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Photo: Kym Smith. Source: News Corp Australia
Patterns study. Working with our younger
cohort, we found time and time again
that they are very far from entitled or
any of those negative stereotypes. We
found that their desires for life are really
quite modest. They generally don’t cite
the desire to make a lot of money, for
instance. We asked about their priorities in
life, and they’re more likely to want good
quality relationships and to have a stable,
meaningful life.
That was very much reflected in the
types of issues they were bringing up as
well. We can see from the fact that the
environment came up as such a prevalent
issue that it is evidence of quite a strong
social conscience.
The other issues they cited included
concerns about housing affordability, job
security and things like that. They were
really just concerned with the basics
needed for a stable life.
Can we just touch on some of the key
concerns of the older cohort as well?
I noticed that the cost of living was a big
one, for example.
CR: Besides gender, were there any other
demographic differences in the climate
change finding?
JC: When we looked at the differences
in who was citing concerns about the
environment based on different levels of
education, we found that in the older group
it was a bit more staggered than you might
expect. People that were more highly
educated generally were more likely to
cite concerns about the environment. That
flattened out a little bit with the younger
group. It was more even across different
levels of educational attainment. Things like
that were quite interesting.
You make the point in the report that
there’s often a preconception of millennials
as lazy or entitled or disengaged, but in
fact, the findings of this report show the
opposite. Not only do they care about
social issues but they’re actually struggling
economically, which we know already, but
this adds further evidence for that.
Certainly, yes. That’s actually something
that we found more broadly in the Life
Definitely. Cost of living ranked quite
highly. There were also concerns about
security, terrorism, the economy and
education. We attributed most of these
to life-stage factors. While the younger
people are worried about job security
and housing affordability – because
they’re at that age where they’re maybe
trying to get into the housing market,
trying to make a bit of headway in their
chosen career – the vast majority of the
older group have had children, so they’re
more concerned about the ongoing
day-to-day cost of living. For many of
them, their children are in school, so
they’re thinking a lot about education.
The concerns that they’ve cited are very
much reflective of what’s going on in
their everyday lives.
I think it’s true for both cohorts, but
that’s why it's quite striking that both
cohorts ranked the environment as their
number one concern, because that issue
is a little different to the other everyday
issues they cited.
Tying this in with what’s happening
in politics at the moment, the Liberal
party has turned back around to a more
conservative perspective on climate
change issues. Gen Y, the biggest
generational cohort in Australia, together
with Gen X, comprise the biggest voting
population. I’m wondering what kind of
implications these findings could have for
government policy as we head to the polls
next year.
We have significantly sized cohorts with
each of these groups, but our sample is
not nationally representative. Our cohorts
are concentrated in the lower eastern
seaboard states – Victoria, NSW and
Tasmania. So it's important to consider
that our findings are not necessarily
reflective of the Australian population
at large.
But, regardless of that, findings like this
really reflect that climate change has not
gone off the public agenda. It’s still a very
important issue. It’s in the forefront of
people’s minds when they’re thinking about
what concerns them, what’s important for
them, what’s important for the country. I
wouldn’t be surprised if it did come up as an
issue when the election is called next year.
Many surveys give options which people
can tick, whereas yours asked people to
write their answers, which to me seems to
give more significance to the results.
That’s what we were thinking as well.
We deliberately didn’t give options for
this portion of the survey. We just asked
people to write in their responses.
I think the fact that there was so much
commonality in their answers was really
quite striking.
Is there anything else you'd like to add
about your study?
By talking about this study, I’m
representing work that’s conducted by
a whole team of people, so I’d just like
Working with our younger
cohort, we found ... that they
are very far from entitled or any
of those negative stereotypes.
to acknowledge the chief investigators
on this project: Professor Johanna Wyn,
Professor Helen Cahill and Associate
Professor Dan Woodman, all from
the University of Melbourne, and as
well it’s important to note that the
research is funded by the Australian
Research Council. ■
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