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Happy-Go-Lucky Australia doesn’t feel happy or lucky

Happy-Go-Lucky Australia doesn’t feel happy or lucky

For almost three decades, Australia appeared to have a sort of get-out-of-jail-free card that allowed it to weather the dot-com collapse and global financial crisis without a recession, while its citizens mostly benefited high wages and affordable housing. and golden perspectives.

When a recession arrived, in 2020, it was because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But four years later, Australia has failed to overcome certain obstacles, notably the high cost of living: the price of bread has fallen. increased by 24 percent since 2021 — a a turbulent job market and growing inequalities. While these and similar issues also concern countries like Britain and the United States, they particularly sting many people in Australia, which has long considered itself the “lucky country.”

Australia is among the richest, most resource-rich and most stable countries in the world. But millions of residents are experiencing levels of hardship not seen in many decades. They say they are struggling to support themselves, pay for housing, health care and cover utility bills. And many young Australians are facing a reality their ancestors never had to face: they will be worse off than their parents or grandparents.

Robyn Northam, 28, once dreamed of becoming a hairdresser. But rising rent and exorbitant childcare costs for her two children made training out of reach. Just two generations ago, she says, her grandmother was raising a family in her own home as a single parent, while working part-time as a nurse.

“If you’re an average Australian woman, it’s virtually impossible,” said Ms Northam, a content creator in Cairns who, with her partner, pays 600 Australian dollars, or about $400, a week in rent. “It’s a totally different world now.”

Australians pay more for almost everything. The pandemic led to high inflation, which has since eased, although it remains relatively high at 3.4%. Rents in some areas of Melbourne have increased by almost 50% year-on-year, and rental affordability is at an all-time low in at least 17 years. Consumer confidence has barely budged since the 2020 slump.

Landlords are also under pressure. Australian mortgages are typically fixed for a few years at a time, and as the central bank has tried to rein in prices by raising interest rates, rates have tripled to 6.7% in recent years.

This tension has led to an increase in the number of working families seeking support. In 16 years, said Dave McNamara, chief executive of Foodbank Victoria, “through bushfires and pandemics, I have seen nothing of the magnitude we are seeing now, of people from all walks of life needing help.” ‘food aid’.

“Things are much worse than they were before the pandemic, and we have little inspiration for optimism,” said Nikki Hutley, an independent economist in Sydney. “Everyone does it really hard.”

Economists have long argued that too much of Australia’s wealth is tied up in the housing market, even as shoddy policy, construction shortages and high immigration have brought an already low housing supply to an critical point.

A poll carried out last year by the think tank Per Capita found that fewer than one in four Australians did not own a home expects to be able to do so. “It’s not necessarily the be-all and end-all, if you have a really stable rental system,” Ms. Hutley said, “but we have terrible laws in this country.”

The shortage of rental housing has also caused rents to skyrocket in some neighborhoods, pushing young people further and further from cities. In Sydney, the exodus of young families, a recent report warned, risks creating a “city without grandchildren”.

Talitha Vermeulen, 25, has been looking to settle in this city with her partner for four months. Often, available properties are rented before showings can even take place, she said. “It was just frustrating not even getting a chance to see the place.”

Thanks to its wealth, stability and natural resources, Australia has more advantages than most other countries: life expectancy rates and salaries are still among the highest in the world, with wage growth above inflation Last year. The stock market is trading near record highs.

Yet it’s not clear whether it’s realizing its full potential, said Julianne Schultz, an academic and author of “The Idea of ​​Australia.” “The thing I keep coming back to is: It could be so much better,” she said, adding: “It’s kind of a lack of ambition.”

Although Australians often proudly refer to the “lucky country”, academic and writer Donald Horne’s comment was originally intended as a rebuke of the country’s leaders, whom he saw as incurious and unimaginative.

And despite the country’s abundance and its often declared love of egalitarian values, Australia’s wealth is an increasingly unequal distributionas the nation joins the ranks of other countries facing growing inequality and economic and generational tensions.

Economic woe has resulted in the lowest levels of “life satisfaction” since records began 22 years ago, according to the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index. The high cost of living, global political unrest and rising inequality are all contributing factors, said Kate Lycett, the lead researcher. “That’s a lot of people who are struggling to make ends meet,” she said.

On a recent Monday morning, people waited outside a food bank at a church in the Melbourne neighborhood of Richmond. The food bank helps more than 100 households and demand has increased sharply over the past six months, said Francis Flood, the coordinator.

“We’ve seen a lot of people who are working but can’t make it until the end of the month,” he said. “We’re definitely helping people who, if you saw them on the street, wouldn’t use a food bank. »

Even those who own their homes are struggling. Tracey Shepherd, 60, lives just a stone’s throw from the beach in the picture-perfect setting of Surfers Paradise, Queensland. A former civil servant, she has health problems that make it difficult to find permanent employment, and she survives on her retirement savings while awaiting a decision on a disability benefit.

With the high cost of groceries and rising costs of maintaining her apartment, life seems precarious, she said. “When I was younger, they said we were the lucky country. It’s not like that anymore.

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Mattie B. Jiménez

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