Nurses have been named the most trustworthy people for the 22nd year in a row, according to a Roy Morgan poll published today.
A Roy Morgan survey of 655 people, conducted last week, found more than 90% of Australians over the age of 14 rate nurses as the most ethical and honest professionals.
Read more: SMEs and family businesses come out on top in trust stakes
Doctors, pharmacists, engineers, school teachers, dentists and police officers also ranked highly, with the overwhelming majority of respondents believing people in these professions are honest and ethical.
Accountants were also among the professionals to increase their standings, with 51% of survey respondents rating them as honest and ethical, up six percentage points from last year.
Also improving their rankings, albeit from a low base, were “business executives”. Twenty percent of those surveyed nominated this group are honest and ethical, which was an increase of two percentage points from last year’s survey.
However, Australians have not looked kindly on religious ministers, bank managers and union leaders in the past 12 months.
Just 35% of Australians believe ministers of religion are honest and ethical, down 4% since 2015.
Bank managers, meanwhile, are considered to be even less trustworthy. Only 30% of people saying bank managers are ethical, which is the lowest level since 2002.
The trustworthiness of union leaders has fallen from 14% to 13% over the 12 months.
Gary Morgan, the executive chairman of Roy Morgan Research, said in a statement the results could be pinned down to these professions receiving a bad wrap from the press and judicial bodies.
“The biggest losers in 2016 were ministers of religion hitting a new record low and bank managers,” Morgan said.
“After a royal commission last year into union corruption, union leaders were one of only four professions to lose respect from Australians over the past year.”
Despite falling attitudes towards religious ministers, union leaders and bank managers, car salesmen still took out the wooden spoon for the 13th year in a row.
Just 4% of Australians believe car salesmen are honest and trustworthy, according to Roy Morgan.
Broede Carmody is a former senior SmartCompany reporter. Before this, he was a co-editor of RMIT University’s student magazine Catalyst.
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