Social cohesion lowest on record as Australia reels from cost of living, inequality concerns and voice debate (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 year ago by rainynight65@feddit.de to c/australia@aussie.zone

32 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] eatthecake@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

22% reporting insufficient income to pay for prescription medicines or healthcare.

I'm curious about which medications and healthcare are so expensive. More than 1 in 5 is a lot of people and medicine and healthcare are usually cheap or free in Australia. Are there people with chronic conditions being ripped off?

[-] billytheid@aussie.zone 1 points 1 year ago

i suffer from chronic pain and can't afford medications going forward. i'm not sure what I'll do tbh, as it's not really possible to live like this. There are a lot of medications not covered by the PBS, due to intense lobbying designed to maximize profit on older medications; for me it means using illegal opioids(risking arrest or overdose) or suicide. If I were able bodied I'd try to take a few of those LNP scumbags who did this with me.

this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2023

78 points (100.0% liked)

Australia

3579 readers

55 users here now

A place to discuss Australia and important Australian issues.

Before you post:

If you're posting anything related to:

The Environment, post it to Aussie Environment
Politics, post it to Australian Politics
World News/Events, post it to World News
A question to Australians (from outside) post it to Ask an Australian

If you're posting Australian News (not opinion or discussion pieces) post it to Australian News

Rules

This community is run under the rules of aussie.zone. In addition to those rules:

When posting news articles use the source headline and place your commentary in a separate comment

Banner Photo

Congratulations to @Tau@aussie.zone who had the most upvoted submission to our banner photo competition

Recommended and Related Communities

Be sure to check out and subscribe to our related communities on aussie.zone:

Plus other communities for sport and major cities.

https://aussie.zone/communities

Moderation

Since Kbin doesn't show Lemmy Moderators, I'll list them here. Also note that Kbin does not distinguish moderator comments.

Additionally, we have our instance admins: @lodion@aussie.zone and @Nath@aussie.zone

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

lodion@aussie.zone

Fluid@aussie.zone

bestusername@aussie.zone

eatham@aussie.zone