Healthcare and the economy topped Australia’s worry list in 2021, but anxiety about housing affordability is on the rise.
The Ipsos Issues Monitor survey, which each month asks a representative sample of Australians to select the top three issues facing the nation, shows healthcare surpassed the economy in terms of biggest concerns in April and stayed there for the remainder of 2021 amid ongoing disruption caused by the pandemic.
Healthcare topped Australia’s worry list in 2021Credit:Peter Braig
Ipsos public affairs director Stuart Clark said infection rates, restrictions and economic disruptions had had a major influence on public concerns during the past two years.
“It has been another unsettled year for Australians thanks to the ongoing uncertainty caused by COVID-19,” he said.
But the fastest rising national concern is housing affordability. In January 2021, only 15 per cent of those surveyed rated housing among their top three bugbears but by November that share had reached 34 per cent, only 1 percentage point less than the economy and 3 percentage points lower than healthcare.
Growing disquiet about the cost of housing coincides with surging property prices in most capital cities. The latest Domain Group figures show Sydney’s median detached house price jumped by 30 per cent in the year to September to $1.5 million, while Melbourne’s median detached house was up 17 per cent in that period to $1.04 million. Housing was the number one concern in NSW and equal top in Victoria (alongside healthcare) in the September quarter, according to state-level Issues Monitor data.
“Housing was the eighth biggest issue in January — now it’s number three,” said Clark. “That’s most likely driven by the double-digit increases in house prices during the year.”
Qualms about the cost of living have also become more prevalent. At the start of 2021, a quarter of survey respondents rated household living costs among their top three concerns, but that had swelled to nearly a third by November. This follows recent data showing wages growth is struggling to keep up with inflation. A separate Ipsos poll published in December found 77 per cent of Australians expect prices to increase faster than incomes in future.
The environment ended 2021 as Australia’s fifth biggest concern. In late 2019, as bushfires raged and smoke enveloped cities and towns, the environment surged to the top of Australia’s worry list for the first time. It subsequently fell in the rankings as other concerns, especially healthcare and the economy, became more prominent due to the pandemic.
However, the share of respondents rating the environment a top concern has recovered steadily during 2021. The recent political focus on climate change policy and global attention on the Glasgow Climate Summit may have been a factor in this increase.
In the past, concern about the environment has been most pronounced among those aged under 25 but in recent years there has been a marked rise in the share of older people rating the environment among their biggest worries.
Mr Clark said the environment was now more entrenched among the top issues for Australians “indicating that it’s likely to be a mainstay on the agenda for a long time to come”.
Fears about unemployment which spiked in 2020 eased in the second half of 2021 suggesting workers are feeling more secure in their jobs. Unemployment ranked as Australia’s sixth biggest concern in November (17 per cent) just above poverty (16 per cent), crime (16 per cent) and petrol prices (13 per cent).
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