Australia's Most Trusted 2006

Who do you trust the most



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Australia's Most Trusted 2006

Prepare to be surprised: the results are in from our annual survey on the people and brands you really trust

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES

Around two-thirds of the names in this year's list of well-known Australians also appeared in our 2005 survey, which means we can track shifts in their perceived trustworthiness. Here are some of the more significant movers, and what human-behaviour expert Allan Pease says may have prompted their changes:

Queen Elizabeth II, up 39 places: "It's the first year in a long time that nothing bad has happened in the royal family. The only news about her was positive - that she visited us for the Commonwealth Games."

Singer Kylie Minogue, up 23 places: "This is probably due to Kylie's battle with breast cancer, and the fact she came home to Australia to receive her initial treatment. Patriotism wins points."

Peter Cosgrove, retired Defence Force chief, down 12 places: "He's no longer in the forefront. Also, now that he's on the public-speaking circuit, there's a sense that he's profiting from the time he was protecting us."

Former Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins, up 13 places: "She's had an even greater presence on TV over the past 12 months [Dancing With the Stars]. Being attractive also helps."

Media executive James Packer, up 17 places: "Usually, he doesn't seem to have much in common with ordinary Australians. But when his dad died, we identified with his sorrow. It made him more like the rest of us."

Actress Nicole Kidman, up 15 places: "We are warming to Nicole now that she is in a steady relationship, this time with an Australian. And some of the trust is referred from him, because Keith Urban is very popular."

Swimmer Ian Thorpe, down 16 places: "This could relate to his decision to pull out of the Commonwealth Games. He really was sick, but the Australian approach is to soldier on regardless."


RELATIONSHIPS
Up close and personal

This year, we added a new category to our annual poll: "Personal Relationships". We wanted to gauge how far Australians trust the people with whom they have everyday relationships, such as their partner, colleagues and in-laws.

Our results defy the adage that blood is thicker than water. The winner in this category, with an average score of 9 out of 10, is partners. Children came next, but other blood relationships - mother, father, siblings, cousins - ranked further down our list of 12. Even "best friend", in third place, rated higher.

But Australians still prefer blood relatives to in-laws, our results suggest. Respondents voted their father-in-law and mother-in-law into seventh and eighth place respectively. One respondent, when asked which person in this category was the least trustworthy, said, "My mother-in-law, because she doesn't like me and I don't like her."

Second-last on our list is the boss, and in a surprising result, our respondents rated their neighbours as the least trustworthy of all the people in their everyday lives. Does this imply an atmosphere of fear and loathing in suburbia? Not really. Many said they voted this way just because they do not know their neighbours particularly well.

The top 12

1. Your Partner
2. Your Children
3. = Your Best Friend
3. = Your Mother
5. Your Father
6. Your Siblings
7. Your Father-in-law
8. Your Mother-in-law
9. Your Cousins
10. Your Co-workers
11. Your Boss
12. Your Neighbours

PROFESSIONS
Just doing their jobs

For the first time in the six-year history of "Australia's Most Trusted", politicians have moved out of bottom place in the professions category of our poll. Taking their place, with an average score of only 2.2 out of 10, are telemarketers.

"Everyone understands that telemarketers are just doing a job," says Amanda Young, a consumer-trends expert, "but many people just don't like being called at home and pressured to buy something. It feels like an invasion of privacy."

So the government's "Do Not Call" register, announced in April, is timely. Expected to be up and running in 2007, it bans telemarketers from calling homes that have placed their number on the register. Companies that break laws will face daily fines of $220,000.

Politicians remain in the bottom five of our poll, but on-the-street donation collectors didn't fare much better, 24th out of the 30 professions tested. One respondent told us, "You can't be sure that the money you give goes to the charity."

Ambulance officers topped our list for the third year in a row with an average score of 8.45 out of 10. They're followed by firefighters, pilots, nurses and pharmacists, who leap-frogged doctors from last year.

Surprising findings in this section: hairdressers (12th) are trusted more than religious ministers (17th); bus/train drivers (10th) more than CEOs (23rd); childcare providers (11th) more than lawyers (22nd); and chiropractors (13th) more than financial planners (21st).

The top 30

1. Ambulance officers
2. Firefighters
3. Pilots
4. Nurses
5. Pharmacists
6. Doctors
7. Police officers
8. Teachers
9. Dentists
10. Bus/train drivers
11. Childcare providers
12. Hairdressers
13. Chiropractors
14. Judges
15. Personal trainers
16. Accountants
17. Religious ministers/priests
18. Domestic cleaners
19. Builders
20. Taxi drivers
21. Financial planners
22. Lawyers
23. CEOs
24. On-the-street donation collectors
25. Journalists
26. Real estate agents
27. Psychics
28. Car salesmen
29. Politicians
30. Telemarketers

BOX 4: CONTROVERSIAL FIGURES

This year, we added to our list of 100 well-known Australians some names that have sparked dinner-table debates nationwide. Taking sides about them is a national sport - but do we trust them? Here's what we found:

Schapelle Corby: Arrested at Denpasar Airport in 2004 after customs officers found marijuana in her bodyboard bag; sentenced in May 2005 to 20 years' prison. Trust ranking out of 100: 95.

Dr Philip Nitschke: Assisted in 1996 in the world's first euthanasia by legal lethal injection; Australia's most vocal campaigner for laws in support of voluntary euthanasia. Trust ranking: 62.

Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton: Said a dingo snatched her baby daughter Azaria from an Uluru campsite in 1980; jailed for murder in 1982, pardoned four years later. Trust ranking: 81.

John Laws: Accused of accepting "cash for comment" on his morning radio show; in Sydney, still rating as the third most popular presenter in his time slot. Trust ranking: 79.

BRANDS
Shelf confidence

Trust as a concept is hard to define, but when it comes to Australians' buying habits, the message from our survey is clear: the more consumers trust in a product, the more likely they are to buy it.

Take the example of Cadbury, voted the No. 1 most-trusted brand with an average score of 7.79 out of 10. As well as asking our sample how much they trusted a brand, we quizzed them about their likelihood of buying it. An impressive 44% said they "always" buy Cadbury. Only 2% said they never buy it.

Could this be just about the chocolate? Doubtful, our survey suggests. Rival confectionery maker Mars ranked 38 out of the 137 brands tested. This is far from a bad result, but the company's lower position was also reflected in the likely-to-buy question, with only 22% saying they always bought Mars.

Being Australian doesn't appear to be the deciding factor, either. While they do tend to score well in our survey, they're often outranked by foreign competitors. Herron, for instance, ranked 36 places lower than Panadol; David Jones 32 places below Kmart; and Holden 10 under Toyota.

More important to consumers, it seems, is a company's track record. Poll responses often included words and phrases such as "proven", "reliable", "well respected" and "been around for years".

Says Amanda Young, executive director of the Australian Centre for Retail Studies, "We have greater trust in brands that evoke positive memories over a long period, and that constantly do what we need them to do."

The top 25

1. Cadbury
2. Panadol
3. Colgate
4. Qantas
5. Nokia
6. Sony
7. Dairy Farmers
8. Kellogg's
9. Nestlé
10. Peters
11. Bunnings
12. Woolworths
13. Big W
14. Streets
14. =Coles
16. Arnott's
17. Schweppes
17. = Target
19. Sanitarium
19. =Kmart
21. Uncle Tobys
22. Panasonic
22. =Gillette
22. =Canon
25. Kraft

AUSTRALIA'S 100 MOST TRUSTED LIST

1. Dr Fiona Wood, burns specialist and 2005 Australian of the Year
2. Professor Ian Frazer, cancer researcher and 2006 Australian of the Year
3. Professor Barry Marshall, medical researcher and Nobel laureate
4. Princess Mary of Denmark, formerly Mary Donaldson of Tasmania
5. Dr Harry Cooper, TV veterinarian, Harry's Practice
6. Ian Kiernan, founder, Clean Up Australia
7. Olivia Newton-John, actress and singer
8. Ernie Dingo, TV presenter, The Great Outdoors
9. The Wiggles, children's entertainers
10. Andy Thomas, astronaut
11. Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, author, TV and radio science commentator
12. Dick Smith, adventurer, entrepreneur and philanthropist
13. Dawn Fraser, swimmer and former Olympian
14. Rolf Harris, TV personality, artist and singer
15. Grant Hackett, swimmer
16. Queen Elizabeth II
17. John Farnham, singer
18. John Wood, actor, Blue Heelers
19. Mel Gibson, actor and director
20. Patrick Rafter, retired tennis player
21. Sigrid Thornton, actress
22. Peter Cosgrove, retired chief of the Australian Defence Force
23. John Williamson, singer
24. David Koch, finance expert and TV host, Sunrise
25. Michael Caton, actor and TV host, Hot Property
26. Lisa McCune, actress
27. Ricky Ponting, captain, Australian cricket team
28. Ian Thorpe, swimmer
29. Geoffrey Rush, actor
30. Marcia Hines, singer and judge, Australian Idol
31. Nicole Kidman, actress
32. Bryce Courtenay, author
33. Andrew Denton, TV host, Enough Rope
34. Cate Blanchett, actress
35. Steve Waugh, cricketer
36. Reverend Tim Costello, chief executive, World Vision Australia
37. Delta Goodrem, singer and actress
38. Jamie Durie, TV host, Backyard Blitz
39. Eric Bana, actor
40. Tom Williams, TV presenter, The Great Outdoors
41. Jennifer Hawkins, Former Miss Universe and TV presenter, The Great Outdoors
42. Sarah O'Hare, model and charity spokesperson and patron
43. Rove McManus, TV host, Rove Live
44. Cathy Freeman, runner and former Olympian
45. Elle Macpherson, model, entrepreneur and lingerie designer
46. Bert Newton, TV host, Bert's Family Feud
47. Ray Martin, journalist and TV host
48. John Eales, former rugby union captain
49. Kylie Minogue, singer
50. Thomas Keneally, author
51. Jessica Rowe, TV host, Today
52. Megan Gale, model, actress and TV presenter
53. Tim Winton, author
54. Michael Jeffery, Governor-General
55. Naomi Watts, actress
56. Missy Higgins, singer
57. Greg Norman, golfer
58. Keith Urban, singer
59. Murray Gleeson, Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia
60. Steve Irwin, TV host, Crocodile Hunter
61. Daryl Somers, TV host, Dancing With the Stars
62. Dr Philip Nitschke, doctor and euthanasia campaigner
63. Collette Dinnigan, fashion designer
64. Harry Kewell, soccer player
65. Bec Cartwright, actress and wife of Lleyton Hewitt
66. Graeme Samuel, chairman, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
67. Heath Ledger, actor
68. Simone Warne, estranged wife of Shane Warne and contestant, Dancing With the Stars
69. Jackie O, radio presenter and TV host
70. Peter Garrett, ex-Midnight Oil singer and federal MP
71. Gerry Harvey, business mogul
72. Janette Howard, wife of Prime Minister
73. Eddie McGuire, former TV host and Nine Network CEO
74. Ian MacFarlane, governor, ReserveBank of Australia
75. Lleyton Hewitt, tennis player
76. Russell Crowe, actor
77. Cardinal George Pell, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney
78. James Packer, media executive
79. John Laws, radio presenter
80. Lachlan Murdoch, media executive
81. Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, mother of missing infant
82. Alan Jones, radio presenter
83. Kyle Sandilands, radio personality and judge, Australian Idol
84. John Howard, Prime Minister
85. Rupert Murdoch, media mogul
86. Bob Hawke, former Prime Minister
87. Jeff Kennett, businessman and former Premier of Victoria
88. Bob Brown, federal senator and leader of the Australian Greens
89. Alexander Downer, federal Minister for Foreign Affairs
90. Malcolm Turnbull, businessman and Liberal MP
91. Kim Beazley, leader of the federal Labor Party
92. Tony Abbott, federal Minister for Health and Ageing
93. Peter Costello, federal Treasurer
94. Barnaby Joyce, Queensland National Party senator
95. Schapelle Corby, convicted drug smuggler
96. Paul Keating, former Prime Minister
97. Amanda Vanstone, federal Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs
98. Sol Trujillo, Telstra CEO
99. Shane Warne, cricketer
100. Mark Latham, former federal Labor Party leader

* Independent market-research company The Leading Edge conducted the online survey on behalf of Reader's Digest. The brands section was conducted between January 24 and February 5, 2006. The remainder of the survey took place between March 16 and 21.


To read more about this exclusive poll, check out the June issue of Reader's Digest


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