Australia is undergoing a historic decline in support for multiculturalism, according to the Lowy Institute\u2019s annual poll, amid a groundswell of fear rooted in mounting economic pessimism and an increasingly illiberal and chaotic world order.<\/p>\n
The Lowy poll<\/a> is the latest edition of the country\u2019s longest-running survey of Australians\u2019 opinions of the world and their place in it, and revealed a record low 31% of the more than 2,000 people surveyed had faith in the United States<\/a> to act responsibly on the world stage, and just one in five trust the president, Donald Trump, to do the right thing.<\/p>\n With trust in China rising from 20% to 28%, Charles Lyons-Jones, a Lowy research fellow, said this year\u2019s survey marks an extraordinary milestone: for the first time \u201cthe two superpowers are distrusted in equal measure\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is a significant change from 2022 when the gap in trust was over 50% in favour of the US,\u201d Lyons-Jones said.<\/p>\n Graph showing the change in Australians’ support for the US and China <\/a><\/p>\n Underpinning the dramatic decline in Australians\u2019 faith in the US was that only one in five surveyed had confidence in Trump to do the right thing in global affairs \u2013 the same level of trust in the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n Amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, 53% of those surveyed said they feel \u201cunsafe\u201d or \u201cvery unsafe\u201d in the world \u2013 a level of safety that is 3 percentage points below the previous record low set in 2020 at the onset of Covid.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Australians look at the world today they are deeply unsettled,\u201d Lyons-Jones said.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n The survey, which was conducted by the Social Research Centre using a nationally representative sample, also showed six in 10 (59%) are pessimistic about Australia\u2019s economic performance<\/a> over the coming five years \u2013 up 12 percentage points from a year earlier and 22 percentage points since the 2022 poll.<\/p>\n The result was also 11 percentage points higher than recorded at the start of the global pandemic in 2020.<\/p>\n Graph showing Australians’ increasing gloom about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n Nearly two-thirds of Australians believe the risks of artificial intelligence outweigh the potential benefits \u2013 up 12 percentage points since the question was last asked in 2024.<\/p>\n This feeling of insecurity about the state of the world and the economy was starting to be reflected in anxieties about societal change, Lyons-Jones said.<\/p>\n