Trust in Australian public services: 2026 Annual Report
About the Survey of Trust in Australian public services
Over 94,000 responses collected since March 2019.
Feedback on Australian public services, also known as Federal, National, or Commonwealth services.
National representative samples based on quotas for age, gender, and location.
Quality assured by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Designed and updated in consultation with agencies.
We publish an Interactive Dashboard on the survey results, which allows people to further explore the data and includes service profile information and demographics.
Our micro data is made accessible to approved researchers by sharing data with the Australian Data Archive operated through the Australian National University.
For more details about the survey, visit our website.
or email: TrustandTransparency@apsc.gov.au
About the report
Reporting on over 12,000 responses from July 2025 to June 2026 as well as data from previous years.
Data collected from approximately 1,000 people each month, reporting their experience from the past year.
Report shows feedback on services delivered by 19 agencies and master programs (e.g. Medicare), hereafter referred to collectively as agencies
In 2025–26 we undertook a comprehensive review of agencies and master programs to ensure that we were collecting the correct data for all agencies. After the review we are now collecting data on 19 programs/agencies and over 120 different activities across the 19 agencies.
This new data allows us to compare similar service activities and make inferences about where we are seeing examples of better practice.
Key insights
Overall trust in Australian public services has remained steady this year at 62%, after a significant increase last year.[1]
Trust in specific services used has increased to 74%[2] in 2025–26, compared to 73% in 2024–25.
Satisfaction with public services has increased by one percentage point to 70%.[3]
Last year's increases in trust and satisfaction have been maintained across most services and programs. Smartraveller, the Australian Passport Office and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme recorded the highest levels of trust and satisfaction. Satisfaction with Services Australia’s Child Support program rose 4 percentage points to 66% in 2025–26, the highest rise among measured services.
When asked why their trust had increased, people most often talked about:
- positive personal experiences
- improved accessibility and efficiency
- accessing a service for the first time and finding it better than expected.
Respondents were:
- most satisfied[4] with respectful interactions with staff and being able to achieve what they set out to do
- least satisfied[5] with the clarity of how decisions were being made by the service.
Trust and satisfaction are linked to people’s individual characteristics, reasons for accessing services, and service access experiences.
- On average, women trusted public services less than men (58% to 66%), continuing the trend of several years.
- Trust in public services was highest for people earning above the median weekly wage (69%), people aged 18–34 (68%), and people born in a country other than Australia (67%).
Footnotes
[1] Q7: Overall trust is the proportion of people who answered “Strongly agree” or “Agree” when asked “How much do you agree with the following statement – ‘I can trust Australian public services’”.↩ Return to text
[2] Q26: Trust in specific services is the proportion of people who answered “Strongly agree” or “Agree” when asked “How much do you agree with the following statement – ‘The service is trustworthy’” about a specific service. The proportion is adjusted pro rata for the amount of services each individual was asked about.↩ Return to text
[3] Q22: Satisfaction is the proportion of people who answered “Completely satisfied” or “Satisfied” when asked “Thinking about your overall experience with the above services, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you?”. ↩ Return to text
[4] Q27: Proportion of people who answered “Strongly agree” or “Agree” when asked how much they agreed with statements about their service experience. The proportion is adjusted pro rata for the amount of services each individual was asked about.↩ Return to text
[5] Q27: Proportion of people who answered “Strongly disagree” or “Disagree” when asked how much they agreed with statements about their service experience. The proportion is adjusted pro rata for the amount of services each individual was asked about.↩ Return to text