Less than half of Australians think the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been good, according to a poll.

The Essential poll released on Tuesday shows only 12 per cent of people rate the government’s response to the coronavirus as very good and 33 per cent consider it “quite good”. Twenty-nine per cent rate it as “very” or “quite” poor.

Younger people, those in the 18-34 age group, were more critical of the government’s performance with just 38 per cent giving it a thumbs up, but 62 per cent of the over-55s rated it as good.

People who believe COVID-19 has been under-estimated also had a low rating of the government’s performance.

Level of information

Sixty-four per cent said they felt informed about the current situation and its impact on their family but 20 per cent said they didn’t trust the government to provide honest and objective information about the outbreak.

Half didn’t think they had been receiving clear and consistent information.

The survey also found a split in whether people think there’s been an over-reaction to coronavirus.

A third of people believe there has been an over-reaction to the COVID-19 and 28 per cent believe it has been underestimated, while the rest consider the response appropriate.

Only 4 per cent of the 1,034 surveyed said they weren’t concerned at all. Levels of concern increased with age, with 36 per cent of 18-34 year-olds saying they were very concerned compared to 41 cent of those aged 55 and over.

Increasing concern

Eighteen per cent of 18-34 year-olds said they weren’t too concerned, compared to 13 per cent of the older group. However those who weren’t concerned at all were level at 4 per cent and five per cent respectively.

The poll also shows an increasing number of Australians are becoming concerned about coronavirus. On March 22, just under 40 per cent said they were very concerned about the threat of the virus in Australia, compared to 27 per cent on March 9 and 25 per cent on March 10.

Most people (45 per cent aged 18-4 and 43 per cent aged 55 and over) believed it was “somewhat unlikely” they’d develop COVID-19 but there was an increase in the number of people who believed it was “very likely” they would develop it, now at 42 per cent, up 11 per cent since two weeks ago.