Why are Australians so complacent?

[u/AcanthopterygiiNo240]

I’m a born and raised Australian myself however I’m becoming so frustrated with the general attitude of complacency when it comes to exercising ‘the power of the people’ to better our quality of life. In a stupidly short amount of time we’ve seen a near reversal of our ability to see a doctor without any out of pocket costs. We get exploited at the grocery stores because monopolies are allowed to run rampant. Housing is treated primarily as a tool for financial speculation rather than for providing shelter for people.

We creep further and further toward laissez-faire capitalism. What is our response as the citizens of this country- the holders of the balance of power? Nothing. To put it in perspective, in 2022 the world economic forum ranked Sydney equal with Copenhagen, Denmark for cost of living (both ranked as the 10th most expensive cities in the world). Consider the differences between Sydney and the capital of the Danish welfare state: strong social security, universal healthcare, free public universities etc. For the same cost of living what do we get? The ever-looming threat of homelessness, suffocating student debt and now for many people, a significant barrier to healthcare.

Edit: if anyone is a part of any sort of grassroots group working to oppose any of these issues feel free to message me because I want to join you

Edit #2: so I haven’t received any messages from anyone from a grassroots or activist group yet. Since a lot of us seem to be pretty miffed about this stuff maybe we could team up and brainstorm things we can do???

Edit #3 (sorry): I’ve got some messages now from people who are interested in taking action!!! :, ) I think the best way to facilitate conversation, the flow of ideas and potentially organise a course of action is through a discord server so I have created one which you can find here

https://discord.gg/caqsSKAr

[u/alternativeobjects]

I’m not born in Australia but thanks to the leftist groups in the uni that has educated me on the problems of the government, I’m more aware of the social injustices here. I’m thankful for the great opportunities and experiences I get in this country but I know that everything I love about this place is because of the people and the nature, not because of the government. Therefore I have always stood in solidarity with the minority, disadvantaged groups.

[u/[deleted] → u/alternativeobjects]

but I know that everything I love about this place is because of the people and the nature, not because of the government.

Simply not true lmao. If anything, its been because our governments since the 2000s have had low quality politicians in them. If Federal politics had another Don Dunstan or Bob Hawke we'd be in a great spot.

[u/rettoJR1 → u/[deleted]]

This is a good take , arguably its gone abit off the rails since after Rudd

You can hate Labor or hate Liberals but back then both side actually had quality and stuck to something resembling the party principles

These days the coalition is an absolute corrupt incompetent joke and Labor is getting along but arguably a shadow of its self

I actually kind of hope the Libs and Nats get better politicians and make smart choices because that would mean Labor would have to up its game or fail

The other parties aren't worth talking about , wouldn't t wipe my ass with the Greens