Governments around the world and in Australia (Federal, State and Territory) are running significant budget deficits following the COVID-19 pandemic. Achieving fiscal consolidation is likely to be politically contentious and may not have the public support needed to return government budgets to pre-pandemic positions while servicing increased amounts of debt incurred during the pandemic. There are concerns from stakeholders that if austerity measures are imposed too early, it may harm economic recovery.

The Susan McKinnon Foundation funded a newDemocracy Foundation pilot to explore the potential for opinion polling to improve the quality of public policy decision making in Australia. SEC Newgate was commissioned to undertake one of three pilot research projects, in this case, research focused on public opinion of post-pandemic economic recovery and budget repair. This was not an exhaustive policy test, but instead an exploratory piece of research to assist in policy making and implementation.

The research sought to understand what Australians think about government debt, which kinds of debt recovery measures are palatable, and what effective issue framing in budget repair would look like, including:

• Is there an understanding of the need for budget repair?
• Does a balanced budget still matter?
• Is there concern about the level of debt held by governments?
• What kind of trade-offs would be acceptable to achieve budget repair?
• Are there areas that are priorities for budget repair, and other areas that are not acceptable?