INEQUALITY IN AUSTRALIA: A YOUNG PERSON’S PERSPECTIVE – 2018

In 2018, WESTIR Limited released the report Inequality in Australia: A Young Person’s Perspective with Youth Action NSW.

The report explores the issues facing young people in the areas of employment, education and housing affordability. There is lots of commentary on these issues by non-profits, peak bodies, service organisations, academics and increasingly within the media, but the voices of young people themselves has been missing.

After surveying more than 3,000 young people and analysing more than 500 answers to open-ended questions, the report highlights, in young people’s voices, that:

• Young people place a huge value on fairness, equity and equality within Australia. Their attitudes and goals on important issues such as education, employment and housing are most often altruistic and aimed at creating a better society for everyone.
• On critical issues young people are seeing widening inequality gaps within society as a whole, between generations and even within their own peer group.
• Young people are overwhelmingly disappointed by government’s response to their issues citing politicians’ lack of vision and inability to listen to young people. They feel that governments are not acting in their best interests or the interests of future generations.

The report draws out themes within employment, education and housing by using direct quotes from the survey to illustrate each point. The report can be viewed through the Youth Action NSW website or by clicking the button below.