There has been growing attention to the declining levels of public trust in our politicians, public, and democratic institutions. Recently, Prime Minister Scott Morrison claimed that trust in politics is worst among middle-income Australians. At the time, he described the public sector as central to addressing this through service delivery for “quiet Australians” who are not represented in the “Canberra bubble”. In this piece, we explore the role of the public sector in building public trust through social policy. In this piece, we explore the role of the public sector in building public trust through social policy.
Historically, there has been a strong link between robust social policy and higher levels of public trust.