As coronavirus began to spread across the world, Australians tweeted more about panic buying and product limits than any other country examined in new research from Monash University.
The study by Monash's IT faculty analysed more than 2.5 million tweets from six countries – Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, the US and UK - from 1 January to 30 April.
It also showed many Australians wanted the country shut down early to stop the spread of COVID-19, and uncovered a notable discourse shift in March as travel restrictions came into force.
“It was when the travel bans began to be put in place that people started to take this seriously, and then of course we had that wave of panic buying,” lead researcher Caitlin Doogan told SBS News.
The study aimed to find key trends in community support or backlash to public health measures - such as hand-hygiene, social distancing, travel bans and working from home – which researchers say could help influence public policies in the future.
According to the research, when Prime Minister Scott Morrison began conducting regular press briefings, it did little to allay public concerns.
"People were not really thrilled about them, nor were they thrilled about the delays to limiting mass gatherings and other restrictions. 'Bring on lockdowns' - that's what Australians wanted," Ms Doogan said.
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Along with Twitter users in Ireland, New Zealand and the UK, Australians expressed strong support for stay-at-home orders when they were put in place.
"Australia was the third most supportive country of the lockdowns," Ms Doogan said.
“When we finally got those in place, people were very, very happy with that and encouraging other Australians to stick with it and stay home.”
The greatest acceptance of lockdowns was shown in New Zealand, while racially charged language and anti-China hashtags were almost exclusive to the US.
The research also found were not well received by Australian Twitter users.
"There was a lot of disappointment in Scott Morrison's comments regarding panic buying: the 'stop it, just stop it’,” Ms Doogan said.
"That didn't put people at ease and from then on they weren't really blaming each other for panic buying - it was really directed at the government."
Australians users also tweeted in large numbers about school closures and concerns about the government’s COVIDSafe app, according to the research.
