Please join us for an upcoming RE&D Research Notes webinar, hosted by the Resources, Environment and Development group (RE&D), Crawford School of Public Policy. RE&D Guest, Dr Bradd Witt will present his research insights on public trust and attitudes to the environmental performance in the Australian cattle industry.

Sustainability of cattle industries are being scrutinized amid environmental concerns. In response, industry discourse infers trust as critical to avoiding reactive environmental regulation. However, public perceptions of the cattle industry’s environmental performance and trust are largely unknown and speculative. Dr Witt present the first model of public attitudes toward the Australian cattle industry. The results reveal that perceptions of the industry’s environmental performance strongly predict trust. However, trust only weakly predicts a perceived right for societal oversight and has only an indirect relationship on need for environmental regulation. Environmental values influence perceptions of industry performance and perceived right for societal oversight.

Dr Witt is a lecturer in the School of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Queensland. He is passionate about research that can inform the discussions and debates around complex environmental issues. Understanding the role of people in these issues and the opportunity for positive change is central to his research activities. His recent work focuses specifically on the public’s perception the Australian beef industry.