Hanson named most trusted leader as 79pc of Aussies believe society ‘stacked against’ them: survey

Pauline Hanson has emerged as the country’s most trusted leader in a new survey that has found confidence in Australia’s future has plunged to a five-year low.

The Australia Project 2026 – a report collated by research firm The Lab – surveyed 2000 participants from April 1 to 14.

The fortnight-long survey captured a cost-of-living crunch defined by domestic fuel shortage anxieties – triggered by the US and Israel’s war in Iran – and the fallout of back-to-back interest rate rises in February and March.

79 per cent of Australians believed society was “stacked against ordinary people” - up from 58 per cent last year - while 65 per cent of participants thought they could not get ahead no matter how hard they worked.

The Lab director Paul Labagnara warned the results of this year’s report – the firm’s twelfth edition – were some of the “sharpest changes in terms of confidence” he had ever seen.

Mr Labagnara described this as a “cumulative result” of a lack of confidence in the economy, unaffordable housing, a sense of “self-interest” over community and increased polarisation online.

He noted respondents in a qualitative portion of the study talked about “how we lurch from ‘catastrophe to catastrophe’”.

“Above all, (the major parties) need to provide clarity … have a vision for where Australia is heading as a country. This clarity has felt absent from major parties, particularly when it comes to the cost of living crisis,” Mr Labagnara said.

This disillusionment also played a role in Australians’ wider mistrust in with established systems, Mr Labagnara said, pointing to the finding that 38 per cent of respondents trusted Senator Hanson as a political leader, followed by Anthony Albanese at 33 per cent and Angus Taylor at 20 per cent.

The One Nation leader’s popularity was most prominent with Australians aged 45 and over, and those living in regional areas.

However, The Lab chief executive Neale Cotton warned this did not reflect the participants’ desires to vote for One Nation, but that Senator Hanson’s anti-establishment “narrative” was resonating with every day voters.

“The important clarification was that the question was not about who you would vote for, but who you trust,” he said.

“We saw that Pauline ranked the highest, above Albanese, and I think the interesting thing is that she’s been around for 30 years, talking about the struggles for ordinary Australians.

“Now that Australians believe that things are stacked up against them, the consistency of her narrative over time, I think, is one of the reasons that we’re seeing the trust in her.