The Australia Institute surveyed a sample of 1501 Australians about the importance of governments keeping their election promises.

Key Points

• Three in five Australians (60%) think it is more important to adapt economic policy to suit the current circumstances, even if that means breaking an election promise.
• Only one in three Australians (32%) think it is more important to keep an election promise regardless of how economic circumstances have changed.
• A majority of Coalition voters (54%) support adapting economic policy to suit the changing circumstances, even if that means breaking an election promise.

“The Stage 3 tax cuts are bad economic policy, and they’ve gotten worse since they were legislated. The good news for the government is that there are ways to make them better and there is strong public support for changing economic policy in the face of changing circumstances,” said Greg Jericho, Chief Economist at the Australia Institute.

“Voters understand that things change. Not many people in 2019 would have predicted a global pandemic, rising inflation and a cost of living crisis.

“Australians need the government of the day to respond to the current economic realities we are facing, and the government has the opportunity to that.