It is essential for the government to recognise and accommodate varying expectations through tailored services and policies. Such an approach will foster coherence and trust in the government, as it adapts its role to meet specific needs across the country.
Why conduct a survey of this sort over time? A data point or metric is a mechanism to approach the truth by quantifying it. Asking the same question across time makes the data points comparable and provides insights into the changing perceptions, opinions, and ideas people hold.
In the context of government, this is particularly pertinent as priorities change rapidly depending on the contemporary context. The media plays a role in shaping the conversation, but larger forces like international economics and global risks, such as a pandemic, shift citizens’ opinions and prioritisation.
A tool like the one developed by the Centre for Policy Development allows policymakers, politicians, the media, and the general public to evaluate changes over time. It enables prioritisation, but more importantly, it allows interpretation in context and, hopefully, fosters long-term thinking. Some issues that are important in the moment of a crisis may not be significant in the larger arc of history. For a government, it’s important to balance these urgent aspects with the long-term prosperity and security of a country. This tool helps interpret these short-term and long-term issues and can be used to ground decision-makers.
The community, institutions, and politicians often struggle to understand each other, as they speak different languages and operate within different processes. A tool like this can help bridge the gap between these three groups. If the government and institutions use this tool effectively, it can foster trust from the community in both the institutions and the government. Therefore, making the tool user-friendly for both community members and decision-makers is critical. It can aid in navigating the complexities of different spaces and facilitate better communication and understanding.
"The community, institutions, and politicians often struggle to understand each other, as they speak different languages and operate within different processes."
Why is this important in Australia? Australia’s vast landscape is marked by pockets of urban density, leading to a diverse range of lived experiences across different states. This diversity means that climate change and events like the pandemic impact each state differently, necessitating varied policy responses. These differences in policy have significant effects on citizens’ perceptions and opinions of the government. In the short term, analysing these opinions is crucial for evaluating and comparing policy decisions across states. In the long term, understanding and responding to these varied experiences is vital to maintaining national unity. Significant disparities in opinions about government functioning over large geographical distances could lead to national instability.
Beyond the results illustrated by this polling, it’s clear that expectations of the government in regional areas differ greatly from those in urban areas, largely due to the independent spirit prevalent in remote and regional communities. It is essential for the government to recognize and accommodate these varying expectations through tailored services and policies. Such an approach will foster coherence and trust in the government, as it adapts its role to meet specific needs across the country.
Why do we compare age and socioeconomic cohorts? In the short term, it’s practical for decision-makers to understand what matters to different groups, so policy decisions can be made accordingly. Some groups have better representation and advocacy groups. A survey and data explorer like this allows us to unpack these differences and pay attention to the groups with a quieter voice and less advocacy. In the long term, we aim to avoid groups having very different interpretations of what government should be, to ensure social cohesion.
One of the major challenges the United States is facing is the differing opinions on what a government should be. In the long term, this can lead to conflict, where one group seeks to impose their opinion on another, at times through violence. A tool like this should allow us to track sentiment between groups and ensure sufficient variation for a vibrant democratic society and enough cohesion to maintain social harmony.
Visualising data aids in interpretation across time and in the details of comparing cohorts. A text format allows us to drill down into a data point and provide context, but it doesn’t offer the same visual interpretation. We live in a world dominated by visuals, and from the moment we can see, we size things up and compare them to one another to make sense of the world around us.
Assessing whether something is too high to jump or safe to jump, these decisions help us navigate life. It is these learned skills we tap into when visualising data and comparing it over time by displaying it in meaningful ways. Sifting through tables of numbers is an insurmountable task for most, but turning data into a visual format makes the cognitive effort required for interpretation negligible.
A survey like this requires a visualisation tool to help guide the information consumer through the insights.
