Half of all Australian voters think it’s too soon to even consider easing restrictions designed to limit the spread of the coronavirus, a sign the calls for patience are being heeded.
A further 14% are prepared to wait until the end of May, according to an Essential Research poll released on Tuesday.
These findings reinforced a growing trust in how the government is managing the crisis, including the lockdown requirements, social distancing, and closure of many service businesses from pubs to football codes.
Young Australia are the keenest to see the restrictions dumped, with 24% of 18 to 34 year olds wanting it done within a month or earlier.
The survey found 49% of all voters believed it was too early to consider relaxing limitations, with 56% of voters aged 55 and above agreeing with that statement, compared with 37% of those aged 18 to 34.
Essential Research reported 65% of voters rated the government’s response as quite good or very good, compared with 45% on 22 March.
The approval could be aimed at “government” in general, but will encourage the prime minister, Scott Morrison.
And he may be further encouraged by the finding that 55% of Labor voters and 52% of Greens backed his actions.
Meanwhile, voters have a range of approvals for state governments, ranging from a low of 61% for the government of New South Wales and 63% for Queensland’s, to 66% for South Australia’s, 70% for Victoria’s and 77% for Western Australia’s.
The faith in a range of national institutions has risen or solidified during the Covid-19 crisis with, for example, trust in the Australian federal police moving from a net 66% in March last year to 68%.
Trust in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has gone from 51% in March last year to 58%, Essential Research found.
Federal parliament’s trust rating has gone from a miserable 35% in March 2019, to 53%. This could be a sign of appreciation that, while parliament has rarely sat this year, when it has come together both the government and the opposition have been united on important anti-virus measures.
The federal government could need that high level of approval and faith in institutions if it is to successfully launch the virus tracing app.
Morrison may get close to his minimum 40% take-up of the controversial mobile phone app that medical authorities believe would help trace the path of infections.
The Essential survey recorded 38% of voters would download the app, which uses Bluetooth connections to log who has spent up to 15 minutes in proximity to a Covid-19 victim.
But there continues to be concerns about the security of personal information gathered by the app. The survey found 63% still had those concerns, but 35% said they were confident the data would not be misused.
On Monday the government services minister, Stuart Robert, told ABC radio the app was “simply a digital way of doing a manual process”.
“Right now, if you confirm positive to the virus, health officials at a state level will sit down and ask you a bunch of questions about who you’ve been in close contact with, who were you next to, who were you near, and we trust on memory.
“This is now digitising it. So the app will simply ask for your name, a date range in terms of how old you are, your postcode and your mobile phone number.
“That’s it. It’ll confirm that the mobile phone number is yours. And then the app will stay on your phone and as you get in close proximity to someone, let’s say you and I both ran the app together and if we were one and a half metres apart or closer for 15 minutes via Bluetooth, the app would grab each of our mobile phone numbers and names that would stay securely encrypted on your phone.
“And then if I was confirmed positive, my data goes up to a central data store, only to state health officials and no one else. And then they could rapidly call anyone I’ve been in close contact with. That way you’re protected and your family is protected.”