Relentless cost-of-living pressure, rising interest rates, uncertainty about the direction of the economy and growing concern about inequality has undermined Australia’s sense of social cohesion, according to authoritative new research.
After a polarising voice referendum campaign and amid rising community tensions over the war in the Middle East, the latest Mapping Social Cohesion Report puts the Scanlon-Monash Index of Social Cohesion at its lowest ebb since the survey began 16 years ago.
The social cohesion index provides a barometer of social wellbeing, measuring belonging, worth, participation, acceptance and rejection, social inclusion and justice. The measure declined by four points over the past 12 months, hitting the lowest result on record. Since November 2020 – the peak of social cohesion recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic – the index has plummeted 13 points.
I’m not sure anybody should be surprised at this. Certain political forces have spent the last fifty years systematically dividing society, instrumentalising fear, going all in on disinformation, and weaponising division, all for the purpose of acquiring power and wealth. They control a large portion of the media, big business, and an extraordinarily large amount of wealth. They’ve undermined government, hollowed out public services, and driven wedges into any societal issue they didn’t like. Thanks to them, we have rising inequality. Thanks to them, we came out of Covid with no improvements whatsoever to the health system and our ability to handle a pandemic. Thanks to them, we have a housing affordability crisis. Thanks to them, issues like the same-sex marriage debate and the voice debate turned into the hateful, divisive shitshows they were.
And they will keep doing all those things, again and again, while pointing the finger and blaming others for the shit they cause.