The global coronavirus pandemic has devastated countries and killed hundreds of thousands of people. The measures required to combat it have changed the way we live. While we know right now how lockdown and the coronavirus have changed our own behaviour and opinions, it’s more difficult to know which of these changes might stick around in the longer term. In Australia, we’re running the Life after lockdown survey, which includes national polling across 22 different questions, to see what people think about how society might – or should – change. Here are the most interesting results. For some questions we measured a person’s agreement with a statement, and also whether they had changed their mind about it since the coronavirus crisis had begun. The topic that saw the largest change in minds was working from home. Forty per cent of people said they had changed their minds about working from home since the coronavirus crisis began, and the vast majority of those surveyed (81%) thought employees should be able to work from home, even after the crisis has eased and physical distancing measures are no longer necessary. With demographic breakdowns, there was one interesting difference. People in the highest income bracket were more likely to disagree with employees being able to work from home (15%) than those in low (8%) or middle (9%) income brackets. Half of people surveyed thought the unemployment benefit, jobseeker (formerly known as Newstart), should be kept at a higher rate, even after the crisis is over, compared with 37% who thought it should go back to the old, lower rate. Coalition voters surveyed were more likely to be in favour of the old lower rate (47% net disagree) than Labor (33%) or Greens voters (18%). The government’s free childcare stimulus measure was also popular, with 44% of people agreeing that the government should fully subsidise childcare for parents, compared with 39% who disagreed. Experts say such a subsidy would have substantial benefits despite the cost, though it would be hard to implement. In terms of lifestyle changes, 36% of people thought they will be using video calls to catch up with friends and family more than they did before the coronavirus crisis began, even after lockdown restrictions have been lifted. This is compared with 40% of people who thought the amount would be about the same, and 11% who said they would be doing it less. Not surprisingly, more people aged 55 and over said this was not relevant to them, and those in younger age brackets were more likely to say they’ll be using video calling more. For those people who lost their jobs because of the coronavirus, 45% were not confident they would be able to find a well-paying job in their field at their level of experience. This is compared with 30% who were confident of finding another job. For employed people, the outlook was similarly pessimistic: 49% did not think their wages would keep up with increases in the cost of living, versus 20% who did. You can see more results about relationships, stockpiling and other topics by taking the survey yourself, here. Note: some of the percentages shown here will differ from those in the interactive poll depending on whether “not relevant” responses were excluded.