Australians less ideological about COVID lockdown than Americans

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Australians less ideological about COVID lockdown than Americans

By Anna Patty

Voters in Australia are far less partisan in their support of lockdown measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 than their American counterparts.

Research led by the United States Study Centre at the University of Sydney has found that Republican Party voters in the US are more likely to oppose lockdowns than their Democrat counterparts. In Australia, the measures have received far greater bipartisan support.

Researchers attributed the united support in Australia to the bipartisan backing and trust in advice from medical experts.

Support for coronavirus pandemic lockdowns are more polarised along party political lines in the US than in Australia.

Support for coronavirus pandemic lockdowns are more polarised along party political lines in the US than in Australia.Credit: Alex Elinghausen, Getty Images, AP

La Trobe University and the University of Melbourne collaborated in the project which commissioned a YouGov survey of 1000 voters in Australia and 1000 in America. Sixty-five per cent of Australians, regardless of political lines, said the COVID-19 measures "are about right" compared to 36 per cent of Americans.

Of the minority of Australians (13 per cent) opposed, Victorians (18 per cent) were the most disgruntled, compared with Queensland (14 per cent) and NSW (11 per cent). In Melbourne on Sunday three anti-lockdown protesters were arrested after dozens of people gathered at Parliament House to rally against measures in Victoria.

The researchers said the findings showed Americans were far more polarised along party lines about whether the lockdowns had gone too far or not far enough and whether they could trust medical experts.

Half (51 per cent) of all Republicans surveyed said the lockdown measures had gone too far or much too far. Few Democrats (6 per cent) agreed.

Professor Simon Jackman, chief executive officer of the United States Study Centre said Australian politicians had successfully implemented a science-based bipartisan approach to the lockdowns. This was in contrast to America where political leaders were furiously polarised along partisan lines.

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"Once you have partisanship baked in the pie from the get-go it makes rolling out the policies very hard," he said.

"Americans disagree along partisan lines about the severity of the crisis, how necessary lockdowns and social distancing has to be and whether they should trust medical advice or journalists' accounts of what is going on."

President Donald Trump was facing an election in November which puts him in a different political position to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who got elected last year.

Professor Jackman said Australia was also a relatively easier country to govern with fewer states. Australia's conservative federal government had achieved solidarity and policy consensus with Labor states Victoria and Queensland.

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"The American government at the federal level gave the virus a good month's head start whereas in Australia the federal government and the state governments following closely behind were very quick to shut down the borders," Professor Jackman said.

Professor Jackman said President Trump was now deflecting blame for the pandemic on external sources to improve his chances of re-election.

"The search for an external culprit is a blame game - state governors, China - anyone but his administration," Professor Jackman said.

"Our political leadership has been united to back in the expert advice in Australia."

Associate professor of journalism Andrea Carson from La Trobe University said there had been a return to trust in professional media and established brand names in Australia during the coronavirus pandemic.

The survey found the most trusted media outlets when people were reading about the pandemic were The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age (both 79 per cent), The Guardian (76 per cent), The Australian (73 per cent) and ABC television news (70 per cent).

Dr Carson said in the US, Republican voters had far less trust in media reports and medical experts during the coronavirus pandemic. The survey showed that 22 per cent of Republican voters and 86 per cent of Democrats trusted professional journalists. In Australia, 66 per cent of Coalition voters and 77 per cent of Labor supporters trusted professional journalists.

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