David Farrar: Did Labour break trust in Government?

This chart [below] uses data from the General Social Survey. As you can see trust in four vital government institutions increased slightly from 2016 to 2018. Since then it has plummeted for all four institutions. A movement of an entire point on a ten point scale is huge.


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Parliament and Media have never ranked as highly. Trust in Parliament though rose from 2014 to 2021 but in the last two years dropped 0.8 points. Media trust was fairly constant from 2014 to 2018, but then the Government set up the Public Interest Journalism Fund and they have declined to a new low.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.