The Federal Government has fared well in a recent report, with Australians reporting satisfaction with its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Digital Life Index 2021, by digital business transformation company Publicis Sapient, looked at consumer attitudes, behaviours, and perspectives toward a digital life.

It found that 60 per cent of Australians reported being ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with the government’s pandemic response.

Compared to other countries, Australia ranked forth, following behind UAE, Singapore and Denmark, with the global average being 48 per cent.

The survey was completed by 9,300 respondents globally, including 1,000 respondents in Australia.

State governments also scored well on the survey, with 66 per cent of respondents giving a ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ rating.

Gender and generational differences

The research findings also showed that men were more ‘satisfied’ than women with the Federal Government’s response, with 61 per cent indicating their satisfaction compared to 58 per cent of women.

However, when it came to the State Government’s response, men and women reported being equally ‘satisfied’ at 66 per cent.

Different generations had different views, with those aged over 65 being more satisfied with the Federal Government, at 68 per cent, with Generation Z following closely behind at 47 per cent.

This was mostly consistent with attitudes towards state governments, with 73 per cent of those aged over 65 being ‘satisfied’, followed by 56 per cent of Generation Z.

Online government services

However, when it came to Australians’ digital experiences with government services, the government did not do so well.

Only 21 per cent of Australian respondents rated their government services online experience a ‘10’ or ‘9’ on a scale of 1 to 10.

Steven Metzmarker, Vice President Public Sector, Publicis Sapient, said the rating is “sub-par”.

“There is clear headroom for improvement and significantly more work to be done in elevating the online interaction of citizens with their government,” he said in a statement.