Image from aph.org.au
In the summer of 2023, as Australians voted down the Voice to Parliament referendum, a quieter story unfolded online: conspiracy theories about “rigged” ballots flooded social media, fueled by foreign bots and amplified by local voices like Peter Dutton’s veiled skepticism. It wasn’t just a one-off. From Beijing’s trade leverage to Murdoch’s media stranglehold, from empty trust in Canberra to the growing rift between city progressives and regional conservatives, Australia’s democracy – once a scrappy survivor – faces a slow, relentless grind. As the 2025 election looms, the question isn’t whether threats exist, but which one might land the knockout blow. This isn’t about tanks rolling down Collins Street; it’s about the unseen cracks that could topple a system we’ve long taken for granted.
Pinpointing the biggest threat to democracy in Australia today isn’t a straight shot – there’s no single smoking gun – but it’s worth digging into the tangle of issues that keep cropping up. Based on what’s been rumbling through public discourse, government reports, and the undercurrents of recent events, a few contenders stand out: foreign interference, misinformation and media concentration, declining trust in institutions, and internal political polarisation. Let’s weigh them and see what’s got the most teeth.
The Australian government’s been sounding the alarm on this one for years, and it’s not slowing down. The 2024 Strengthening Australian Democracy report from the Home Affairs Department flagged 47 foreign governments meddling in online debate in the year to May 2023, using human commentators and AI to seed distrust and conspiracy theories. Think China’s sway – economic leverage via trade (35% of exports) and alleged political influence through donations or coercion, like the 2017 Meng Jianzhu incident with Labor MPs. ASIO’s 2024 threat assessment warned of espionage and interference hitting “unprecedented” levels, with foreign actors targeting elections and public opinion. It’s a slow burn – undermining sovereignty without firing a shot – but it’s real. Still, Australia’s got countermeasures like the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme, and it’s not yet tipping the system over.
This one’s a beast. The Strengthening Democracy report and Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil’s July 2024 speech hammered social media’s role in amplifying misinformation, pushing people into echo chambers. Add the Murdoch media empire – controlling something like 60% of print circulation – and you’ve got a chokehold on narratives. Posts on X rail against Murdoch’s sway, accusing it of cheerleading the Coalition and drowning out dissent. The 2017 scrapping of media ownership rules (e.g., the “two out of three” limit) let giants like News Corp and Stokes’ Seven West consolidate further, shrinking diversity. During the 2023 Voice referendum, the Australian Electoral Commission battled conspiracy theories – some fueled by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s baseless “rigging” claims – showing how fast lies spread. It erodes trust and polarises, but is it the threat? It’s more a symptom than the root.
Here’s where the numbers bite. The Museum of Australian Democracy’s 2018 Trust and Democracy report projected that, if trends hold, fewer than 10% of Australians will trust politicians and institutions by 2025 – down from 50% a decade ago. Lowy Institute’s 2024 poll showed 30% of 18–29-year-olds think a non-democratic system might be better, versus 15% of those over 60. Why? Wealth gaps, housing crises, and gutted public services – think ABC funding cuts or the Auditor-General’s shrinking budget – leave people feeling shut out. The 2022 election saw Labor and the Coalition’s combined primary vote drop below 70%, with teals and Greens surging, signaling a fraying faith in the majors. This is the kind of rot that hollows out democracy from within – harder to fight than an external foe.
Then there’s the homegrown mess. The pandemic exposed a fault line: state power spiked with lockdowns and mandates, sparking protests and far-right conspiracies (e.g., anti-vax networks). Posts on social media slam “Uniparty” laws stifling dissent, pointing to rushed legislation like the 2020 ASIO questioning powers expansion, which critics call authoritarian. Dutton’s nuclear push and Labor’s “Teal Stopper” donation law rumours (favouring majors) feed the sense of a rigged game. Polarisation’s up – urban progressives versus regional conservatives – and it’s cracking the “common purpose” O’Neil says democracy needs. The 2025 election’s shaping up as a slugfest, with neither side bridging the divide.
So, what’s the heavyweight champ? Foreign interference is a serious jab – it’s insidious and growing – but Australia’s got defences, and it’s not yet knocking out elections. Misinformation and media concentration hit hard, distorting reality and amplifying division, but they’re tools, not the core disease. Polarisation’s a contender, fraying social cohesion, yet it’s manageable with better leadership. The real gut punch is declining trust in institutions. It’s the slow bleed – quietly eroding legitimacy, civic engagement, and the will to defend the system. When people stop believing government works for them, democracy’s on life support. No tanks or bots needed – just apathy and disillusionment.
That said, it’s not game over. Trust can be rebuilt – tackle inequality, fix housing, fund accountability bodies like a federal ICAC – but it’s a slog, and the clock’s ticking.
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
By James Moore Along Ranch Road 170, just west of the tiny border town of…
What is the Deep State? Does it really exist? These questions are hard to answer.…
By Roger Chao The West is red, the tweets are loud, the slogans reach the…
By Lachlan McKenzie In an era where information is disseminated at lightning speed, the role…
Since World War II Australia and the United States have fought together in several major…
By Roger Chao What makes a man in times like these, Where hearts grow cold…
View Comments
"The real gut punch is declining trust in institutions. It’s the slow bleed – quietly eroding legitimacy, civic engagement, and the will to defend the system. When people stop believing government works for them, democracy’s on life support. No tanks or bots needed – just apathy and disillusionment."
Spot on Michael.
And your outlined solutions are spot on also.
Because people have an instinct for cooperation and empathy.
We just have to find a way around the roadblocks.
Splendid assessment Michael, thank you.
I agree with SD that The real gut punch is declining trust in institutions.. and with yourself that apathy and disillusionment appear as prominent symptoms of civic withdrawal.
For my own part I would add indifference to the mix, as that seems to me properly to describe the ‘end-stage’ of the process you describe. I find this no better expressed than in comments regarding the slaughter in Gaza and elsewhere - comments such as “What business is it of ours what’s happening over there?” or, closer to home, “All politicians are shysters anyway, so what do you expect me to do about it?” or better yet, “Piss off and take your bloody questions with you” - or worse.
To solve that conundrum requires some action from all of us (as Bert H. has suggested in these pages), even if its only engaging with a stranger at your local supermarket, or elsewhere local. No argument is required, merely a polite query as to what they might think of the outcome of the election, and if you have the ill luck to strike a committed LNP supporter, make sure you part with telling them that Dutton can’t be trusted. Mind you, the same suggestion could be incorporated into any conversation at any time. That’s a bare minimum. If you aren't physically up to it, there's always the phone, email or if you prefer, an actual letter, even if it’s just to your local MP.
Overall, and if you aren’t especially a believer, it helps to remember the exhortations of that young Palestinian chap as related in the "Sermon on the Mount", [Matthew 5-7] where each is prefigured by the words “Blessed are...”. In the original Aramaic, the exhortation when properly understood meant “Get up, go out and do something”.
It's not just Australia, but also the Anglosphere including USA especially; their rot started with Nixon-Reagan and Thatcher, then Australia eventually followed.
Howard's ascendancy with Murdoch, govt. 'catering' and media consolidation, with the rebooting of white Oz proxies and fossil fueled white Christian nationalist sentiments via Tanton Network, now 'segregation economics' Atlas-Koch IPA and CIS (behind The Voice No campaign).
Central has been opposition to trade blocs, regulatory frameworks, renewables, higher education, science, minorities, 'woke', empowered citizens and especially the EU; by RW MSM media targeting ageing, monocultural, regional and low info voters with junk science, dog whistling etc.
Good news is that the new Trump and Putin axis, plus Musk, Vance et al have embarrassed many Anglo ultraconservative elites who have blindly followed and been committed to the US path of governance and socio-economics....now in the tent with Putin?
‘declining trust in institutions”
Could it actually be a case of people waking up (woking up) to the fact that they shouldn’t be obliged to have trust in them, aren’t they entitled to accountability, to know that they are reliable, that they are working the way are meant to? Is it the people’s fault if they cannot in all good conscience trust their institutions? That what the institutions say just doesn’t stand up to critical assessment?
Is it better to ignorantly trust, to have faith in institutions that are not functioning properly instead of recognising problems and fixing them? I think restoring trust is not the answer, trust is a big part of the problem. Trust the ABC, it is a most admirable institution, amongst the World’s best. If there was a genocide in Gaza being committed by the State of Israel, the ABC wouldn’t hesitate to inform us, and our trusty Government Institution could be relied upon to condemn Israel’s actions outright instead of standing by Israel and legislating against its own citizens that any criticism they make of Israel is antisemitic and thus criminal. It seems however that we cannot trust the ABC to inform us of an Israeli genocide in spite of the overwhelming evidence and no condemnation of Israel is required by our government. We have been informed that Israel is conducting its right to self defence. Go back to sleep, dream of a world where only designated bad guys commit atrocities. And come election time, vote status quo as usual.
The fatal threat to democracies is the lack of a properly informed public. How can the public vote responsibly if not told what is really going on and are restricted in their access to alternative viewpoints? An uninformed democracy is reduced to an instrument of manufactured consent which can be worse than a tyranny, after all people actually try to resist tyrannies, whereas they just go along and accept manufactured consents, ignoring the very real dangers that such consents endorse, encourage or invite. And remember, democracy is the rule of the majority, not the most. Most people didn’t vote for Trump, or Scomo or Albanese. Democracy has a habit of serving only a privileged few. I’m pretty sure it isn’t supposed to work that way, but hey, let’s just trust it to get on and do it’s job, while we have another little nap.
Recent article on this subject by senior journalist Michael Pascoe makes for interesting reading.
His conclusion: “I’ve lost faith in Australian government.”
Un cri de coeur. Where to, when trust in our government is gone?
By Michael Pascoe. MWMedia. Mar 09, 2025.
https://michaelwest.com.au/un-cri-de-coeur-where-to-when-trust-in-our-government-is-gone/
Yes BS the media is pliable and institutions have been exposed repeatedly and reset only occasionally so not enough to readdress the wrongs real or imaginary.
The public service was always hampered by the least knowledgeable having the door key but now there is rigmarole to get to speak to an Australian, making public servants not public and politicians not servants.
There is a politician need to deflect criticism so the time is right for DOGE, when will dutton listen to gina???