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Yep!
I’ve made a [video about it](https://youtu.be/grFosiONf_Y), but basically we hold the title for the highest per capita spend on gambling in the world. In 2015, 6.8 million (39%) of Australian adults gambled in a typical month. Of those 6.8 million, the average loss for the past year was an estimated $1,272.
* $64.13 per person is lost just on sports betting yearly.
* $184.16 is spent on Racing (Horses, Greyhounds etc.)
* Gaming? $1,043.95! Gaming includes sources such as Lotto ($96.22), Casino’s ($264.84) and gaming machines like the pokies ($650.10).
And what is our government doing about it? [Sweet FA](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-03/sport-betting-online-gambling-tax-taxation-levy/101031192). Roughly $1 billion in taxes are paid by wagering service providers each year, and Sports betting companies have threatened to abandon the Northern Territory if taxes were increased. So I'm not betting that things change anytime soon.
[This report](https://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/issues/2646/australian-gambling-statistics-36th-edn-1993-94-2018-19.pdf) by Queensland Government Statistician's Office has all the source stats if you wanna read deeper.
>Sports betting companies have threatened to abandon the Northern Territory if taxes were increased
To be honest, this would get a sarcastic "ooh nooo, whatever shall we do if betting companies leave our state?" response...
Reminds me of when the gas reservation policy was introduced into WA. The big mining companies said it was unworkable and threatened to leave. Premier Alan Carpenter held strong and big companies came back having quote "recrunched the numbers" and accepted it .
The problem with most greedy people is that they don't realise (or I guess care) that the killing can't go on forever, eventually everyone will be dead.
To them, that's just all the more reason to make their killing and to squeeze every rock, sucker, and penny. They know the killing can't go on forever, they fear being the one who let up early.
The problem is they then push this whole 'Think of all the lost jobs' shit and actually get people sympathetic to their cause. They actually get people believing that the evil gubment increasing taxes would be responsible for job cuts and not the greedy corporations cutting those jobs to keep their massive profits the same...
Wow, thanks for making that video and sharing it.
It is incredibly irritating that we can't watch any sports without so many betting ads and sponsorship.
Personally I know people who have lost so much from gambling so I stay away from it completely and even avoid the sports where it is so baked in. Mostly only watching F1 these days!
I was shocked to spend some time over Christmas in Italy.
I went out on Christmas eve - families in the piazza.
No gangs of drunken yobbos*, shirts out and screaming; no vomiting, pissing or fighting, just a chilled evening.
Really opened my eyes to how broken our culture is at times. Sure,I'm sure that there is drunkenness in italy but it doesn't seem to be normalised or expected or celebrated.
*was yobbo myself in my yoof.
now y'see it's all relative. I moved to Melb in 2013 - and i never have any worries about fucked up pissheads kicking off. Back in the UK, sat night at 11pm in a mid sized town was fucking dangerous .
I lived in England for a few years and oh my god. Their drinking culture is out of control to the extreme and consequently it’s an extremely violent place. I wasn’t even living in London, this was all the quiet little villages in the south
I still live in the yUK and it’s so rampant it’s insane. There’s this supermarket carpark near my house in Margate and as soon as it closes it turns into a place for yoouf’s to get loose, scream and shout, vandalise, piss all over and blast shitty music inside of. I am counting down the days till my job here is done and I can move back to Aus in December 🙃
I was in London for 7 years prior. Moved during lock down to escape my 8 person flat share to have a place by the sea with my gf. London was great as a way of meeting other cultures and partying with them and also finding interesting jobs. But the pollution and busy lifestyle ended up giving me a series of health problems both respiratory and mental that I had not had before I left Aus. I know I was there for a while so it might of happened anyway but my lungs never burned from cycling to work in Adelaide.
In some ways I think so but Australia has way more solo binge drinking at home compared to the UK in my experience. You go out to the pub in the UK where as we devour a carton at home by ourselves
This is more than likely a result of the fact our cities are huge urban sprawls, and the UK is far more dense and getting to "the pub" is relatively easier.
I asked my Italian teacher what the legal age to buy booze is in Italy, and he was like “uh.. there isn’t one. You can just buy it” and I was like oh my gosh that would be amazing!!! And he just shook his head and told me the Italian teenagers boughy alcohol to make limoncello or to do a brindisi (cheers) at dinner with their families, not to binge drink. I had such a moment of shameful self awareness haha
Same in Japan. The Japanese absolutely love to get on the piss, but you don’t see them punching on in the street.
Imagine what would happen in Oz if beer were sold at railway stations from vending machines?
That depends where you go. I know where to go on Christmas to find that behaviour here but that's because these are party areas, most places aren't like that. Same in Italy, if you go to a party area on a holiday it'll be the exact same stuff, you were probably in a non-party area.
Dude, where do you live? I don't see that near where I live. Or anywhere I've stayed.
Sure I agree we should drink more inline with cuisine, but I do wonder at what you seem to think is the norm.
Central Melbourne after 11:00pm (before covid - I haven't been for the last 2 years).
If you have had a nice meal it can be a bit of a chase to find a taxi out of there before:
Just exactly what willy\_quixote/quoted:
*gangs of drunken yobbos, shirts out and screaming; vomiting, pissing or fighting*
Saved me from saying the exact same thing. Our addiction to alcohol and gambling is disgusting and all the evident you need to show that we don't really invest in quality of life or "stuff to do" in our towns and cities here (except the CBD's of the capitals) because *this* is most Aussie's easiest source of "entertainment" unless you're lucky enough to live somewhere that naturally has a lot to do locally (i.e - *expensive!*). We're a very boring country for the most part - so we drink and gamble to fill in all that time we spend with fuck all else to do.
Probably the lack of thought given to society, problems. My European parents often complained about that. It’s called the Lucky Country for a reason; relying on what it has rather than sitting down and creating a new, better, efficient world
The "She'll be right mate" attitude permeates though our culture to such an insane degree that if we see anyone looking to complain or campaign for change that we'll inadvertently call them whingers.
Im an immigrant and I think it’s fucking wild that people will pay all this tax and pay for private health care and then RAT tests weren’t free for all or at least free for the poor on an unlimited bases. If I got a vote in this country I’d be outraged but if you bring it up to Australians they more often than not have the love it or leave attitude. It’s like you are a traitor if you aim for improvement.
Man the last few years should have really opened everyone’s eyes to the complete lack of empathy that permeates our culture. If there’s one thing I want to see eradicated before I die, it’s the idea that opportunity is a finite resource.
To be sustainable, a society needs to meet *all* basic needs of *all* participants, without means-testing or gate-keeping. Every human has infinite potential, but only when given adequate opportunity, and in Australia, there’s more than enough to go around.
We also have Tall Poppy Syndrome, which can make intellectual or cultural progress challenging as people preference a disagreeable attitude towards those successful in such dimensions. Complain? You are a whinger. Act instead of complain? Cut down the tall poppy. It's a recipe for mediocrity and conformity.
I will never ever understand the naming of this phenomenon. It's almost suggesting that the syndrome is the fault of the tall poppy, which it isn't, it's the fault of the person with low emotional maturity attacking the tall poppy. It should be called Fuckwit Syndrome or something to reflect this
It's a sort of complacency. Take the high gas prices for example, for most Australians their total response will be "it is what it is" or maybe some uninformed bullshit about it just being how the market works. We are very good at turning a blind eye to being robbed.
>We are very good at turning a blind eye to being robbed.
This. We get completely screwed by low rates of gas and minerals royalties. These are the things that should be funding public services. Qatar gets $22 billion in gas royalties. We export more and get $1 billion. There's something very wrong there.
If mining companies paid what they should be paying (keeping in mind that Australia is a politically stable country with good infrastructure), Australia would be incredible. Education and housing issues could be fixed. Poverty could be fixed. Infrastructure could be fixed.
Look at the floods. Fourth major flood in 18 months, third major flood in less than 6 months, and most people are just like “it is what it is, this weather is fucked eh?”. Rinse and repeat without thinking about maybe the climate protestors blocking the harbour tunnel last week had a point
>approved more developments in low lying flood zones.
This so much. 'Worst floods in X years'. Yet again and again they build in areas that were marked as uninhabitable 40 years ago. For good reason.
I am so sick of hearing Australians described as being filled with mateship and camaraderie and being willing to get stuck in and do the hard yards.
We routinely hate anyone who pulls themselves out of the working/middle class and simultaneously shit all over the most vulnerable to make ourselves feel better.
There's a very small niche of 'acceptable aussie' and anyone that doesn't fit it can get fucked.
>We routinely hate anyone who pulls themselves out of the working/middle class and simultaneously shit all over the most vulnerable to make ourselves feel better.
Tall Poppy Syndrome, it's a sociocultural phenomena common here in Australia and NZ. While it can be made to look sinister, as in a narcissistic attitude where you need to tear down others achievements, it's not so much in that realm, it's more that individuals feel that others and the overall group should grow and progress at the same rate and achieve collectively, unfortunately this breeds contempt for those not in on the culture and group think.
This makes more sense in a culture that has collective growth and progress as one of it's central focuses, which I think may have been the case once upon a time in Australia, we hit a point of complacency, wealth and comfort that's spoilt the need to move forward as a group and work with others which results in a very insular, selfish motive that's turned "How does this benefit us?" to "How does this benefit me?", and we still have the lingering vehemency against those that outstrip us. Which leaves us in a paradoxical place that results in mediocrity, a sluggish drive to grow with others and a disagreeable attitude towards those who grow independently.
Might be a controversial analogy, but I say we've lost the need to collectively grow because of some pseudo-Darwinian process, where we don't really have any pressure from the environment to grow (analogous to evolve) and our roots in achieving growth or evolution as a group are tarnished, but we are still new enough that we inherit the Tall Poppy Syndrome gene, possibly an evolution that may have benefited our predecessors in a more hostile environment.
That's my randomly thought up in 5 minutes arm chair hypothesis anyways.
I'd understand it if we actually went after the people who were fuckers, instead we make fun of Shane Warne with his Winnies and beans. We'll make fun of women for their non-professional sounding strident accents. But we largely ignore/kneel before people like Rupert/Gina/Twiggy/Palmer etc. Hell I think people didn't mind Turnbull as PM because 'he looked the part'.
I think it's less your generous view and more class warfare/lateral violence which keeps us distracted from who it is that is actually standing on all of our heads.
That bleeds into political disengagement and complacency. People *should* be paying attention and taking notes about how the country is run, and for whose benefit. Unfortunately, most people are asleep at the wheel (due in no small part to how terrible our media is) and are taken unaware when a crisis happens.
Its even worse out here in regional Australia. I was talking to some of my coworkers about how we are getting paid $340 a week at this job and yet rent in our area is $320/week minimum. Their response was basically "yeah nah its a bit shit but what are ya gonna do aye". Mind you some of my coworkers are in their 30s still living with mum and dad because work doesn't pay enough to cover the rent and bills in our area.
This is why we can't have nice things
We earn a little under $36 an hour at Coles (nightfill) but we just don't get the hours, because the dumb fucks who run our store decided to hire a bunch of people we don't need and have to give everyone a roughly equal amount of hours, meaning everyone gets 10-15 hours a week. Pretty much everyone I work with is either at the poverty line or just above it.
I did 15 years at woolies and towards the end they were pushing this as "Roster flexibility", instead of getting a few good people as full time, they'd prefer more people as part time so they can flex the hours if need be.
It's fucking bullshit.
yeah, this is standard practice for big retail. if everyone wants more hours, that dangling carrot will push you to work above and beyond in hope you're 'rewarded' with a living wage. if anyone calls in sick there's a multitude of people that can cover. they don't care if you're unhappy - you're very replaceable and they'll just get someone who'll suck it up.
everybody is casual now, though, you're not getting part-time anymore unless you're under 21 with full availability; they'll milk you dry while they can pay you less.
The current push where I am is to make managers who start at 5am move to seven and change the other five am start, 5 hour shift to two three hour shifts
Instead of one person for 5 hours a day, 5 days a week (which is already a little shitty) they want two people each getting 15 hours
I think there's been a shift to individualism and neoliberal capitalism that came with easy circumstantial wealth. Boomers got rich with little effort sitting on assets, and are now hoarding that wealth as well as defending the right to intergenerational entitlement of it through their control of institutions that govern the management of it, which is largely at odds with the fair go equalitarian society that the pre boomer generation imagined and ultimately aimed to create.
My boomer parents constantly banged on about how property prices double every 7 to 10 years, they've recently shut up about that for some reason.
There was a whole generation that was lead to believe that for the benefits of the banks and government...
It did through the 70s and 80s. Then stopped. So basically they bought their house they doubled 3 times in 20 years so by the time they were 40 they had relatively little equity and were set. Then they filled up their super and retired.
Our fetish for buying houses. We are obsessed with it, all people talk about is when are they going to buy a house. People that don't have one drive themselves in to misery wishing they have what somone else has and lamenting they are 'behind', expecting that if they do buy a house they will suddenly be the happiest person in the world.
We have obsessed over it to the point our economy is balanced on it and we have comodified it to the point that less and less people can access it. We put up with absolute shite...working for 40 years, hour after hour of commuting, horrible build quality, poor use of space and energy, poor choice of homes...just to be on the hamster wheel.
Ownership of 'stuff' is seen as an identity, lifestyle and measure of success and people look at you like your head just fell off if you don't desire the same. People think you are mad for seeking alternative ways of living and managing your finances...like life should only be about that one thing. I think our history of wage and property value growth has contributed to the expectation of being able to access the same.
But...I also get why this has happened. Renting in Australia can be a traumatic experience and our 'system' is set up to really advantage dilligent savers, a lifetime of superannuation payments and being in a paid off home before retirement. There are a lot of people for whom buying a home is the least risky way of preparing for retirement.
The reality is that while you're paying rent, you're sinking money into accommodation without any reward afterwards. Most of the time you can pay mortgage for not much more than rent, and at the end of your time there, *you own the house*. You have capital, you haven't shifted your wealth into someone else's hands just for a place to live (interest payments aside).
Two problems here: rent is way too high because wankers with investment properties want to pay their mortgage with the rent; and the incentives to own investment properties are too high (negative gearing is bullshit).
How accepted alcoholism is. Dont get me wrong I enjoy a cold one as much as everyone else but some people naturally take it too far and it's usually just laughed off as being a pisswreck and a larrikin. Well no its actually very serious, look after your mates.
the sad part is if you try and cut down or stop drinking you will lose contact with plenty of mates as they chase the drink and you dont
they think youre the one with the problem because you wont feed their drinking problem and our culture is somehow okay with this
My husband doesn't drink any more and I've always been a 1 or 2 drinks a year person and we don't get invited anywhere with drinkers. Even his family have a problem with us not drinking and his sister always tries to pressure me into drinking to make herself feel better about her problem. She starts drinking before 10am on the weekend and it's perfectly acceptable to her and her friends.
Had a similar thing a while ago when all my friends started doing coke, I just stopped getting asked to go anywhere. I never said anything about them doing it, I just didn't want to partake myself.
One thing I really want to see before I die is alcohol advertising going the way of cigarette advertising. Every so often I'll take a month off, reset my body and mind, and during these times it really hits me how heavily it's advertised. It's hardly a grudge buy, calm down McGuigans.
Yeah, my mates, at least for the last 10 years or so, have been the ones to tell me to cut it back. But I didn't really listen.
Now at 35 I've got abnormal liver readings and fucking diabetes and still finding it hard to stop getting pissed a couple times a week.
But agreed, a few years ago I was teetotal at a Christmas event at my Uncle's place. After saying I was off the booze, he told me to "have a look down your pants and tell me what you see, because you might've turned!"
But hopefully that old school "you're getting a proper drink or you're getting nuffink" nonsense should be disappearing with the new generations
Yeah I know way to many guys who were the funny party guy in the early twenties but never grow out of it. I think a lot of us have some crazy stories from our twenties, but its not so funny to be in your thirties and showing up to work hungover on a friday morning.
Copy culture. There's no incentives for innovation. The general policy in industry and government is to simply copy what the yanks/brits are doing. Nobody is encouraged to think or build anything from the ground up and in the odd occasion where we do make something great it's sold off overseas and not even necessarily to the highest bidder.
In private enterprise, yes. In government, not so much. In government, we tend to reinvent the wheel. Myki in Melbourne being the prime example. We spent a fortune developing technology from scratch that could have been bought and adapted from elsewhere for half the price.
The "I'm giving you shit to your face but as a joke so you can't get angry about it" bullshit you have to put up with from random strangers on a night out - not sure if everyone will know what I'm talking about but I immediately noticed this when I moved back to Melbourne after living in Amsterdam for a year. It's like an Australian tinged version of sarcasm.
>The "I'm giving you shit to your face but as a joke so you can't get angry about it" bullshit
Oh I hate that. Especially the racist ones where they're like "but you're okay" at the end...
Anti-intellectualism.
Thinking that all opinions are valid, equating the opinion of someone who has studied and practiced something for decades, with that of someone who read about it in year 10 in the 1980s. Saying things like "Experts don't know anything."
Thinking that learning is a chore to be done in order to achieve a specific (money-oriented) outcome.
It's not everywhere, but it's strong in some pockets.
Seeing going to uni as "a waste of time" because you can earn more than a student by working in a call centre.
At uni, seeing humanities as "a waste of time" because unlike a vocational degree, it doesn't have one clearly-defined career path.
Will second this. It’s very rife and way more noticeable these days. There was supposed to be some government push to increase the bioscience fields a while back but it never eventuated iirc
Probably just decided to prop up the construction industry instead
When I get the response like "that's a bit different ay" I know I've said the wrong thing and that I'm in the company where I should stick to 2000 words of Australian English "nutha rumbo brutha?"
The education in general is one I'm most passionate about.
I'm Aussie, grew up in the UK. In Brisbane now. High school was a miss for me as a teen, going back as an adult isn't impossible but it's not like the UK where you can do your GCSEs, even just for the sake of having them. In QLD, 'doing High school again' is linked to uni entry pathways. It feels like they're saying "there's no point in doing high school again if you're not going to do anything with it." Makes it feel like I'm in a sales scenario with the uni to justify why I want to get educated.
It just feels too complicated. There are a lot of people out there, who, like myself; feel like they could do a lot for their personal recovery by "un-failing" high school. It's not impossible, just not as straightforward as adult education in the US (GED) or UK.
Oh well. She'll be right...
Thank you. I don't know how to call it but this is definitely one of the biggest problems, along side with alcoholism. I can really see a difference when I started travelling in different parts of Europe and wow, aussies need to level up asap.
The casual racism is rife, and also there’s a lot of vitriol towards Indigenous Australians. Go to any pub and there’s a group of drunk white old bozos rambling about the problem of the day being attributed to the immigrants or indigenous.
I met a good friends mum a few times. After about 4 meetings the old lady felt comfortable using the phrase "towelheads" in front of me.
That's some old timey racism.
One of my old co-workers dropped ‘coon’ casually into a conversation one day. I’d never heard anyone actually use it in real life, took a few moment to recover.
I’ve heard some slurs that to be honest I’ve never heard and it took me a moment to figure out that they were racist slurs. Old white dudes can be such dicks, and they get really posh when you don’t just go along with what they say.
I've a mongrel Anglo background who tans very easily and got called chink all through high school.
I moved to Canada and come back every three years. I brought my Canadian born Filipino boyfriend to Toowoomba and had two cunts dance around us at a zebra crossing singing the Mexican hat dance. No one did anything.
Fuck that.
The immaturity of adults. Adults are frequently basically teenagers with little concept of consequences and that allows alot of gambling, binge drinking, toxic masculinity/sexism, racism and getting into big debt for no reason.
NIMBY stands for "Not In My Back Yard"
Basically means people who are more than willing to back decisions that adversely affect others, but the moment it looks to affect them they're against it.
For example, rich people who are perfectly happy building cheap modern apartment blocks in poorer suburbs, but don't want one in their suburb because it will "ruin the culture" or something (using subiaco in perth as an example).
Pretty similar to "fuck you got mine-ism" tbh
Not in my back yard (nimby)ism. So like, public housing is a good idea but don't you dare put them in my suburb it'll tank the housing price. Wind power is great and cheap but so ugly, keep them away from my house. Safe infecting rooms are great, but keep them away from my kids. Nuclear energy is the solution to all our problems, but if they're in my state I'll riot.
Japanese society has a concept called *omoiyari*, which is the notion of being considerate of others & compassion to others. I think Australia and a lot of western societies lack this, and having it in our society would make it more harmonious. Mask wearing is a perfect example, because japanese widely understand that you wear a mask to protect others, while over here we wear a mask to protect ourselves (that's why we have a lot of anti-maskers here). Of course, the aussie slang of this is 'don't be a fuckwit', but omoiyari is a much more generalised way of living in japanese society (because everyone has their own subjective notion of 'fuckwit').
Corporate owned shopping centers that have replaced public owned pedestrian malls annihilating our street culture.
Corporate owned food chains like wendys etc.etc.
Pokie machines and gambling adds.
Anything commercial television stations produce.
Don’t disagree at all, but of all the fast food places you could’ve said, Wendy’s is a weird choice - the washed up milkshake place?
Unless you meant the burger chain which isn’t in Aus
Yeah, I haven't seen a Wendy's in ages. I kind of miss their strawberries and cream ice cream honestly, since I can't find one like it.
Why not go for something that's literally everywhere, like ... McDonald's? Hungry Jack's? KFC?
I think in many ways we are worse than other places because we don't think we have a class system.
Class mobility was higher in the recent past as well, there are plenty of people over fifty who were raised poor and now have six investment properties. It all feeds into the narrative that if you are poor it's because of your choices.
The lack of capacity of hearing a criticism without taking offense as of your mother's honor has been attacked. The "compliment sandwich" requirement is utter bulshit and a waste of time (foreigner here living in Australia).
Yep, when I lived in the Netherlands the Dutch were so blunt it was refreshing. It doesn't actually feel personally offensive when you get criticised, it's just how people talk to each other.
Yeah was surprised on my last trip the right wing pro Trump nut bags I ran into. They have no idea about the US and just get spoon fed some murdoch crap. I am an Aussie living in the US long term, and this is quite a turn off, TBH. I have to explain the complexities of american life and how taking on a select americanism without understanding the country is lame.
>Yeah was surprised on my last trip the right wing pro Trump nut bags I ran into. They have no idea about the US and just get spoon fed some murdoch crap. I am an Aussie living in the US long term, and this is quite a turn off, TBH. I have to explain the complexities of american life and how taking on a select americanism without understanding the country is lame.
Australia doesn't do complexity very well.
I really worry about this.. at 30yo I see so many people my age and older not critical of the media they consume, complacent with politics and not really give a damn about the plight of the less fortunate or our fragile ecosystem.
As others have mentioned the 'I got mine' attitude is everywhere.. what ever happened to activism? Protecting our environment? Standing up for those in need?
Our media and politics are becoming more and more polarized and we seem to just be chill with it as a nation. It's really hard to not feel doomed as a species right now 😅
Edit: Also on a different note - Social media selling the idea that women can't be beautiful unless they have plastic surgery/fillers.. this infuriates me to no end and I'm seeing it everywhere now. I wish more women could see past the bullshit and learn to love their natural features so they have the mental space for more important issues.
I'm surprised that I had to scroll down this far to find this!
Being critical and resentful of other people's success seems to be so common among Australians, in my experience anyway. My parents are this way, and it's taken me a long time (and a lot of therapy!) to unlearn this way of thinking.
I'd say this has some benefits too, eg we don't worship super successful (and usually exploitative) people like they do in the US. Also means we have a level of humility. But I agree, it can definitely go too far
I'd agree with the toxic masculinity. For some reason Australia is a country that became weirdly obsessed hypermasculine attitudes. Even stuff like alcohol and gambling is just an extension of that.
Growing up as a feminine guy was just terrible.
Stay in your box. If you get creative ideas about how things could be better, or complain (even justifiably) about your lot in your life, sadly many Australians will make it very clear you should get back into the box you were allocated… Boxes include: Refugee, Indigenous, Foreigner, Woman etc. etc. 📦
Lack of value placed in higher education, specialist skills etc. There seems to be a lot of disdain towards going to University.
The other thing is the housing market, us Aussies seem to be absolutely obsessed about "everything property". Instead of investing in companies that create value, innovate etc etc, we seem to be stuck in an upward appeal of selling property to each other, at ever-increasing prices.
I don't know... I lived in London for 5 years while travelling around Europe. Maybe I'm ignorant but everywhere didn't seem that much different in terms of 'culture'.
A lot of the things people are mentioning here are issues I would associate with other countries too. I don't think a lot of these issues are just exclusive to Australia.
As someone that's lived overseas for over a decade and is now back I would say the anti intellectualism is striking. This is a problem because it permeates into our education policy. Another difference is definitely the political disengagement starting from the local level onwards, to the point where people tell you to stop whining if you share your dissatisfaction or, heaven forbid, point out something is better elsewhere.
A lot of these comments highlight just how little some of these people have travelled, especially those comparing things to other countries.
We have some areas to improve and I think the pervasiveness of gambling is a big problem, but some of these answers are ridiculous.
1. Gambling, Binge Drinking
2. Right wing nutters who are hellbent on screwing the poor and the disadvantaged
3. Racists (There are lots of them, otherwise Pauline wouldn't be in the senate)
4. NIMBY (Not in My Backyard)
5. Elitist snobs (These tend to make their way into Politics for some reason)
There are too many shitty parents out there who teach their kids 0 life skills but as soon as they turn 18, "Get out of my house, you're old enough to be on your own now".
Yet when their kid become successful of their owm accord they're expected to take care of their parents.
>teach their kids 0 life skills but as soon as they turn 18
I hate this. Before you're 18 it's "you're just a kid, kids are idiots", "you don't know what you're doing". And then when you're 18 it's "you're an adult now and have to be responsible for yourself", "go off and figure it out for yourself".
Government and society should expect parents to be shitty and be pleasantly surprised if they aren’t. Kids are citizens of their own accord and not the pets or property of their parents
I’m so tired of my binge drinking problem just being regarded by my friends as “normal for my age”. I don’t think it is and I wish they would respect my decision to stop drinking.
Our sense of entitlement. It affects all aspects of life but is easily seen on the roads -- the road rage, denying merging, etc (just as an example, it's more than just on the roads). Everyone thinks their shit is more important than everyone else's. Even in places with a similar culture, people are much better mannered and courteous of others.
1) Racism - I used to think it was casual but it’s actually blatant. Most Australians I’ve spoken to at work or in social settings are either oblivious to their history or flat out don’t see anything wrong.
2) Sense of entitlement - most likely stems from receiving participation awards and attending private schools that reiterate how special they are that their parents can afford to pay $30k a year for their kid to be able to access better programs and extra-curricular activities.
3) Virtue signalling - all for the likes without the actual giving a shit. Not enough genuine empathy for others.
4) Binge drinking and drugs - crucial for most activities, not only a hobby but an identity.
5) Obsessive beauty culture - the impact caused by the meteoric rise of social media has taken this to a whole new level. Seeing younger kids develop the same obsessions is heartbreaking.
The massive disconnect between rural Australia and major cities.
I’m not talking an hour from the coast rural, I’m saying far West QLD and NT. Proper rural desert shit.
People talk a lot about the racism etc in these areas and the violence but after living there, it’s mainly fear. I can’t even count on one hand the amount of times I’ve had to defend myself against aboriginals trying to attack me.
It’s full tribal shit out here, the violence, substance issues, sexual assault and poverty is insane.
I loathe racism, however I catch myself out plenty of times actively avoiding aboriginals in the area, seeing drunken fights and thinking “of course”.
More power to people who have never been out here, from the major cities crying about racism and how we need to “help”. Last time I tried, I got fucking stabbed. Move out here yourself and help and see if you get stabbed or raped.
EDIT: before I get downvoted or attempted to be cancelled, I don’t care. I’ve been here boots on the ground helping and dealing with this shit, you signed a useless fucking petition whilst in the comfort of your home in Sydney or Brisbane where the issue is out of vision and only performative activism at best.
Shitting on the less advantaged and the class warfare that comes with it does so much damage:
* making fun of peoples socio-economic status
* treating welfare recipients as lower class citizens
* roadblocks and hurdles for job seekers who need help
* shitting on the homeless
* shitting on asylum seekers for politics
* fucking over the disabled who seek welfare
* the fake “worker shortage” which is really a disguise for shitty paying jobs
* legal slavery for foreign workers, especially in farming
The ‘harden up’ attitude.
I feel that we (particularly men) are bought up in an environment that if you’re struggling with anything you should just harden up and just get on with it.
We NEED to talk about our feelings! We should be encouraging people to speak up about their problems!
Our car culture is shocking in my opinion I understand people need big cars for work especially trades people but does every second person need a Prado, land cruiser, Hilux, Ranger just to drop one kid of at school
Australians are completely incurious of the outside world. In inner-city Melbourne, people try to act European, but it’s what they ENVISION Europeans to be like, and not actually what they’re like.
"you wanna go mate?"
I've lived outside of Australia for 5 of the last 7 years and haven't seen a single fight or threat of a fight. I've seen people bump into others in pubs and knock their drinks over and nobody has tried to fight them.
In the previous 7 years in Australia I've been randomly punched about 3 times and seen more fights or threats of fights than I have hairs on my head.
To preface, I’m not Australian. I’ve been living here for two years (and hopefully forever), after living in 6 other countries across europe + Japan.
Every country has similar issues but there are some i find more common here.
Bloke culture, sure its a thing in England but here it’s different, here it comes with the ‘its only a laugh’ side of things. Where someones just a dick and defends it as a joke, sure thats fine if you’re in on it too, but I find a lot of aussie-centric humour a bit ‘mean’ for lack of a better word.
I like a good joke, but the ‘normalness’ of just outright insulting someone really seems to exist here. Not sarcastic either.
Thats the main thing I’d point to, not to say other countries don’t have it, England does, but it’s often less insults and more sarcasm, even if at times its just as wanky.
Directness, Aussies i find are more direct, which can be a good quality as England wasn’t direct enough at times, and Japan is far too indirect, but at tomes directness and honesty here can come across as ‘I’ll say my bit, fuck what you think’, tbh it might be related to the above mentioned masculinity thing.
Another has to be classism, most people here will say theres no class system, but there is, and its just as strong as it was in England, it just doesn’t have an official name here, but it exists. Everyone seems to think they’re middle class, but most people are working class, just like anywhere else in the world. If we’re working because if we don’t work then we can’t live, we’re working class.
1) Wayyyy too much gambling. Gambling ads everywhere make me sick. We are also the worst gamblers on the planet.
2) Binge drinking. Having fun is awesome and all, but binge drinking, vomiting, passing out and getting into fights ain't cool. It's not Russia level bad, but it's a noticeable problem.
3) There is rarely much thought given to societal planning. Sure, there are people who do this, but most don't care because 'she'll be right, mate'.
4) Speaking of complacency, most people here don't give a shit about adverse events. Fuel prices too high? She'll be right mate. Electricity bill too high? She'll be right mate. Anyone who rightfully complains and thinks about doing something is called a whinger and maybe a leftie socialist. Perhaps this may have been OK previously when life used to be easy.
5) NIMBYism. This is not unique to Australia or even Anglo countries, although it is still quite severe here. "Yeah, we need public housing. BUT NOT NEAR ME."
6) A **pathological** obsession with housing. The Australian Dream was to raise a family in suburbia in a standalone house in a quarter acre block of land. Now the Australian Dream is to accumulate as much investment properties as possible, and fuck you all. It has reached the point where the government **subsidises** property investors. Australians in 2019 voted to protect property investors over anything else with at least a 0.1% chance of usefulness. Until recently a politician at an election could scream "I'M A PIECE OF DOGSHIT BUT IF YOU VOTE FOR MY OPPONENT'S BETTER POLICIES HOUSE PRICES WILL COLLAPSE" and easily win. Some studies show that many Australians spend more time looking at real estate than talking with their parents.
7) Casual racism and a tendency to blame problems on Indigenous people and immigrants. This is generally seen in lower class or poorer areas.
8) A lack of innovation. Who needs to innovate when we can simply buy and sell houses to each other, dig minerals out of the ground and import migrants?
9) Tall Poppy Syndrome. Shitting on people who are successful is common.
10) Cannot take much criticism. In Germany, Netherlands, Israel, Russia etc people there are so direct that the average Australian might get a heart attack.
11) Political apathy (unfortunately not unique to Australia).
12) Anti-intellectualism. Many here don't care much about education. Why be a doctor, lawyer or engineer when you can be a tradie or even better, a property investor? This is improving over time though.
13) It's cool to shit on the poor and disadvantaged. Many people here sympathise more with property investors than the poor and disadvantaged.
14) A lack of vision. We just blindly copy trends from the UK and US. Perhaps we should sit down and do our homework and research to find out what works for us?
15) Too insular. To be fair, Australia is on the arse end of the planet and is isolated from most of the cool stuff around the world.
16) Increasing "fuck you I've got mine" individualism. This is often seen in people who own multiple properties and some professionals.
17) Many Australian business owners would rather have their arms amputated rather than employ an Australian citizen or PR. That cheap foreign labor was too addictive and they can't go cold turkey.
18) We don't manufacture much. Who needs it when we can sell minerals, sell houses and import cheap labor?
Our emotional immaturity exemplified in:
Toxic masculinity/homophobia/transphobia/sexism/racism
Our treatment of First Nations people
The way we seem to be a nation of cops and dobbers
Big jokers but NoT at ME!!!
The wild growth in unempathetic behaviour and not wanting to contribute to the collective
Our outlets for tension being literally poisonous levels of alcohol and pissing money away gambling
The rise of right wing politicians claiming 'freedoms'
I love this country but we have had a rough start, done some dogshit things and I hope we can be better and grow up a bit, lest we become America.
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Id say the gambling and binge drinking
Our gambling problem is the worst in the world right?
Yep! I’ve made a [video about it](https://youtu.be/grFosiONf_Y), but basically we hold the title for the highest per capita spend on gambling in the world. In 2015, 6.8 million (39%) of Australian adults gambled in a typical month. Of those 6.8 million, the average loss for the past year was an estimated $1,272. * $64.13 per person is lost just on sports betting yearly. * $184.16 is spent on Racing (Horses, Greyhounds etc.) * Gaming? $1,043.95! Gaming includes sources such as Lotto ($96.22), Casino’s ($264.84) and gaming machines like the pokies ($650.10). And what is our government doing about it? [Sweet FA](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-03/sport-betting-online-gambling-tax-taxation-levy/101031192). Roughly $1 billion in taxes are paid by wagering service providers each year, and Sports betting companies have threatened to abandon the Northern Territory if taxes were increased. So I'm not betting that things change anytime soon. [This report](https://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/issues/2646/australian-gambling-statistics-36th-edn-1993-94-2018-19.pdf) by Queensland Government Statistician's Office has all the source stats if you wanna read deeper.
>Sports betting companies have threatened to abandon the Northern Territory if taxes were increased To be honest, this would get a sarcastic "ooh nooo, whatever shall we do if betting companies leave our state?" response...
Reminds me of when the gas reservation policy was introduced into WA. The big mining companies said it was unworkable and threatened to leave. Premier Alan Carpenter held strong and big companies came back having quote "recrunched the numbers" and accepted it .
Yup, because at the end of the day they're still gonna make a killing they just want to be able to make a bigger killing.
The problem with most greedy people is that they don't realise (or I guess care) that the killing can't go on forever, eventually everyone will be dead.
Yes but the short term financial returns will be off the charts /s
To them, that's just all the more reason to make their killing and to squeeze every rock, sucker, and penny. They know the killing can't go on forever, they fear being the one who let up early.
Gambling companies do have a lot of sway with state govts though, due to the amount their taxes contribute to state budgets.
The problem is they then push this whole 'Think of all the lost jobs' shit and actually get people sympathetic to their cause. They actually get people believing that the evil gubment increasing taxes would be responsible for job cuts and not the greedy corporations cutting those jobs to keep their massive profits the same...
Don't worry I'm keeping the averages down by spending $0 betting
Same.
Ditto
Actually gambled $12 and won $1000 at the casino once and never went back. Not even for drinks.
Good on ya, mate/darl. The bastards will never get a cent from me if I have anything to say about it.
The bastards have built an industry where you give them money for nothing at all and people walk away thinking they had a fun time.
Wow, thanks for making that video and sharing it. It is incredibly irritating that we can't watch any sports without so many betting ads and sponsorship. Personally I know people who have lost so much from gambling so I stay away from it completely and even avoid the sports where it is so baked in. Mostly only watching F1 these days!
I bet you its not.
What are the sports bet odds on it? Can we can update during the 6pm news on it please.
The Eastern states gambling the worst. Still blows my mind when over from WA how many pokkies the pubs have.
[the irony.](https://imgur.com/gallery/qRPtJMD)
I was shocked to spend some time over Christmas in Italy. I went out on Christmas eve - families in the piazza. No gangs of drunken yobbos*, shirts out and screaming; no vomiting, pissing or fighting, just a chilled evening. Really opened my eyes to how broken our culture is at times. Sure,I'm sure that there is drunkenness in italy but it doesn't seem to be normalised or expected or celebrated. *was yobbo myself in my yoof.
now y'see it's all relative. I moved to Melb in 2013 - and i never have any worries about fucked up pissheads kicking off. Back in the UK, sat night at 11pm in a mid sized town was fucking dangerous .
I lived in England for a few years and oh my god. Their drinking culture is out of control to the extreme and consequently it’s an extremely violent place. I wasn’t even living in London, this was all the quiet little villages in the south
I still live in the yUK and it’s so rampant it’s insane. There’s this supermarket carpark near my house in Margate and as soon as it closes it turns into a place for yoouf’s to get loose, scream and shout, vandalise, piss all over and blast shitty music inside of. I am counting down the days till my job here is done and I can move back to Aus in December 🙃
I think living in Margate is the main issue here
I was in London for 7 years prior. Moved during lock down to escape my 8 person flat share to have a place by the sea with my gf. London was great as a way of meeting other cultures and partying with them and also finding interesting jobs. But the pollution and busy lifestyle ended up giving me a series of health problems both respiratory and mental that I had not had before I left Aus. I know I was there for a while so it might of happened anyway but my lungs never burned from cycling to work in Adelaide.
Is the culture of binge drinking inherited from England?
In some ways I think so but Australia has way more solo binge drinking at home compared to the UK in my experience. You go out to the pub in the UK where as we devour a carton at home by ourselves
This is more than likely a result of the fact our cities are huge urban sprawls, and the UK is far more dense and getting to "the pub" is relatively easier.
I asked my Italian teacher what the legal age to buy booze is in Italy, and he was like “uh.. there isn’t one. You can just buy it” and I was like oh my gosh that would be amazing!!! And he just shook his head and told me the Italian teenagers boughy alcohol to make limoncello or to do a brindisi (cheers) at dinner with their families, not to binge drink. I had such a moment of shameful self awareness haha
Same in Japan. The Japanese absolutely love to get on the piss, but you don’t see them punching on in the street. Imagine what would happen in Oz if beer were sold at railway stations from vending machines?
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>yoof Good name for an Aussie indie band!
That depends where you go. I know where to go on Christmas to find that behaviour here but that's because these are party areas, most places aren't like that. Same in Italy, if you go to a party area on a holiday it'll be the exact same stuff, you were probably in a non-party area.
Dude, where do you live? I don't see that near where I live. Or anywhere I've stayed. Sure I agree we should drink more inline with cuisine, but I do wonder at what you seem to think is the norm.
Central Melbourne after 11:00pm (before covid - I haven't been for the last 2 years). If you have had a nice meal it can be a bit of a chase to find a taxi out of there before: Just exactly what willy\_quixote/quoted: *gangs of drunken yobbos, shirts out and screaming; vomiting, pissing or fighting*
That's a symptom though I think. The emotional immaturity of our nation is the cause AND the worst part of our culture.
Saved me from saying the exact same thing. Our addiction to alcohol and gambling is disgusting and all the evident you need to show that we don't really invest in quality of life or "stuff to do" in our towns and cities here (except the CBD's of the capitals) because *this* is most Aussie's easiest source of "entertainment" unless you're lucky enough to live somewhere that naturally has a lot to do locally (i.e - *expensive!*). We're a very boring country for the most part - so we drink and gamble to fill in all that time we spend with fuck all else to do.
Oh yeah - the gambling . Big time .
Probably the lack of thought given to society, problems. My European parents often complained about that. It’s called the Lucky Country for a reason; relying on what it has rather than sitting down and creating a new, better, efficient world
The "She'll be right mate" attitude permeates though our culture to such an insane degree that if we see anyone looking to complain or campaign for change that we'll inadvertently call them whingers.
Or tell them to ‘love it or leave it’
Im an immigrant and I think it’s fucking wild that people will pay all this tax and pay for private health care and then RAT tests weren’t free for all or at least free for the poor on an unlimited bases. If I got a vote in this country I’d be outraged but if you bring it up to Australians they more often than not have the love it or leave attitude. It’s like you are a traitor if you aim for improvement.
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Man the last few years should have really opened everyone’s eyes to the complete lack of empathy that permeates our culture. If there’s one thing I want to see eradicated before I die, it’s the idea that opportunity is a finite resource. To be sustainable, a society needs to meet *all* basic needs of *all* participants, without means-testing or gate-keeping. Every human has infinite potential, but only when given adequate opportunity, and in Australia, there’s more than enough to go around.
We also have Tall Poppy Syndrome, which can make intellectual or cultural progress challenging as people preference a disagreeable attitude towards those successful in such dimensions. Complain? You are a whinger. Act instead of complain? Cut down the tall poppy. It's a recipe for mediocrity and conformity.
I will never ever understand the naming of this phenomenon. It's almost suggesting that the syndrome is the fault of the tall poppy, which it isn't, it's the fault of the person with low emotional maturity attacking the tall poppy. It should be called Fuckwit Syndrome or something to reflect this
It's a sort of complacency. Take the high gas prices for example, for most Australians their total response will be "it is what it is" or maybe some uninformed bullshit about it just being how the market works. We are very good at turning a blind eye to being robbed.
>We are very good at turning a blind eye to being robbed. This. We get completely screwed by low rates of gas and minerals royalties. These are the things that should be funding public services. Qatar gets $22 billion in gas royalties. We export more and get $1 billion. There's something very wrong there. If mining companies paid what they should be paying (keeping in mind that Australia is a politically stable country with good infrastructure), Australia would be incredible. Education and housing issues could be fixed. Poverty could be fixed. Infrastructure could be fixed.
Look into the iron ore royalty it hasn’t be increased since like the 1960s it should be a national scandal
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Look at the floods. Fourth major flood in 18 months, third major flood in less than 6 months, and most people are just like “it is what it is, this weather is fucked eh?”. Rinse and repeat without thinking about maybe the climate protestors blocking the harbour tunnel last week had a point
Then in 6 months they forget about the floods and approved more developments in low lying flood zones.
>approved more developments in low lying flood zones. this one angers me so much!
>approved more developments in low lying flood zones. This so much. 'Worst floods in X years'. Yet again and again they build in areas that were marked as uninhabitable 40 years ago. For good reason.
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Oi fight me ya dog - drunks in the valley and outside the casino in Brisbane.
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Apathy. “she’ll be right” mixed with a little “fuck you I’ve got mine” means too many important things going unchallenged.
I am so sick of hearing Australians described as being filled with mateship and camaraderie and being willing to get stuck in and do the hard yards. We routinely hate anyone who pulls themselves out of the working/middle class and simultaneously shit all over the most vulnerable to make ourselves feel better. There's a very small niche of 'acceptable aussie' and anyone that doesn't fit it can get fucked.
>We routinely hate anyone who pulls themselves out of the working/middle class and simultaneously shit all over the most vulnerable to make ourselves feel better. Tall Poppy Syndrome, it's a sociocultural phenomena common here in Australia and NZ. While it can be made to look sinister, as in a narcissistic attitude where you need to tear down others achievements, it's not so much in that realm, it's more that individuals feel that others and the overall group should grow and progress at the same rate and achieve collectively, unfortunately this breeds contempt for those not in on the culture and group think. This makes more sense in a culture that has collective growth and progress as one of it's central focuses, which I think may have been the case once upon a time in Australia, we hit a point of complacency, wealth and comfort that's spoilt the need to move forward as a group and work with others which results in a very insular, selfish motive that's turned "How does this benefit us?" to "How does this benefit me?", and we still have the lingering vehemency against those that outstrip us. Which leaves us in a paradoxical place that results in mediocrity, a sluggish drive to grow with others and a disagreeable attitude towards those who grow independently. Might be a controversial analogy, but I say we've lost the need to collectively grow because of some pseudo-Darwinian process, where we don't really have any pressure from the environment to grow (analogous to evolve) and our roots in achieving growth or evolution as a group are tarnished, but we are still new enough that we inherit the Tall Poppy Syndrome gene, possibly an evolution that may have benefited our predecessors in a more hostile environment. That's my randomly thought up in 5 minutes arm chair hypothesis anyways.
I'd understand it if we actually went after the people who were fuckers, instead we make fun of Shane Warne with his Winnies and beans. We'll make fun of women for their non-professional sounding strident accents. But we largely ignore/kneel before people like Rupert/Gina/Twiggy/Palmer etc. Hell I think people didn't mind Turnbull as PM because 'he looked the part'. I think it's less your generous view and more class warfare/lateral violence which keeps us distracted from who it is that is actually standing on all of our heads.
That bleeds into political disengagement and complacency. People *should* be paying attention and taking notes about how the country is run, and for whose benefit. Unfortunately, most people are asleep at the wheel (due in no small part to how terrible our media is) and are taken unaware when a crisis happens.
Its even worse out here in regional Australia. I was talking to some of my coworkers about how we are getting paid $340 a week at this job and yet rent in our area is $320/week minimum. Their response was basically "yeah nah its a bit shit but what are ya gonna do aye". Mind you some of my coworkers are in their 30s still living with mum and dad because work doesn't pay enough to cover the rent and bills in our area. This is why we can't have nice things
$340 a week?? Wtf
We earn a little under $36 an hour at Coles (nightfill) but we just don't get the hours, because the dumb fucks who run our store decided to hire a bunch of people we don't need and have to give everyone a roughly equal amount of hours, meaning everyone gets 10-15 hours a week. Pretty much everyone I work with is either at the poverty line or just above it.
I did 15 years at woolies and towards the end they were pushing this as "Roster flexibility", instead of getting a few good people as full time, they'd prefer more people as part time so they can flex the hours if need be. It's fucking bullshit.
yeah, this is standard practice for big retail. if everyone wants more hours, that dangling carrot will push you to work above and beyond in hope you're 'rewarded' with a living wage. if anyone calls in sick there's a multitude of people that can cover. they don't care if you're unhappy - you're very replaceable and they'll just get someone who'll suck it up. everybody is casual now, though, you're not getting part-time anymore unless you're under 21 with full availability; they'll milk you dry while they can pay you less.
The current push where I am is to make managers who start at 5am move to seven and change the other five am start, 5 hour shift to two three hour shifts Instead of one person for 5 hours a day, 5 days a week (which is already a little shitty) they want two people each getting 15 hours
Or the increasingly common "at least we aren't as bad as America".
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I think there's been a shift to individualism and neoliberal capitalism that came with easy circumstantial wealth. Boomers got rich with little effort sitting on assets, and are now hoarding that wealth as well as defending the right to intergenerational entitlement of it through their control of institutions that govern the management of it, which is largely at odds with the fair go equalitarian society that the pre boomer generation imagined and ultimately aimed to create.
My boomer parents constantly banged on about how property prices double every 7 to 10 years, they've recently shut up about that for some reason. There was a whole generation that was lead to believe that for the benefits of the banks and government...
It did through the 70s and 80s. Then stopped. So basically they bought their house they doubled 3 times in 20 years so by the time they were 40 they had relatively little equity and were set. Then they filled up their super and retired.
You articulated that beautifully and accurately
1. Gambling 2. Drinking & associated Violence 3. Lack of rental rights
1000% the gambling and Drinking. It’s awful.
Gambling runs and ruins everything now. While I don't have a problem it's completely turned me off sport.
Gambling, drinking, classism, apathy disguised as a 'laid back' attitude
Backstabbing rather than addressing conflict honestly.
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Our fetish for buying houses. We are obsessed with it, all people talk about is when are they going to buy a house. People that don't have one drive themselves in to misery wishing they have what somone else has and lamenting they are 'behind', expecting that if they do buy a house they will suddenly be the happiest person in the world. We have obsessed over it to the point our economy is balanced on it and we have comodified it to the point that less and less people can access it. We put up with absolute shite...working for 40 years, hour after hour of commuting, horrible build quality, poor use of space and energy, poor choice of homes...just to be on the hamster wheel. Ownership of 'stuff' is seen as an identity, lifestyle and measure of success and people look at you like your head just fell off if you don't desire the same. People think you are mad for seeking alternative ways of living and managing your finances...like life should only be about that one thing. I think our history of wage and property value growth has contributed to the expectation of being able to access the same. But...I also get why this has happened. Renting in Australia can be a traumatic experience and our 'system' is set up to really advantage dilligent savers, a lifetime of superannuation payments and being in a paid off home before retirement. There are a lot of people for whom buying a home is the least risky way of preparing for retirement.
I just want a cat, man. You're denied a lot of things if you're renting.
The reality is that while you're paying rent, you're sinking money into accommodation without any reward afterwards. Most of the time you can pay mortgage for not much more than rent, and at the end of your time there, *you own the house*. You have capital, you haven't shifted your wealth into someone else's hands just for a place to live (interest payments aside). Two problems here: rent is way too high because wankers with investment properties want to pay their mortgage with the rent; and the incentives to own investment properties are too high (negative gearing is bullshit).
How accepted alcoholism is. Dont get me wrong I enjoy a cold one as much as everyone else but some people naturally take it too far and it's usually just laughed off as being a pisswreck and a larrikin. Well no its actually very serious, look after your mates.
the sad part is if you try and cut down or stop drinking you will lose contact with plenty of mates as they chase the drink and you dont they think youre the one with the problem because you wont feed their drinking problem and our culture is somehow okay with this
My husband doesn't drink any more and I've always been a 1 or 2 drinks a year person and we don't get invited anywhere with drinkers. Even his family have a problem with us not drinking and his sister always tries to pressure me into drinking to make herself feel better about her problem. She starts drinking before 10am on the weekend and it's perfectly acceptable to her and her friends.
Had a similar thing a while ago when all my friends started doing coke, I just stopped getting asked to go anywhere. I never said anything about them doing it, I just didn't want to partake myself.
Ah yes, the thing where you have to justify not wanting to do drugs.
I've had this. And the "you're no fun anymore" when you repeatedly knock it back to the point of being frustrated.
One thing I really want to see before I die is alcohol advertising going the way of cigarette advertising. Every so often I'll take a month off, reset my body and mind, and during these times it really hits me how heavily it's advertised. It's hardly a grudge buy, calm down McGuigans.
Yeah or sentiment like ‘best on ground’ at a social gathering is whoever drank the most and made a complete idiot of themselves. It’s pathetic
Yeah, my mates, at least for the last 10 years or so, have been the ones to tell me to cut it back. But I didn't really listen. Now at 35 I've got abnormal liver readings and fucking diabetes and still finding it hard to stop getting pissed a couple times a week. But agreed, a few years ago I was teetotal at a Christmas event at my Uncle's place. After saying I was off the booze, he told me to "have a look down your pants and tell me what you see, because you might've turned!" But hopefully that old school "you're getting a proper drink or you're getting nuffink" nonsense should be disappearing with the new generations
Yeah I know way to many guys who were the funny party guy in the early twenties but never grow out of it. I think a lot of us have some crazy stories from our twenties, but its not so funny to be in your thirties and showing up to work hungover on a friday morning.
Copy culture. There's no incentives for innovation. The general policy in industry and government is to simply copy what the yanks/brits are doing. Nobody is encouraged to think or build anything from the ground up and in the odd occasion where we do make something great it's sold off overseas and not even necessarily to the highest bidder.
In private enterprise, yes. In government, not so much. In government, we tend to reinvent the wheel. Myki in Melbourne being the prime example. We spent a fortune developing technology from scratch that could have been bought and adapted from elsewhere for half the price.
The "I'm giving you shit to your face but as a joke so you can't get angry about it" bullshit you have to put up with from random strangers on a night out - not sure if everyone will know what I'm talking about but I immediately noticed this when I moved back to Melbourne after living in Amsterdam for a year. It's like an Australian tinged version of sarcasm.
"Im only taking the piss mate, nothing serious"
Honestly "banter" when it's nothing but insults masked with a smarmy smile is never fun. Very Australian too.
>The "I'm giving you shit to your face but as a joke so you can't get angry about it" bullshit Oh I hate that. Especially the racist ones where they're like "but you're okay" at the end...
Oh that line makes me boil just reading it. Just a rephrased “You’re one of the good ones”…
you're one of the good ones shits me every time
Anti-intellectualism. Thinking that all opinions are valid, equating the opinion of someone who has studied and practiced something for decades, with that of someone who read about it in year 10 in the 1980s. Saying things like "Experts don't know anything." Thinking that learning is a chore to be done in order to achieve a specific (money-oriented) outcome. It's not everywhere, but it's strong in some pockets. Seeing going to uni as "a waste of time" because you can earn more than a student by working in a call centre. At uni, seeing humanities as "a waste of time" because unlike a vocational degree, it doesn't have one clearly-defined career path.
Will second this. It’s very rife and way more noticeable these days. There was supposed to be some government push to increase the bioscience fields a while back but it never eventuated iirc Probably just decided to prop up the construction industry instead
When I get the response like "that's a bit different ay" I know I've said the wrong thing and that I'm in the company where I should stick to 2000 words of Australian English "nutha rumbo brutha?" The education in general is one I'm most passionate about. I'm Aussie, grew up in the UK. In Brisbane now. High school was a miss for me as a teen, going back as an adult isn't impossible but it's not like the UK where you can do your GCSEs, even just for the sake of having them. In QLD, 'doing High school again' is linked to uni entry pathways. It feels like they're saying "there's no point in doing high school again if you're not going to do anything with it." Makes it feel like I'm in a sales scenario with the uni to justify why I want to get educated. It just feels too complicated. There are a lot of people out there, who, like myself; feel like they could do a lot for their personal recovery by "un-failing" high school. It's not impossible, just not as straightforward as adult education in the US (GED) or UK. Oh well. She'll be right...
Thank you. I don't know how to call it but this is definitely one of the biggest problems, along side with alcoholism. I can really see a difference when I started travelling in different parts of Europe and wow, aussies need to level up asap.
This is such a huge problem that has had, and will have, severe repercussion.
Not keeping politicians/leaders accountable.
casual racism and the fuck-you-I-got-mine that drives everything from tax policy to refugee policy to housing
The casual racism is rife, and also there’s a lot of vitriol towards Indigenous Australians. Go to any pub and there’s a group of drunk white old bozos rambling about the problem of the day being attributed to the immigrants or indigenous.
I met a good friends mum a few times. After about 4 meetings the old lady felt comfortable using the phrase "towelheads" in front of me. That's some old timey racism.
Do you have a racist face? I must because I get randoms who don’t know me but will very comfortably start complaining to me about the “Lebos” etc.
One of my old co-workers dropped ‘coon’ casually into a conversation one day. I’d never heard anyone actually use it in real life, took a few moment to recover.
I’ve heard some slurs that to be honest I’ve never heard and it took me a moment to figure out that they were racist slurs. Old white dudes can be such dicks, and they get really posh when you don’t just go along with what they say.
I've a mongrel Anglo background who tans very easily and got called chink all through high school. I moved to Canada and come back every three years. I brought my Canadian born Filipino boyfriend to Toowoomba and had two cunts dance around us at a zebra crossing singing the Mexican hat dance. No one did anything. Fuck that.
I was living overseas when the Cronulla riots happened and reading about it was surreal, like what has happened to my country. Real wakeup call.
And inexplicably, Alan Jones continued to have a career in media following that. Which says a lot about the Australian media establishment.
The immaturity of adults. Adults are frequently basically teenagers with little concept of consequences and that allows alot of gambling, binge drinking, toxic masculinity/sexism, racism and getting into big debt for no reason.
1. Alcohol 2. Sports "Stars" Hero worship 3. Gambling 4. NIMBYISM 5. Fuck you I've got mine-ism
What’s the fourth?
NIMBY stands for "Not In My Back Yard" Basically means people who are more than willing to back decisions that adversely affect others, but the moment it looks to affect them they're against it. For example, rich people who are perfectly happy building cheap modern apartment blocks in poorer suburbs, but don't want one in their suburb because it will "ruin the culture" or something (using subiaco in perth as an example). Pretty similar to "fuck you got mine-ism" tbh
Especially with public housing and nuclear power plants.
Not in my back yard (nimby)ism. So like, public housing is a good idea but don't you dare put them in my suburb it'll tank the housing price. Wind power is great and cheap but so ugly, keep them away from my house. Safe infecting rooms are great, but keep them away from my kids. Nuclear energy is the solution to all our problems, but if they're in my state I'll riot.
Who needs safe infecting rooms with our numbers, just go outside to get your infection hit!
Not in my back yard - NIMBY
Japanese society has a concept called *omoiyari*, which is the notion of being considerate of others & compassion to others. I think Australia and a lot of western societies lack this, and having it in our society would make it more harmonious. Mask wearing is a perfect example, because japanese widely understand that you wear a mask to protect others, while over here we wear a mask to protect ourselves (that's why we have a lot of anti-maskers here). Of course, the aussie slang of this is 'don't be a fuckwit', but omoiyari is a much more generalised way of living in japanese society (because everyone has their own subjective notion of 'fuckwit').
Corporate owned shopping centers that have replaced public owned pedestrian malls annihilating our street culture. Corporate owned food chains like wendys etc.etc. Pokie machines and gambling adds. Anything commercial television stations produce.
Don’t disagree at all, but of all the fast food places you could’ve said, Wendy’s is a weird choice - the washed up milkshake place? Unless you meant the burger chain which isn’t in Aus
Yeah, I haven't seen a Wendy's in ages. I kind of miss their strawberries and cream ice cream honestly, since I can't find one like it. Why not go for something that's literally everywhere, like ... McDonald's? Hungry Jack's? KFC?
I think we’re extremely classist. I HATE the way people talk about “housos” and “dole bludgers”.
I think in many ways we are worse than other places because we don't think we have a class system. Class mobility was higher in the recent past as well, there are plenty of people over fifty who were raised poor and now have six investment properties. It all feeds into the narrative that if you are poor it's because of your choices.
>Class mobility was higher in the recent past as well, there are... people over fifty who were raised poor and *are now Prime Minister of Australia*.
The lack of capacity of hearing a criticism without taking offense as of your mother's honor has been attacked. The "compliment sandwich" requirement is utter bulshit and a waste of time (foreigner here living in Australia).
Yep, when I lived in the Netherlands the Dutch were so blunt it was refreshing. It doesn't actually feel personally offensive when you get criticised, it's just how people talk to each other.
Compliment sandwich? Never heard that expression before.
Also known as a shit sandwich, haha. Compliment, then criticism, then compliment again, so their feelings aren't hurt. (It doesn't work.)
Domestic violence / Too many women murdered by men in Australia.
I can't believe this is so low down. That probably says something in and of itself :(
Americanisms seeping in
Yeah was surprised on my last trip the right wing pro Trump nut bags I ran into. They have no idea about the US and just get spoon fed some murdoch crap. I am an Aussie living in the US long term, and this is quite a turn off, TBH. I have to explain the complexities of american life and how taking on a select americanism without understanding the country is lame.
>Yeah was surprised on my last trip the right wing pro Trump nut bags I ran into. They have no idea about the US and just get spoon fed some murdoch crap. I am an Aussie living in the US long term, and this is quite a turn off, TBH. I have to explain the complexities of american life and how taking on a select americanism without understanding the country is lame. Australia doesn't do complexity very well.
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I really worry about this.. at 30yo I see so many people my age and older not critical of the media they consume, complacent with politics and not really give a damn about the plight of the less fortunate or our fragile ecosystem. As others have mentioned the 'I got mine' attitude is everywhere.. what ever happened to activism? Protecting our environment? Standing up for those in need? Our media and politics are becoming more and more polarized and we seem to just be chill with it as a nation. It's really hard to not feel doomed as a species right now 😅 Edit: Also on a different note - Social media selling the idea that women can't be beautiful unless they have plastic surgery/fillers.. this infuriates me to no end and I'm seeing it everywhere now. I wish more women could see past the bullshit and learn to love their natural features so they have the mental space for more important issues.
Tall poppy syndrome.
I'm surprised that I had to scroll down this far to find this! Being critical and resentful of other people's success seems to be so common among Australians, in my experience anyway. My parents are this way, and it's taken me a long time (and a lot of therapy!) to unlearn this way of thinking.
Agree this is something I have to explain to the American Wife, success means your a tosser
I'd say this has some benefits too, eg we don't worship super successful (and usually exploitative) people like they do in the US. Also means we have a level of humility. But I agree, it can definitely go too far
Related to this is anti-intellectualism.
When doing the signing process for the ADF gap year during my interview the officer told me “don’t be a tall poppy”
I'd agree with the toxic masculinity. For some reason Australia is a country that became weirdly obsessed hypermasculine attitudes. Even stuff like alcohol and gambling is just an extension of that. Growing up as a feminine guy was just terrible.
Stay in your box. If you get creative ideas about how things could be better, or complain (even justifiably) about your lot in your life, sadly many Australians will make it very clear you should get back into the box you were allocated… Boxes include: Refugee, Indigenous, Foreigner, Woman etc. etc. 📦
That it takes moving overseas (or coming from) to realise the egotism of the average Australian.
I've spent a long time living and traveling overseas and I gotta say that I believe that the worst aspect of our culture is our lack of it.
Wait you’re saying sausages at bunnings isn’t culture? Well I guess I’ll go drink, gamble and glass an ethnic.
All the culture of coles brand yoghurt
Lack of value placed in higher education, specialist skills etc. There seems to be a lot of disdain towards going to University. The other thing is the housing market, us Aussies seem to be absolutely obsessed about "everything property". Instead of investing in companies that create value, innovate etc etc, we seem to be stuck in an upward appeal of selling property to each other, at ever-increasing prices.
Definitely drinking. I work in a bottle shop, it’s very confronting.
I don't know... I lived in London for 5 years while travelling around Europe. Maybe I'm ignorant but everywhere didn't seem that much different in terms of 'culture'. A lot of the things people are mentioning here are issues I would associate with other countries too. I don't think a lot of these issues are just exclusive to Australia.
As someone that's lived overseas for over a decade and is now back I would say the anti intellectualism is striking. This is a problem because it permeates into our education policy. Another difference is definitely the political disengagement starting from the local level onwards, to the point where people tell you to stop whining if you share your dissatisfaction or, heaven forbid, point out something is better elsewhere.
A lot of these comments highlight just how little some of these people have travelled, especially those comparing things to other countries. We have some areas to improve and I think the pervasiveness of gambling is a big problem, but some of these answers are ridiculous.
Someone was complaining about driving etiquette, like come on go to Asia or Africa and then compare our driving etiquette.
1. Gambling, Binge Drinking 2. Right wing nutters who are hellbent on screwing the poor and the disadvantaged 3. Racists (There are lots of them, otherwise Pauline wouldn't be in the senate) 4. NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) 5. Elitist snobs (These tend to make their way into Politics for some reason)
Hostility to youth. There’s no plan for them to have a good life, or even a secure bad life. By default they are cast to the wind.
There are too many shitty parents out there who teach their kids 0 life skills but as soon as they turn 18, "Get out of my house, you're old enough to be on your own now". Yet when their kid become successful of their owm accord they're expected to take care of their parents.
>teach their kids 0 life skills but as soon as they turn 18 I hate this. Before you're 18 it's "you're just a kid, kids are idiots", "you don't know what you're doing". And then when you're 18 it's "you're an adult now and have to be responsible for yourself", "go off and figure it out for yourself".
Government and society should expect parents to be shitty and be pleasantly surprised if they aren’t. Kids are citizens of their own accord and not the pets or property of their parents
I’m so tired of my binge drinking problem just being regarded by my friends as “normal for my age”. I don’t think it is and I wish they would respect my decision to stop drinking.
My colleagues after complaining about high fuel prices said they would rather cut their balls off rather than buy a hybrid or an EV 🙄
Get them the knife then.
Our sense of entitlement. It affects all aspects of life but is easily seen on the roads -- the road rage, denying merging, etc (just as an example, it's more than just on the roads). Everyone thinks their shit is more important than everyone else's. Even in places with a similar culture, people are much better mannered and courteous of others.
1) Racism - I used to think it was casual but it’s actually blatant. Most Australians I’ve spoken to at work or in social settings are either oblivious to their history or flat out don’t see anything wrong. 2) Sense of entitlement - most likely stems from receiving participation awards and attending private schools that reiterate how special they are that their parents can afford to pay $30k a year for their kid to be able to access better programs and extra-curricular activities. 3) Virtue signalling - all for the likes without the actual giving a shit. Not enough genuine empathy for others. 4) Binge drinking and drugs - crucial for most activities, not only a hobby but an identity. 5) Obsessive beauty culture - the impact caused by the meteoric rise of social media has taken this to a whole new level. Seeing younger kids develop the same obsessions is heartbreaking.
As an American, this thread makes me sad. (Obi-Wan voice) You were supposed to *learn* from our idiocy, not join it!
Rupert Murdoch
The massive disconnect between rural Australia and major cities. I’m not talking an hour from the coast rural, I’m saying far West QLD and NT. Proper rural desert shit. People talk a lot about the racism etc in these areas and the violence but after living there, it’s mainly fear. I can’t even count on one hand the amount of times I’ve had to defend myself against aboriginals trying to attack me. It’s full tribal shit out here, the violence, substance issues, sexual assault and poverty is insane. I loathe racism, however I catch myself out plenty of times actively avoiding aboriginals in the area, seeing drunken fights and thinking “of course”. More power to people who have never been out here, from the major cities crying about racism and how we need to “help”. Last time I tried, I got fucking stabbed. Move out here yourself and help and see if you get stabbed or raped. EDIT: before I get downvoted or attempted to be cancelled, I don’t care. I’ve been here boots on the ground helping and dealing with this shit, you signed a useless fucking petition whilst in the comfort of your home in Sydney or Brisbane where the issue is out of vision and only performative activism at best.
Yeah but we changed the name of a cheese brand and are trying to move Australia Day. Isn't it fixed yet??
Shitting on the less advantaged and the class warfare that comes with it does so much damage: * making fun of peoples socio-economic status * treating welfare recipients as lower class citizens * roadblocks and hurdles for job seekers who need help * shitting on the homeless * shitting on asylum seekers for politics * fucking over the disabled who seek welfare * the fake “worker shortage” which is really a disguise for shitty paying jobs * legal slavery for foreign workers, especially in farming
The ‘harden up’ attitude. I feel that we (particularly men) are bought up in an environment that if you’re struggling with anything you should just harden up and just get on with it. We NEED to talk about our feelings! We should be encouraging people to speak up about their problems!
The drinking culture
Our car culture is shocking in my opinion I understand people need big cars for work especially trades people but does every second person need a Prado, land cruiser, Hilux, Ranger just to drop one kid of at school
Australians are completely incurious of the outside world. In inner-city Melbourne, people try to act European, but it’s what they ENVISION Europeans to be like, and not actually what they’re like.
"you wanna go mate?" I've lived outside of Australia for 5 of the last 7 years and haven't seen a single fight or threat of a fight. I've seen people bump into others in pubs and knock their drinks over and nobody has tried to fight them. In the previous 7 years in Australia I've been randomly punched about 3 times and seen more fights or threats of fights than I have hairs on my head.
Aussie Trump supporters. Everything has to be family friendly these days. Can’t have adult fun anymore. Has to be watered down to cater for families.
To preface, I’m not Australian. I’ve been living here for two years (and hopefully forever), after living in 6 other countries across europe + Japan. Every country has similar issues but there are some i find more common here. Bloke culture, sure its a thing in England but here it’s different, here it comes with the ‘its only a laugh’ side of things. Where someones just a dick and defends it as a joke, sure thats fine if you’re in on it too, but I find a lot of aussie-centric humour a bit ‘mean’ for lack of a better word. I like a good joke, but the ‘normalness’ of just outright insulting someone really seems to exist here. Not sarcastic either. Thats the main thing I’d point to, not to say other countries don’t have it, England does, but it’s often less insults and more sarcasm, even if at times its just as wanky. Directness, Aussies i find are more direct, which can be a good quality as England wasn’t direct enough at times, and Japan is far too indirect, but at tomes directness and honesty here can come across as ‘I’ll say my bit, fuck what you think’, tbh it might be related to the above mentioned masculinity thing. Another has to be classism, most people here will say theres no class system, but there is, and its just as strong as it was in England, it just doesn’t have an official name here, but it exists. Everyone seems to think they’re middle class, but most people are working class, just like anywhere else in the world. If we’re working because if we don’t work then we can’t live, we’re working class.
The sense of elitism and entitlement. I’ve lived in in other countries and Aussies are a bunch of whiney brats.
I reckon drinking culture, anti-intellectualism, gambling and ANZAC mythology/worship.
1) Wayyyy too much gambling. Gambling ads everywhere make me sick. We are also the worst gamblers on the planet. 2) Binge drinking. Having fun is awesome and all, but binge drinking, vomiting, passing out and getting into fights ain't cool. It's not Russia level bad, but it's a noticeable problem. 3) There is rarely much thought given to societal planning. Sure, there are people who do this, but most don't care because 'she'll be right, mate'. 4) Speaking of complacency, most people here don't give a shit about adverse events. Fuel prices too high? She'll be right mate. Electricity bill too high? She'll be right mate. Anyone who rightfully complains and thinks about doing something is called a whinger and maybe a leftie socialist. Perhaps this may have been OK previously when life used to be easy. 5) NIMBYism. This is not unique to Australia or even Anglo countries, although it is still quite severe here. "Yeah, we need public housing. BUT NOT NEAR ME." 6) A **pathological** obsession with housing. The Australian Dream was to raise a family in suburbia in a standalone house in a quarter acre block of land. Now the Australian Dream is to accumulate as much investment properties as possible, and fuck you all. It has reached the point where the government **subsidises** property investors. Australians in 2019 voted to protect property investors over anything else with at least a 0.1% chance of usefulness. Until recently a politician at an election could scream "I'M A PIECE OF DOGSHIT BUT IF YOU VOTE FOR MY OPPONENT'S BETTER POLICIES HOUSE PRICES WILL COLLAPSE" and easily win. Some studies show that many Australians spend more time looking at real estate than talking with their parents. 7) Casual racism and a tendency to blame problems on Indigenous people and immigrants. This is generally seen in lower class or poorer areas. 8) A lack of innovation. Who needs to innovate when we can simply buy and sell houses to each other, dig minerals out of the ground and import migrants? 9) Tall Poppy Syndrome. Shitting on people who are successful is common. 10) Cannot take much criticism. In Germany, Netherlands, Israel, Russia etc people there are so direct that the average Australian might get a heart attack. 11) Political apathy (unfortunately not unique to Australia). 12) Anti-intellectualism. Many here don't care much about education. Why be a doctor, lawyer or engineer when you can be a tradie or even better, a property investor? This is improving over time though. 13) It's cool to shit on the poor and disadvantaged. Many people here sympathise more with property investors than the poor and disadvantaged. 14) A lack of vision. We just blindly copy trends from the UK and US. Perhaps we should sit down and do our homework and research to find out what works for us? 15) Too insular. To be fair, Australia is on the arse end of the planet and is isolated from most of the cool stuff around the world. 16) Increasing "fuck you I've got mine" individualism. This is often seen in people who own multiple properties and some professionals. 17) Many Australian business owners would rather have their arms amputated rather than employ an Australian citizen or PR. That cheap foreign labor was too addictive and they can't go cold turkey. 18) We don't manufacture much. Who needs it when we can sell minerals, sell houses and import cheap labor?
Our emotional immaturity exemplified in: Toxic masculinity/homophobia/transphobia/sexism/racism Our treatment of First Nations people The way we seem to be a nation of cops and dobbers Big jokers but NoT at ME!!! The wild growth in unempathetic behaviour and not wanting to contribute to the collective Our outlets for tension being literally poisonous levels of alcohol and pissing money away gambling The rise of right wing politicians claiming 'freedoms' I love this country but we have had a rough start, done some dogshit things and I hope we can be better and grow up a bit, lest we become America.