Lowy Institute Poll 2020 Report

Australia’s foreign policy and intelligence agencies

Australia’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies

A convincing majority of Australians (80%) agree that Australia’s intelligence agencies are effective at protecting Australia’s national security. In recent years, intelligence agencies have taken some steps towards improving transparency. The Independent National Security Monitor wrote in a recent annual report that ‘unnecessary secrecy can be seriously counter-productive’.¹

In 2020, the majority (59%) say that Australia’s intelligence agencies ‘have got the balance right between protecting national security and also being appropriately transparent with the Australian people about their activities’.

A solid majority (59%) also believe the Australian government ‘has got the balance right between the need for press freedom and the need to enforce the law and protect national security’, despite the highly-publicised raids in mid-2019 on journalists and their sources that kindled debate about press freedom in Australia.²

Australia’s foreign policy, global cooperation and values

In considering Australia’s foreign policy, there can sometimes be a clash between economic interests and democratic values. Asked about priorities for Australia in this situation, six in ten Australians (60%) say that Australia’s democratic values are more important, whereas more than one third (38%) say that economic interests are more important. In a similar question asked more than a decade ago in 2007, three quarters of the country (74%) said that ‘democratic or humanitarian values’ were more important, compared to 18% selecting ‘economic or political interests’. This indicates an increased emphasis on economic interests in the past decade.

There can also be clashes between the domestic interests of individual countries and the wider interest in solving global problems, when countries debate a global agreement in an international or multilateral institution such as the United Nations. In 2020, two thirds of Australians (66%) say the government ‘should prioritise Australia’s domestic interests over reaching a global agreement’. A third (31%) say that reaching global agreement should be prioritised over Australia’s domestic interests.

However, this sentiment, recorded during fieldwork in March, may have shifted during the Covid-19 pandemic. Responding to COVIDpoll in April, 53% say ‘we need more global cooperation and less focus on the interests of individual countries during global crises’, while only 16% believe ‘every country should put their own interests first’; 31% say the balance is ‘about right’. Australians have tended to avoid recent trends of protectionist sentiment: in COVIDpoll, seven in ten Australians (70%) say that globalisation is mostly good for Australia, unchanged from 2019.

Democracies around the world

Since 2013, the Lowy Institute Poll has revealed low levels of awareness in Australia about the system of government in Indonesia. Most Australians have consistently said Indonesia is not a democracy, even though it transitioned from an authoritarian regime in 1998. In 2020, the Lowy Institute polled Australians on systems of government around the world to compare the results with this longstanding sentiment towards Indonesia.

Australians seem more aware of other democracies, both in and outside Asia. Nine in ten Australians (90%) say the United Kingdom is a democracy, and eight in ten (81%) say the same about the United States. A similar number (79%) recognise Japan as a democracy. Although the relationship between Australia and India, the world’s largest democracy, is often seen as underdeveloped, more than half (57%) say India is a democracy. The majority also see Papua New Guinea (53%) as a democracy. Half the country (52%) agree Taiwan is a democracy, with presidential elections in Taiwan taking place shortly before fieldwork for this Poll took place.

In 2020, the number of Australians that agree Indonesia is a democracy has reached a high point of 39%, in a five-point increase from 2019. Only a third of Australians (37%) agree that Hong Kong is a democracy, after the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong made headlines throughout 2019. Although the Chinese government has described itself as a ‘socialist democracy’ or a ‘people’s democracy’, only 10% of Australians agree that China is a democracy.