Australia
Current Score
Global Rank
Percentile
Last Updated
Ranking Trend
Australia's rank movement over the last 30 days
Score Analysis
Analysis of Australia's policy signalling profile
Australia's WokeMeter score stands at 75, placing it in the very high intensity category for policy signalling. This score reflects Australia's comprehensive approach to progressive policy signalling through robust legislative and regulatory frameworks. Key factors contributing to this high intensity include the presence of the eSafety Commissioner, the implementation of the Online Safety Act, and stringent misinformation laws, which collectively position Australia as a leader in content moderation and online safety. Additionally, the country's strong corporate DEI mandates, including ASX requirements for diversity disclosure and gender pay gap reporting, further elevate its signalling intensity. Australia's legal recognition of same-sex marriage and anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ communities also contribute significantly to this assessment.
Examining the dimension scores, Australia's most intense signalling occurs in the areas of Speech & Expression Climate and Legislative/Regulatory Activism, both scoring above 99. This indicates a strong institutional focus on regulating speech and implementing progressive legislative measures. The Corporate/Investor Signalling score of 87.97 highlights active corporate engagement in DEI initiatives. Conversely, Institutional DEI Policy Intensity scores lower at 49.73, suggesting moderate signalling in educational and governmental DEI programs. Overall, Australia's policy signalling intensity is characterized by a strong combination of regulatory oversight, corporate compliance, and legislative protections, contributing to its high global rank.
Score Breakdown by Dimension
Weighted components of the composite score
Recent Events
Events that influenced this country's score
Duterte drew up 'death lists' and boasted about murders, ICC prosecutor says
Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte personally drew up "death lists" and boasted about murders committed during his "war on drugs", an International Criminal Court prosecutor alleges at a crimes against humanity hearing.
NT environmentalists ‘gobsmacked’ at federal green light to bulldoze nearly 3,000 hectares of tropical savanna
Daly River region is home to threatened species such as the ghost bat, Gouldian finch, pig-nosed turtle and red goshawk Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The environment minister, Murray Watt, has given the green light for the bulldozing of nearly 3,000 hectares of tropical savanna in the Northern Territory without an assessment under Australia’s nature laws. Top End Pastoral Company’s development would clear 2,723 hectares of woodland – an area 10 times the size of Sydney’s CBD – on Claravale farm and station in the Daly River region for crops, including sorghum and cotton. Continue reading...
Guardian Essential poll: more than half of Australians open to voting for One Nation despite Hanson’s Muslim comments
A quarter of all respondents say they would ‘definitely’ back the rightwing populist party at the next election while a third say they’re ‘open’ to it Pauline Hanson’s populism is a front. But there are lessons for progressives in One Nation’s surging popularity | Peter Lewis Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Nearly 60% of Australians say they’d be open to voting for One Nation at the next federal election, with nearly half of those currently backing Labor saying they’d consider backing Pauline Hanson, ringing alarm bells for both the government and Coalition about the march of the rightwing populist party. Meanwhile Angus Taylor’s appointment as Liberal leader has done little to boost the opposition’s electoral fortunes so far, with its primary vote virtually unchanged and voters split about whether his spill of Sussan Ley would make them more or less likely to vote for the Coalition. Continue reading...
In 2022, Labor MPs urged compassion for Australian women and children stuck in Syria. Now Albanese has only contempt | Dan Jervis-Bardy
The government’s drastically changed rhetoric about its legal obligations to Australian citizens is a symptom of 2026’s ugly politics Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Just after question time on 23 November 2022, the federal parliament debated a motion relating to the repatriation of four Australian women and 13 children who had been stuck in a Syrian detention camp since the fall of Islamic State three years prior. One after another Labor MPs argued with passion, clarity and logic about why it was not just acceptable, but necessary and morally right, for the federal government to assist the return of its own citizens from the squalid and dangerous camps. Continue reading...
Australian PM Albanese briefly evacuated from residence after security threat
Prime minister evacuated from The Lodge following security incident
The incident at Mr Albanese's Canberra residence led to the prime minister being taken to another location for several hours.
Barty to dust cobwebs off golf clubs at NZ Open
Ash Barty, Kelly Slater and Ricky Ponting are among the multi-talented sports stars in action in the pro-am component of the NZ Open.
Man who ferried multi-million-dollar cocaine haul 'doing mate a favour'
One of three men who used a dinghy to haul 110 kilograms of cocaine onto the Australian mainland has been jailed after telling a court he was helping a friend in exchange for a free boat trip.
Notre Dame uni suddenly halts nursing course enrolments
Staff and prospective students say they have been left in the dark about why the university cancelled new nursing and midwifery students in the first semester of 2026.
TikTok's algorithm showed Marie self-harm videos. It became too much
France is set to follow Australia with a social media ban but for these families, who are suing TikTok over what they say is a harmful algorithm, the battle is only beginning.