it seems, has become a national pastime.
The data backs it up. The November 2024 Scanlon Foundation Social Cohesion Survey found that trust in federal politicians was at a near-record low. Only 30% of Australians expressed confidence in the federal government, and even fewer in political parties themselves. Voting, though compulsory, is increasingly being treated as a civic chore – with record informal vote counts and rising numbers of disaffected young people.
“They don’t listen to us. They just argue,” one Queensland voter told the ABC last year. “I care about rent and groceries. I don’t care about their drama.” (Paraphrased).
This sentiment is widespread. Australians are not disengaged from life – quite the opposite. They’re volunteering, donating, building community projects, and marching for climate action. But the formal political process? That’s where the apathy kicks in.
Part of the blame lies with the nature of modern politics. Leadership spills, endless blame games, and gotcha moments in parliament question time have transformed politics into theatre – and not the good kind. Political coverage often mirrors the combative style of reality TV, rewarding outrage over solutions.
Meanwhile, substantive debates – about energy policy, Indigenous disadvantage, or public education reform – struggle to reach the average citizen. Social media amplifies outrage and distraction, and often, American politics drowns out our own. It’s easier to meme Trump than to digest another NDIS funding report.
The Risk of Tuning Out
When people stop paying attention, accountability suffers. Politicians can get away with mediocrity, because the public isn’t watching. Big decisions are made quietly – sometimes deliberately so.
And when voters do re-engage, it’s often through frustration. That’s when populists and fringe parties thrive: by offering easy answers to complex problems and channelling discontent into division.
A Way Forward
If the political class wants to revive engagement, it needs to stop talking at people and start listening. Australians care deeply about fairness, justice, and community – these values are deeply rooted. But political leaders need to show they care too – not just every three years, but every day in between.
Until then, don’t be surprised if another global drama captures our attention while potholes, power bills, and public hospitals keep getting worse.
Also by Michael Taylor:
Dear reader, we need your support
Independent sites such as The AIMN provide a platform for public interest journalists. From its humble beginning in January 2013, The AIMN has grown into one of the most trusted and popular independent media organisations.
One of the reasons we have succeeded has been due to the support we receive from our readers through their financial contributions.
With increasing costs to maintain The AIMN, we need this continued support.
Your donation – large or small – to help with the running costs of this site will be greatly appreciated.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
I also believe it has to do with the seeing the same bloody faces in parliament year and decades out. How many torturous years have we seen the Beetroot, Krazy Katter, Paween, just to name three, infesting parliament?
You’d lose the lot, betting on galloping political indifference. (Nah. Yair.)
Complacency in politics kills the passion voters have for their politicians.
Door knocking and coffee get togethers, public forums during the parliamentary term gives opportunities to not just present policies but also to engage with the electorate.
Yes, some people will not be open to that but many are. Politicians need to make themselves available. It is too much to expect that people will come to them when they prefer to not be visible or asleep at the wheel…. great pic at the top of the article Michael.
One of the signs, and to my mind the values of the disenchantment with the mainstream parties is the rise of independents. I believe people do want stability and the hope a party governing with a majority but only if that government is seen to espouse the principles Australians value. This is the challenge Labor faces, recognising and dealing honestly with the issues we value
It is not just complacency that kills. It is the sinking back into apathy, when further engagement is stymied by the (corrupted) processes.
That is why the Lattouf case is of such significance. The reason being, an assent through silence, of rule by fiat.
That was a turn-off we narrowly avoided, but only with the hard struggle of several folk to get the truth out.
Sadly, the general consensus in Australia is that all politicians are the same with just ONE agenda, ie to say or promise anything in order to attain and maintain autocratic power and then to take care of THEMSELVES first, second and last. This may not be true of ALL politicians but the level of self-serving corruption, greed and obsession with power (at any cost) – particularly with the entitled pathological liars and condescending, self-serving elitists in the right-wing – has just about obliterated any trust or respect Australians (once) had for politicians no matter what political party they represent. Until such time that politicians can show that they have some level of integrity, credibility and/or a desire to improve the lives of all Australian citizens (and not just the Top 1%), combined with a sincere compassion for the Australian taxpayers – who, after all, are the ones who fund politicians’ exorbitant salaries and extravagant lifestyles – the level of political apathy, disengagement and mistrust afforded politicians by the overwhelming majority of Australians, which became entrenched over many years (especially during the terrible years of John Howard, Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison), will continue to increase substantially.
Politicians MUST remember that they will get the type of respect and attention that they deserve and that THEY themselves afford Australian citizens which, sadly, can be regarded as next to zero over many decades! The last truly high-achieving PM this nation had was, indeed, Gough Whitlam who, before being undemocratically dismissed because of the reprehensible, self-serving collaboration between the governor general (of that time), John Kerr and Malcolm Fraser (forever known as the Kerr’s cur)! The list of outstanding achievements by Gough Whitlam is extremely impressive and has NEVER been even remotely matched by any PM since (refer achievements below) ….
“Gough Whitlam’s time as Prime Minister of Australia (1972-1975) was marked by significant social and political reforms. Key achievements include the end of conscription, the establishment of free university education, and the introduction of Medibank (Australia’s first universal healthcare system). His government also focused on Indigenous rights, recognizing Aboriginal land rights and establishing the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.
Here’s a more detailed look at some of his major accomplishments:
Ending Conscription:
Whitlam ended Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War and abolished the unpopular conscription system.
Free University Education:
His government made university education free for all Australians, significantly increasing access to higher learning.
Medibank:
The establishment of Medibank was a major step towards universal healthcare, ensuring that all Australians had access to one of the best and most affordable medical care systems in the world.
Indigenous Rights:
Whitlam’s government made significant strides in recognizing Indigenous rights, including the establishment of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976.
Other Social Reforms:
The Whitlam government also introduced reforms like no-fault divorce, equal pay for women, and increased social welfare benefits.”(#)
If there are ANY right-wing LNP supporters out there who can name ONE SINGLE LNP REGIME who has initiated and introduced as many policies and social reforms to benefit the lives of ALL Australians, they are welcome to respond by listing LNP-initiated policies and reforms hereunder …. (drum roll)! I feel VERY confident that this can never and WILL never occur because the LNP has a long, notorious history of only providing benefit to THEMSELVES and their self-serving elitist supporters in the Top 1%.
Whilst the Labor Party (under Whitlam and Keating) had a glorious past, sadly the current Labor Party have also sunk into the abyss of complacency! Unless current Labor politicians do a complete 180 degree turn and emulate the outstanding level of progressive policies successfully achieved by past highly respected, compassionate and intellectual leaders like Whitlam and Keating, Australian voters will start looking at providing more support for minor political parties such as the Greens.
Attention Albanese:
Yes, the huge majority of Australians KNOW that the LNP are a non-achieving pack of misogynistic elitists who have become a LOST CAUSE and, in all probability, will probably sink into political oblivion BUT you are making a HUGE MISTAKE if you take ordinary working- and middle-class Australians for granted. Australian voters are fickle and, indeed, have LONG memories that will neither forgive nor readily forget broken promises, lies, political malfeasance and/or non-achievement!
DON’T LET US DOWN! You need to emulate the passion, drive, high level of achievement and commitment of the late, very Honourable Gough Whitlam. If you want to maintain the loyalty of left-wing Australians, YOU and the Labor Party need to DO BETTER and DO IT SOON!
#Source: Google search
Katie, we’re stealing that.
The coalition and their friends in the right wing media are saying that Albanese should have been at the NATO roundtable and not Deputy PM Marles. Yet as soon as he makes an overseas trip they call him AirbusAlbo and say that he should be at home sorting things out and not flying around the world.
There is no winning with these people.
But, I do notice that the NATO attendees have got Trump’s measure and realize that the only way to handle him is to stroke his ego and tell him what an amazing leader he is – that generally ensures that he will not go off range and, of course, he will always jet off early to let them get some work done.
Every politician should commit to a reasonable number of Town Hall Meetings in their electorate each year, say two or three, where the people can ask questions and get actual answers, not political salad speak, not equivocation, not rants against the other side, normal answers to normal questions.
Question time is useless, it does not engage the people, it is just a play between those who seem to think that they are more important than the people who gave them a job and pay their salaries and expenses and contribute to their retirement.
When you read articles in the media that say that thousands of lobbyists have unfettered access to politicians in parliament house and you who has paid for this building and everything in it cannot do the same and cannot even get your local member to respond to a call or an email, it is no wonder that people look at politicians with a very jaundiced eye.
It is hard work being politically engaged, which is why most people who are are retired, they are the only ones who have the time to sift the wheat from the chaff in regard to information about what is being done and not being done in the name of the people.
In one’s opinion the significant change occurred with the rocky ascent of Howard & LNP riding the silent gens and boomer ‘bomb’, importing US fossil fuel & mining Atlas Koch IPA, CIS etc. policies and anti-immigrant faux environmental SusPopAus in Tanton Network.
Then in tandem has been Murdoch led RW media cartel, especially influenced by the same and FoxNews, dog whistling and denigrating immigrants, ‘the other’, indigenous et al or sensible including carbon pricing, robust environmental constraints, renewables and any whiff of taxes while shouting ‘cost of living crisis’…..
Fact is Australians cannot be and are not well informed by our hollowed out RW MSM and influencer cartel; observed often at local level with no relevant news gathering or reporting, but will cover any offshore (& onshore) event to blame and wedge the ALP or centre…….
What’s getting to the LNP now with unfit policies and praetorian guard RW MSM, are changing demographics as silent gen ‘skips’ slip away to be ‘replaced’ by more diverse and educated ‘Eurasian’ generations.
@ Bert Hetebry: The current regional INDEPENDENT MINISTERS in the NSW Parliament do just this; get out in the electorate and talk to the voters. For example:
Roy Butler, INDEPENDENT MINISTER FOR BARWON ….. The largest land area NSW electorate roughly extending from the Newell Highway west to the SA border and North South between about Dubbo & Qld Border. He wears out a Parliamentary car about every 15 months driving around his electorate discovering the decades of neglect by the Sydney Parliament, then taking assorted NSW LABOR MINISTERS around the electorate to see first hand why considerable funding is required in this huge electorate.
Butler achieved about ONE BILLION DOLLARS ($1,000,000,000.00) in 2025 NSW Budget funding after spending 2025 taking a procession of NSW LABOR MINISTERS ”óut west” during the floods ….. which showed why road maintenance and emergency services were critical services to the community.
Phil Donato, INDEPENDENT MIISTER FOR ORANGE, seems to spend more time at functions in his electorate than sitting in his office, and the voters appreciate his interest in their efforts to improve the electorate for the benefit of ALL VOTERS.
Joe McGirr, INDEPENDENT MINISTER FOR WAGGA WAGGA, is active in the community and is respected for knowing what is happening.
There are other that I have yet to discover.
In next door Northern Tablelands, newbie NOtional$ pollie Mystery Moylan achieved about $252 MILLION including $50 MILLION for the beginning of the Glen Innes Hospital upgrade, too long ignored by the NOtional$ during their last 12 years of misgovernment and city overspending.
There was no funding for the too long overdue Tenterfield CBD By Pass that the 2013 Feral Budget funded until Toxic RAbbott struck it out when he learned that Tony Windsor (INDEPENDENT) had retired. Feral representative of the NOtional$ in New England was reported as laughing at this deletion and has done absolutely nothing in his 12 years incumbency to get funding. Only promises and empty election words, the staple diet of COALition politicians.
REGIONAL INDEPENDENTS GET THINGS DONE FOR THEIR COMMUNITIES.
What do NOtional$ do??
Speaking as a community advocate our group (3600 +) has been trying to petition our local council for a much needed public toilet for 5 years. The councillor and her Labor supporters have lied, publicly made false accusations against us, submitted a false complaint against our street library resulting in forced removal. They have shown themselves to be thugs. The Health Minister agreed a toilet was needed and advocated on our behalf. No response. We have been awaiting more than a year for a response from the Local Government Minister to our claim that public toilets are a serious public health issue as well as necessary for social inclusion. Local governments reject requests solely on funding issues and hence this government policy must be changed. The Queensland political class treats voters with disdain. There is nothing to make them accountable.
That’s crazy, Bev. Sadly, it is not uncommon.