Reversing the decline: Growing calls for pollies to take the nation’s future seriously

I have previously used the opening monologue to the HBO series The Sopranos to describe how many younger generations of Australians feel about the future of the nation.

Those words, spoken by the primary antagonist Tony Soprano, in which he said, “It’s good to be in something from the ground floor. I came too late for that. I know. But lately I am getting the feeling that I came in at the end.

“The best is over,” he went on to confide in his psychiatrist, Dr Jennifer Melfi, who responded, “Many Americans, I think, feel that way.”

For many of those I know in Generation X, a solid portion of my own (much maligned) Millennial generation and those that follow, this exchange is perhaps the best descriptor of how we feel about the future of our nation, its place in the world and that of ourselves.

At the core of this is a host of concerns ranging from declining employment and economic opportunities, climate change, rapidly rising cost of living, being locked out of the promise of the “Australian Dream”, having a family and a meaningful stake in the nation, a collapsing relationship market and, of course, the ever-looming threat of regional or global conflict.

With this in mind, it is easy to see why so many Australians, particularly young Australians – like their counterparts in Europe, the United Kingdom and North America – feel increasingly ambivalent and disconnected about the future of Western civilisation.

Closer to home, it is Australia’s sclerotic economic performance, declining productivity and, most recently, our collapsing standards of living that are having the most consequential and devastating impact on the morale, resilience and commitment of Australians.

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The latest to highlight this uncomfortable reality is Tom Dusevic of The Australian, in a piece titled Wake up Australia! Our good luck is running out, in which he issues somewhat of a call to arms to the nation’s political leaders.

Dusevic began by painting a rather colourful picture, describing Australia thus, “Australia is in a rut: becoming older, flabbier and less nimble to play to the conditions.”

This is reinforced and illuminated on further by Dusevic’s colleague, Simon Benson, in a complementary analysis titled Productivity sick as a dog’: plummeting living standards in worse fall since 1959, in which he adds, “Households are suffering the worst decline in living standards since the 1950s with the fall in real disposable income eclipsing those of the last four major recessions including the 1970s inflation crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The sick, fat, old man of the Indo-Pacific or the poor white trash of Asia

The phrase, “sick, old man” of (insert name of relevant region here) has been levied against many nations in modern history, from Turkey and Italy to Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and, perhaps surprisingly, China.

The term is most often used to describe a nation that is experiencing economic difficulties, social polarisation, division and upheaval and impoverishment precipitating the decline of a nation.

Bringing me conveniently back to the musings of Dusevic and Benson, beginning with Dusevic who detailed, “The nation is getting more expensive to run, invest in and house, revealed by a bulging and indebted state, an overly regulated private sector, threats of capital flight and the punitive cost of homes … Voters increasingly believe the living cost squeeze reflects a failure of the political class to pay attention to their core concerns and everyday hopes and needs.

“You can draw a direct, hard line from government complacency about our forlorn productivity – basically, how much we produce with the toil and capital we put in – to today’s malaise in material living standard,” he adds.

It would seem on the basis of the simplest aforementioned definition of “sick, old man”, Australia would well and truly fit the bill, or perhaps we should look at the inflammatory language of Singapore’s former prime minister, the late Lee Kuan Yew, who famously declared that Australia run the risk of becoming “the poor white trash of Asia” if we failed to adapt to the new world.

For Dusevic, there is only one cause for this: Government and a lack of meaningful reform, post-COVID. Dusevic said, “The incumbents suffer an ‘optimism delusion’ about the primal power of government to harness animal spirits; its opponents are tripling down on the force multiplier of grievance.

“Migration and public spending, on benefits, public servants and capital works, have kept us out of recession, while contributing to a homegrown housing crisis. We’re kidding ourselves to think housing will sort itself out if we just stop the visas, hobble demand and root out a few criminals on building sites. It’s a chronic condition.”

Reinforcing this reality, Benson added, “Analysis of official government statistics shows the current cost-of-living crisis has hit households twice as hard as the 1990–91 and 1982–83 recessions and significantly more sharply than any period dating back to 1959.

“It also reveals living standards in Australia during the current inflation crisis have fallen more than in any other OECD country, with the hit to households now worse than almost all comparable developed nations.”

Once again, one can’t help but feel that the “sick, old man” moniker is indeed an accurate representation of Australia’s predicament. Far from the dynamism and optimism implied by the favoured national moniker, the “Lucky Country”, which has inescapably engendered generations of policy laziness and political lethargy that is now coming home to reap what it has sown.

Bringing me back to the sentiment of generations of Australians and the level of disconnect, dislocation and apathy they feel about the future of themselves and the nation.

But who, if anyone is to blame? Well, we all are, but some, more than others.

Dusevic summarised it best when he said, “Yet we’re in a form of post-pandemic suspended animation on economic policy in Canberra.”

This is only reinforced by Benson, who, when speaking to economist Chris Richardson, was told, “Mr Richardson said it was an indictment on not just the current Labor government but the previous Coalition government.”

So both sides are to blame.

But so are we, the people.

Time to break the mould

If we are collectively going to right the ship and reverse the decline currently underway, every Australian is going to need to do their part.

That means demanding better of our policymakers and, importantly, demanding more of the media who set the narrative and exacerbate the division perpetuated by the 24-hour news cycle, which can best be characterised as little more than cheap “gotcha politics”.

It also means an end to the intergenerational warfare that currently divides Australians (and no, despite my best efforts, lamb on the barbecue doesn’t seem to work, sorry Sam Kekovich); rather we need a new social contract, one where young Australians can enjoy the promises that were made to us by our forebears.

For the older generations, it means recognising that life today is hard, particularly when there are little to no opportunities like they experienced and conversely, for younger Australians, we need to accept that we do need to do some hard work, we do need to pull our socks up and put our nose to the grindstone.

We just need to be given the opportunities and we need to be ambitious and relentless in pursuing them.

Because if we don’t, there won’t be a need for shiny new frigates or nuclear-powered submarines, no need for the best cyber defences in the world because the “Lucky Country” will be just another, weak, backwater banana republic nation like so many others who have faded away into the pages of history.

So ask yourselves, what sort of future do we want to leave for our children and grandchildren? One where we are a prosperous, secure, stable and consequential people and nation, or one where we are pushed around, walked all over and bullied by larger, more powerful nations in a new world of power competition and rivalry?

Final thoughts

Despite the rhetoric and lofty ambition highlighted by both sides of the political debate, this all paints a fairly gloomy picture for the average Australian, no matter the demographic group in which they fall, but especially the younger generations.

Declining economic opportunity, coupled with the rapidly deteriorating global and regional balance of power and the increased politicisation of every aspect of contemporary life, only serves to exacerbate the very reality of disconnection, apathy, and helplessness felt by many Australians.

This attitude is only serving to be compounded and creates a growing sentiment that we are speeding towards a predestined outcome, thus disempowering the Australian people and, to a lesser extent, policymakers, as we futilely confront seemingly insurmountable challenges with little to no benefit and at a high-risk/reward calculation.

Taking into account the costs and implications, it is therefore easy to understand why so many Australians, both in the general public and within our decision-making circles, seem to have checked out and are quite happy to allow the nation to continue to limp along in mediocrity because, well, it is easier than having lofty ambitions.

If both Australian policymakers and the Australian public don’t snap out of the comforting security blanket that is the belief in the “End of History”, the nation will continue to rapidly face an uncomfortable and increasingly dangerous new reality, where we truly are no longer the masters of our own destiny.

Our economic resilience, capacity and competitiveness will prove equally as critical to success in the new world power paradigm as that of the United States, the United Kingdom or Europe, and we need to begin to recognise the opportunities presented before us.

Expanding and enhancing the opportunities available to Australians while building critical economic resilience, and as a result, deterrence to economic coercion, should be the core focus of the government because only when our economy is strong can we ensure that we can deter aggression towards the nation or our interests.

Get involved with the discussion and let us know your thoughts on Australia’s future role and position in the Indo-Pacific region and what you would like to see from Australia’s political leaders in terms of partisan and bipartisan agenda setting in the comments section below, or get in touch at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..