Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / CDU Demographer Fiona Shalley says while most people enjoy the lifestyle and want to stay in the NT some are feeling lonely and lack support networks according to new research

Transcript

CDU Demographer Fiona Shalley says while most people enjoy the lifestyle and want to stay in the NT some are feeling lonely and lack support networks according to new research · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know that initial findings from a Charles Dowen University
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: social survey have revealed that four and five territory participants
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: identify as Territorians. Despite the highly transient nature of our population.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: More than three thousand people across the territory participated in
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the My Territory Connection Survey well it connected data collected
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: data i should say, between November twenty twenty one and
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: June twenty twenty two. And joining me on the line
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: to tell us a little bit more about this survey
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: is Charles Dowen University's Northern Institute Demographer Research Associate Fiona Shelley.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Fiona.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie. That's a huge introduction.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: It is and I tell you what this sounds like
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: some interesting research. Tell us a little bit more about
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: what the aim of the research was.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're really interested in the well being of
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Territorians in general, and we've actually got really good data
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: in sort of the domains of health and education and
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: how people are participating in the economy and safety and
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: even the environment, but we don't really have good data
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: on how we feel connected to other Territorians, whether our
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: communities are thriving. So where they're supporting each other and
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: what this means in terms of that population that we know,
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: a population that is quite highly changient and a population
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: that churns every year. So tell us what.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Some of the key findings were.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think, as you said, one of the
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: big one is when we ask people whether they consider
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: themselves to be a Territorian. And I think this is
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: really enlightening because it comes to that idea of you know,
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: have they attached themselves here and is that something that
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: we can really think about when we want that population
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: to stabilize, so we want those people to stay a
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: bit longer here. And what we found is that fifty
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: seven percent of the people who participated said definitely yes,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: and another twenty four percent said yeah, probably yes. So
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: when we asked them why they thought like that, we
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: got some interesting themes. So the first one were those
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: of course who were born and bred, all those people
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: who had lived most of their lives here, and they
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: say being a Territorian was really formative to their identity
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: and to the perspectives they have, you know, it shaped
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: their values and for some people, you know, they talked
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: about this sort of generational grounding. So they could track
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: their family back more than one generation. So we've got
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: that population who are Territorian and we probably can't dispute that.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: But then we've got this other other sort of population
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: of people who say, yeah, I come here and I've
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: settled and gosh, you know, this is the place where
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: I feel like belong, This is the place where I
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: feel like I can be myself. So I think there's
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: some really interesting results. So the territory is a community,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: different place. People are common that they're going to be supported,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: and it's their friends that they choose who have now
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: become their family.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: It's so interesting, isn't it. And it's so interesting because
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: we all too often have that discussion how long do
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: you have to have lived in the territory before you're
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: a Territorian?
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: And that's right, And so some people are saying they didn't.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: They haven't lived here all that long, and they're now
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: starting to think of themselves. Yes, I am. They may
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: have attachments to other places, and we certainly found that
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: out in our results as well. So lots of people said, yep,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: I feel attached to other parts of Australia or other
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: other countries overseas. Yes, but they have this territory identity
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: and it will go with them regardless of whether they
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: stay or leave. I think and fionnor what.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Is this research going to be used for?
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Well, this fills some of those information gaps, so I
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: know how the territory government is really interested in building
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: an evidence space about social outcomes. So these are the
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: gaps that tell people more about that identity stuff, that
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: attachment stuff, their participation in communities and how people are
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: feeling overall. So that was certainly a question that we
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: asked in the survey. So how people going and when
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: we think about when that survey was open, COVID had
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: read its head again in the territory, so we had
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: our first cases in community. We had some serious lockdowns,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: particularly in Catherine, so it really disrupted our lives. And
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: then we've got the challenges that are going on in
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: other parts of Australia to do with natural disasters, and
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: we've got our challenges with our economy. So I think
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: it was a really well placed and well timed survey
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: to sort of ask that question. And the results say, yeah,
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: seven out of ten people think they're going okay, So
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: we've got an average of seven point one I can
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: compare that with a survey that the ABS does and
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: they asked a question about overall life satisfaction and that
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: ended up being about seven point two, So we're not
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: that far off. But that ABS survey has tracked the
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: population over time and we can see that declining. So
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: it was about seven point six in twenty fourteen and
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: now it's dropped down to seven point two. So I
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: think this is the one to keep an eye on.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: You know, what's going to happen if we check in again,
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: is are those feelings going to decline?
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Yep?
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, or how are they going to be going? Yeah?
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: It is really interesting, Fiona. Was there any other sort
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: of like interesting stuff that you found throughout that research
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: that you reckon our listeners might find interesting as well.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that even though we think that we're
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: going okay, there is a portion of our population who aren't.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: And you know that's really sobering when we have about
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: eight percent of our participants saying that they felt lonely
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: most to all of the time, So they're not the
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: ones that are feeling supported. And I think that we've
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: really got to think about, well, what's happening in that space?
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Why are they feeling isolated? Why aren't they getting the
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: support they need? Aren't they connected in with other people? So,
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: you know, some of the other data that we picked
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: up on are those networks of support. And you know,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: so we asked questions, do you get you know, that
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: practical emotional and financial support from your family who lives
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: in the territory, your friends who live here, or your
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: neighbors who live here. And our results certainly showed that
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: the friendship networks that people have here are really important
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: because lots of them don't have their family here. That
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: friendship network sort of builds that space that family might
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: be in other jurisdictions of states and territory.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: And it is it is so important, isn't it here
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: in the territory because we very like a lot of
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: us live away from our family is living here in
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: the territory, and so your friends become your family, that's right.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: And so it's like, okay, for those people who have
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: just arrived, you know, how do we welcome them, how
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: do we make them feel at home? How do we
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: sort of introduce them to those networks that are going
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: to be really important part of their support structure.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Well, Fiona Shelley, You've given us plenty to listen to
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: and talk about this morning. I reckon it's really interesting,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: you know, to hear some of those numbers of the
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: more than three hundred people across the territory that did
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: participate in my territory connections three thousand. Yet it's a
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: lot business.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. Yeah, and I've got to stay thank
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: you to everyone he did. Because it wasn't mix survey.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: It didn't take the sort of five minutes that you
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: might do an online survey for. It probably took more
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: like twenty minutes. So people put a lot of thought
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: into it. But it's been really revealing and I think
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: it's going to give us this really rich darta that
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: we can do some more research on and we're going
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: to share the results with government. We're going to talk
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: about building what we call a social capital Index, which
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: is sort of like this broad idea about how we
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: are going. It's a number that we can monitor over
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: time and say, Okay, how is our community going. Do
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: people have access to those things that help them thrive
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: and our community thrive?
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Well, Fiona, lovely to speak to you this morning. I
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: really appreciate your time. Thanks so much for coming on
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: the show.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for your interest, Katie, thank you.