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Australia’s trust in institutions has risen, outperforming other developed economies, yet the increase masks widening gaps across income and worldview.
Economic uncertainty and rapid AI adoption are driving anxiety, particularly among lower-income groups.
Boards and businesses must actively broker trust across differences to sustain long-term social and organisational confidence.
Trust in Australia is on the rise, but the story beneath the headline figures is more complex. While confidence in institutions has improved overall, deepening divides across income groups and growing unease about economic change and AI disruption are reshaping how trust is built and sustained.
Australia has bucked the global trend among developed economies by recording an increase in our trust score of key institutions, lifting from 49 last year to 54 in the annual Edelman Trust Barometer of 2026.
The survey, which is in its 26th year, paints a global picture of trust levels across nations, and found that among the 1200 Australian respondents, trust has inched upwards. Trust in the employer rose five points to 79, while trust in business was also up five points to 59 to sit alongside NGOs.
Nevertheless, the positive trust picture is not the whole story, according to CEO of Edelman Australia, Tom Robinson. He cites three main areas of concern for Australian boards and businesses – trust fracturing along income levels, the development of an “insular mindset” and economic anxiety amid AI disruption.
“Trust isn’t collapsing, but it is fragmenting,” says Robinson.
Key trust findings
Trust inequality, says Robinson, was one of the key features of the Australian data. While trust levels among high-income earners is increasing, they remain the same for low-income Australians, creating a growing “trust inequality gap”. Whereas in previous years, the trust gap was steady, it has more than doubled this year from a nine-point gap to a 19-point gap, said Robinson.
“Australians are effectively living in different institutional realities, and no other market, particularly Western economies and democracies, has seen that jump in such a short period of time,” says Robinson.
While last year’s survey highlighted moderate to high levels of grievance, this year’s survey points to a global trend towards the “age of insularity”. Some 73 per cent of Australians have an “insular mindset”, according to the report, and are unlikely to trust people who are different from them.
“We’re withdrawing from alternative sources of information, different ideologies and ways of thinking, and it creates this challenge or potential problem that we’re no longer evolving or progressive as a culture and a society,” says Robinson.
“There’s this question of: Do I trust my neighbour if they hold these different beliefs?”
Boards and businesses should also be aware of heightened levels of economic anxiety, with 60 per cent of Australian employees worrying about international trade and tariff conflicts hurting the company they work for, up 16 points since 2019.
“Trade-related job fears are now at an all-time high,” notes Robinson.
“AI fears are disproportionately concentrated amongst lower income groups as well.”
Only 22 per cent of Australian respondents felt that the next generation would be better off, which also poses a challenge for boards and businesses.
“That's not just economic doubt, it's declining national confidence as well,” says Robinson.
“Boards, company leaders and organisations need to treat these statistics as early indicators of regulatory volatility, activism, workforce disengagement and reputational shocks. Trust erosion rarely begins with scandal. It begins with unresolved anxiety.”
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How to respond: Enter trust brokering
Robinson says addressing these issues requires thinking beyond “top-line trust scores”, where Australia has fared well, and focusing on areas of trust deficit.
He uses the term “trust brokering” to describe the process of identifying the common interests of “insulated parties” within an organisation and translating their needs, goals and realities for one another.
“That means we’re building trust across differences, not demanding alignment before trust,” says Robinson. “When we see this done well, low-income trust jumps significantly.”
Leaders should start by asking how trust breaks down across income, region and age within the company’s myriad stakeholders. Boards must also ensure they are building confidence across their whole community rather than “simply building confidence and trust among those who already feel a strong sense of security”.
On a daily level, this could look like embedding trust building among executive KPIs, investing in workforce conflict resolution and deliberate exposure to diverse bases.
In the survey, 70 per cent of Australians agreed that bringing employees into the workplace to interact with people who are different from themselves would be an effective strategy for business to facilitate trust building between distrusting groups. Furthermore, 82 per cent agreed that promoting “a shared identity and culture so that employees are reminded of what unites them rather than divides them” would be an effective strategy for employers to increase trust between distrusting cohorts.
Addressing economic uncertainties
Robinson points out that AI has entered public life “so fast and quickly” that many people feel decisions are being made by “a group of elites within Silicon Valley,” rather than through local consultation.
“It’s important to strengthen AI governance and your workforce transition planning,” says Robinson. “Particularly if you’re a global organisation, you must be able to localise that strategy in response to rising domestic trust biases, as well.”
While employers remain among the most trusted institutions, and that is an enormous strategic advantage, it won’t sustain itself passively.
“We have to make our trust brokering feel very real and very tangible to people,” says Robinson. “Otherwise, the greater that gap, and the greater the distance that we feel, the greater the distrust and the loss of (social) licence you have to operate as a business.”
Trust Level Numbers
Some seven in 10 Australians have an “insular mindset” and are less likely to trust those who are different from them.
Among those with an insular mindset, 68 per cent trust their neighbours.
Some 44 per cent of Australians say they would support reducing the number of foreign companies operating in their own country, even if it meant higher prices.
Some 54 per cent of low-income globally fear being left behind by AI, compared with 31 per cent of high earners.
About 33 per cent of Australians say they get “information from sources with a different political leaning than mine at least weekly”.
Source: 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer Australia Report
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