The post-pandemic era has resulted in a range of social restructuring, as companies rise and fall, and public opinion sways along with them. Australian social research statistics company, Roy Morgan, has conducted its End of Financial Year (EOFY) webinar – where CEO, Michele Levine, and Nine Network Finance Editor, Chris Kohler, discussed public opinion of corporate Australia.
The organisation’s research showed that distrust of any organisation or sector has increased significantly since the beginning of the pandemic, across the entire economy. Prior to 2020, there was a higher level of trust than distrust across the country, of which the gap has increased substantially over the last year since March 2023.
Roy Morgan’s webinar stated that 66 per cent of Australians distrust any organisation or sector compared to under 41 per cent that trust any organisation or sector – a net result of -25 per cent, down from -17 per cent a year ago – and a net decline of 8 per cent.
Food & Drink Business reported on Roy Morgan’s statistics earlier in the year, that revealed this phenomenon had particularly applied to supermarkets.
In December 2023 Coles was ranked Australia’s fifth most trusted brand. On a 12-month rolling average to March, it has fallen 221 places to become Australia’s ninth most distrusted brand.
Woolworths’ lot was not as grim but certainly not great, falling 32 places from being Australia’s second most trusted brand in December, to 34 in March.
The webinar reported that one of the leading drivers of rising distrust in organisations or sectors related to companies being too motivated by profit or commercial interests – mentioned by 26 per cent of respondents, compared to only 9 per cent who said this when the pandemic began – an increase of 17 per cent.
In comparison, fewer than 1 per cent of respondents mentioned that they trust organisations because they are not motivated by profit – a net rating of -25 per cent.
When asked directly, 54 per cent of those surveyed said that they distrust corporate Australia more than they used to, compared to only 10 per cent who trust corporate Australia more than they used to. Just over a third of Australians, 36 per cent, said that there has been no change in the trustworthiness of corporate Australia.
Who’s to blame?
As part of the EOFY webinar, Roy Morgan conducted a snap poll of 2110 Australians to find out who the country blamed for the wave of corporate scandals that have been witnessed in recent years.
Roy Morgan CEO, Michele Levine, said that Australia has faced a series of corporate scandals in recent years, with companies including Qantas, Optus, PWC, Rio Tinto and Medibank hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
“Distrust in corporate Australia has soared in recent years, driven by anger about high corporate profits – and not helped by a procession of high-profile corporate scandals,” said Levine.
“Record corporate profits are a sign of rising revenue and profit margins and suggest that corporate Australia is one of the key drivers of the cost-of-living crisis, by bumping up their prices to grab a larger share of the consumer’s wallet.
“Respondents mentioned companies including Qantas (false advertising, sacking workers while accepting taxpayer money), Rio Tinto (destruction of cultural heritage and environmental degradation), Optus (network outages impacting customers and poor hiring decisions), Amazon (treatment of warehouse workers) and many others as examples of poor corporate behaviour.
“The companies mentioned above are all among the top 20 most distrusted brands in Australia today and have played an important role driving distrust levels to record highs,” she said.
Although the rise in visibility of corporate scandals could be a positive thing, showing that policy that companies have to acquiesce to is doing its job in rooting out issues, and they are being held culpable for these. However, the declining trust level that Australians have towards the megacorporations is also evidence of the overwhelming amount of scandals that are cropping up.
The research showed that Australians primarily blame CEOs and managing directors for the wave of corporate scandals, with 79 per cent blaming the ‘person in charge’.
“Australians have a clear target in mind for who to blame for this corporate malfeasance. For businesses to regain the trust of the community there must be a concerted effort to confront and deal with the issues Australians are calling out – including alleged ‘price gouging’ and ‘profiteering’ – and these changes must come from the top down,” said Levine.
“At the end of the day ‘the buck stops at the top’ and that’s where solutions will be found to turn around the deteriorating perspective that many Australians currently hold about our corporate giants.”
For further information and to view the Roy Morgan EOFY Webinar visit the link here. The full EOFY Webinar Report and the Roy Morgan Wealth Report – June 2024 – is available for purchase at the Roy Morgan Online Store.
