Life satisfaction of Australians has dropped to its lowest level since the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Results from the latest Australian National University (ANU) Election Monitoring Survey found Australians were increasingly pessimistic about the future.
Report author Nicholas Biddle said while official economic indicators, such as low unemployment and declining inflation, suggested relative stability, findings from January and February this year showed, over one-third of Australians reported financial stress.
Professor Biddle said the erosion of hope would be an important factor in the outcome of the upcoming Federal election and was leading to lack of trust in government institutions, particularly as it affected young people.
“For the first time in our tracking data which goes back to the start of the pandemic, more Australians think that the lives of Australia’s children are going to be worse than the current generation,” he said.
Professor Biddle said the data revealed a number of predictors of pessimism in the population.
“One is the ongoing impact of rising prices and dissatisfaction with housing. Everyone can see the real struggle younger Australians are having in getting a foot into the property market, and this appears to be translating into pessimism about the future,” he said.
“There’s also views about the environment that are feeding into negative perceptions. The 42 percent of Australians that think Australia isn’t doing enough are particularly pessimistic about the lives of Australia’s children.”
He said the implications of the findings were that Australians who believed life was better 50 years ago and would worsen in the next 50 years exhibited stronger populist attitudes and less satisfaction with democracy.
“And, while younger Australians express greater optimism they remain less politically engaged.”
Read the full report: Erosion of hope: Social and financial wellbeing and the relationship with political.
