One year on, what has changed?

In October 2019, the results of the Australia Talks survey where more than 50,000 respondents answered numerous questions about themselves, neighbourhood, expectations and concerns was completed.  As we approach a full year since the survey was undertaken, the relevance of some things has become more heightened, whilst others are likely to have slipped into the background, at least for the time being.  So let’s take a look at some of the really interesting outcomes.

It seems city folk, particularly those in the inner city suburbs aren’t all that neighbourly despite arguably having significant amounts of funds directed at creating lifestyle opportunities. It isn’t until we get to the regional and rural centres that people tend to know their neighbours, and often with good cause. Neighbourliness in rural centres also forms a closeness that comes with the need for reliance should something go wrong, shared borders and a more aligned sense of purpose.  Long before any Pandemic hit, rural Australia was always “in it together”.

Given that many people have now been forced into working from home, it would be interesting to see if new friendships had been made and more people now know their neighbours. Certainly, during periods of duress/crisis, more often than not people will band together as experienced during flood, fire or other natural events.  However, during a health crisis, the opposite may actually be true where unknown people bring unknown risks. Over a prolonged period, this lack of trust has the potential to weaken some societal norms where people behave as an individual, putting their own interests first. In cities, the property industry in all of its various disciplines continues to use the term “community” in its promotions; the above graph would suggest that this is an area where significant work remains. Where people come and go in apartment buildings with only an outward facing interaction with the world, the majority of apartment residents would be oblivious to who has walked passed their door. Again there is room for improvement in this space.

Emotional responses to our daily environment are often created by the news channels we listen to. This helps many shape the world we live in, though the risks are also great when the message continues to promote fear. Given the shape of the economy, it is highly likely that the level of happiness would have declined, the levels of anxiety would have risen significantly, particularly for the 18-34 year olds that have seen the greatest loss of jobs at a stage of life where their commitments are often the greatest, both on a financial and personal/family level.

Loneliness is also expected to have increased significantly, particularly in places like Victoria which have entered a “hard” lockdown for six weeks. Again, it is thought that the 18-34 year old cohort will be particularly frustrated as this is one of the most social times in a persons life. By contrast, many elderly that are in aged care, may find less influences from loneliness as they are closed off to the outside world, but still able to interact with those inside. The lack of family visits though is not easy on any generation.

So how do Australian’s deal with some of these emotions. Retail spending, be it online or in the shops creates an emotional sugar hit that temporarily brings happiness and a feeling that everything is heading back to normalcy. This can be as small as a cup of coffee or new shoes or as big as a house that is being stimulated by State and Federal governments. Whilst the underlying problem doesn’t go away, the distraction is at least a temporary reprieve and was reflected in the May retail trade data which was a 16.9% improvement on April and June which grew by a further 2.7%. The winners; Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services up 27.9%, Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing up 20.5%.

This is a really interesting look at what kept people awake at night. The author suspects that we have now entered a personal phase where immediate problems are taking over from broader, less tangible issues that would impact society at some undefined point in the future. Climate change has gone from the smoking gun where no forensics team could find the bullet or agree on whether it had been fired at all. Climate science had yet to define a clear position, let alone a solution. In fact, with the exception of crime, if you were to reverse the order with “providing for family” at the top, this is probably the highest or top three highest rating. Why not health? Essentially because the majority of Australian’s are unlikely to know anyone that has contracted the Covid-19 virus, have a belief that if they are young it is the equivalent of a nasty flu and the effect has largely been one of economic disruption, not a personal health disruption. For this, we should be incredibly grateful that in the majority of cases, Australia’s governments have listened to their chief health officers and the public has generally been compliant in doing what they are told.

And finally something that isn’t likely to have changed, in fact it may have gotten worse, at least in the short term.  There is very little optimism in every demographic cohort that was represented with regard to those who will come after them. So whilst this is an open ended question around generational optimism, some responses may have been fuelled by the negativity around climate change, if you were living in Sydney it could have been around house price affordability and if you were in Western Australia it could have revolved around employment opportunities and resources, South Australians may have bemoaned the loss of the car industry, Queenslanders concerned about the Great Barrier Reef and Melbourne…well it’s the best city in the world 😉. However acknowledging the multivariate inputs, collectively the perception of the future in Australia wasn’t bright, even prior to a global pandemic.

So where does that leave us? The pandemic has allowed everyone to sit back at some point in their most recent journey and ponder what is right and wrong with the world or Australia.  Perhaps it is time we changed the lens in which we view or create our decisions. Should the above graph not be reversed where the response is overwhelmingly that the next generation will be better off?

By looking through that lens, will the decisions be different or the message that often gets muddied around political combat be clearer and cleaner? If the decision making lens is, “ Will the next generation be better off than the current generation?”, issues around community are likely to be handled more meaningfully, our 18-34 year old cohorts, the future of Australia will be more likely to be optimistic. With optimism comes dreams and with dreams comes entrepreneurialism. If we continue to erode their dreams, we continue to push Australia backwards.

The pandemic has given us many challenges, but it has also provided the greatest opportunity for reform, not reset. If we focus on resetting, we simply tread the same path that has got us to where we are today, which by international standards has been outstanding. However if we take those lessons of success and failure, we have the ability to reform many aspects of our economy, labour and unionisation, the taxation system, education, communities both urban and rural, and self reliance to ensure Australia again has the potential to have another three decades of recession free growth.

Matthew Gross | Director