Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Francesca Rudkin: Is the grass really greener across the ditch?

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Francesca Rudkin: Is the grass really greener across the ditch? · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: Recently, I had a guest on the Sunday Session, an
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  Speaker 1: Assie who was in New Zealand and was loving it.
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  Speaker 1: They said to me off air that here everyone was relaxed,
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  Speaker 1: welcoming and smiled at you on the street. They were
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  Speaker 1: really taken aback by the mood here compared with over
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  Speaker 1: the ditch in Australia. They said, it's pretty grim. Everyone
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  Speaker 1: is down and just getting on with it. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: I asked, how can that be. I thought the Australian
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  Speaker 1: weather and the amazing lifestyle put everyone in a good mood,
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  Speaker 1: and they said it had rained all summer. I thought
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  Speaker 1: this was an interesting observation, but I was it a
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  Speaker 1: little bit skeptical. And then I stumbled across an article
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  Speaker 1: in the Sydney Morning Herald basically saying satisfaction was life
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  Speaker 1: among many Australians is lower now than during the depths
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  Speaker 1: of the pandemic, as the cost of living and housing
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  Speaker 1: is squeezing people in their twenties, thirties and forties. The
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  Speaker 1: story was based on research released yesterday by consulting agency KPMG,
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  Speaker 1: which tracks life satisfaction whether a person is content with
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  Speaker 1: their circumstances. So pretty much what it says on the
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  Speaker 1: tin they discovered, life satisfaction is now substantially lower than
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  Speaker 1: it was in the mid twenty tens across all age groups,
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  Speaker 1: while it has nose dived among people facing the biggest
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  Speaker 1: financial hit. Those in their twenties and thirties are dealing
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  Speaker 1: with high rents and large mortgages, and wealth has flatlined.
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  Speaker 1: For the Sandwich generations, they care for their children and
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  Speaker 1: their parents. Everyone is dealing with wages that have not
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  Speaker 1: kept up with inflation. Younger people and older people are
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  Speaker 1: a bit more satisfied, but not as much as they
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  Speaker 1: used to be. The key issue affecting satisfaction is the
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  Speaker 1: stress of managing household finances. More than twenty one percent
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  Speaker 1: of people reported they would struggle to raise two thousand
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  Speaker 1: dollars in a week for an emergency, while a courter
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  Speaker 1: said they had experienced a cash flow problem in the
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  Speaker 1: past year. Kind of all sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it,
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  Speaker 1: And yet drawn by higher wages in a larger and
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  Speaker 1: more diverse job market, kiwis are still flooding over the ditch.
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to turn this into a competition about
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  Speaker 1: who is more satisfied with life, but it does make
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  Speaker 1: you wonder if we are balancing scales somewhat. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: it depends on your priorities, doesn't it. If your priorities
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  Speaker 1: are income, career growth, warmer weather in larger cities, then
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  Speaker 1: you know Australia tends to come out ahead. If your
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  Speaker 1: priorities in nature, community, outdoor lifestyle and a slower pace
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  Speaker 1: of life, then New Zealand often comes out ahead. But
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  Speaker 1: one thing to consider, which may suggest we're slightly more
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  Speaker 1: satisfied in New Zealand, We're not so frustrated with our
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  Speaker 1: lives and country that we'd likely consider Pauline Hanson for
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  Speaker 1: Prime minister. For more from Early edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Listen live to News Talks it be from five am weekdays,
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  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio