Safety and threats
Feelings of safety
The Lowy Institute Poll shows that Australians feel the turmoil that has marked global affairs in recent years.
In 2020, Australians’ feelings of safety fell to historic lows. As the Covid-19 pandemic swept the world, only 50% of Australians said they felt ‘very safe’ or ‘safe’, the lowest result ever recorded by the Poll. Feelings of safety improved in 2021, but then fell again in 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In 2023, feelings of safety have recovered, with 63% of the population saying they feel ‘very safe’ or ‘safe’. While a ten-point improvement on last year, this remains significantly below the high watermark of 2010, when feelings of safety stood at 92%. Further, the number of Australians who feel ‘very safe’ today remains low at 6%, a mere seventh of the number who felt this way in 2010.
Indicates change in mode: see 2024 Methodology.
Threats to Australia’s vital interests
‘Cyberattacks from other countries’ now tops the list of threats worrying Australians. Seven in ten (68%) say cyberattacks are a critical threat to Australia’s vital interests in the next ten years, an 11-point increase since 2018. This result comes as perceptions of other threats — including Covid-19 and Russian and Chinese foreign policies — have receded. It also follows three of the most significant corporate data breaches in Australian history: in late 2022, Optus and Medibank user data was hacked and held for ransom, with hackers releasing sensitive health records of some Medibank customers on the dark web. During fieldwork for this Poll, Latitude Financial disclosed a data breach that eventually saw some 14 million customer records compromised.
Australians remain anxious about the prospect of ‘a military conflict between the United States and China over Taiwan’, with more than six in ten (64%) seeing this as a critical threat in the next ten years — steady from 2022, but almost twice as high as in 2020 (35%). However, against a backdrop of thawing Australia–China relations, fewer Australians see ‘China’s foreign policy’ as a critical threat, down six points from last year to 59%.
From 2006–2009, this question asked about ‘global warming’ rather than ‘climate change’. In 2020, this question asked about ‘novel coronavirus (Covid-19) and other potential epidemics’ rather than ‘the spread of infectious diseases internationally’. In 2021–2023, it asked about ‘Covid-19 and other potential epidemics’.
Despite Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, the number who identify Russia’s foreign policy as a critical threat (57%) fell 11 points from last year. At the same time, fewer Australians (49%) see ‘the rise of authoritarian systems of governments around the world’ as a critical threat, evident in a decline of six points from 2022.
Six in ten Australians remain concerned about the threat from ‘North Korea’s nuclear program’ (60%) and ‘climate change’ (59%). Despite rising cost of living pressures, deteriorating global economic conditions, and forecasts of future economic turmoil, ‘a severe downturn in the global economy’ does not appear to loom larger as a threat to Australia’s interests than it did in 2022. More than half (57%) of Australians see a severe economic downturn as a critical threat, much the same as in 2022 (55%). Levels of concern about ‘foreign interference in Australian politics’ also remained steady (51%).