Australian attitudes to intergenerational equity: impacts of social and policy change

Abstract

Attitudes to ageing can predispose decision-making as governments, interest groups and electorates negotiate competing demands in the context of economic constraints and social change. This paper, based on national survey data, investigates change and stability in Australian attitudes to intergenerational equity from 2009–2010 to 2015–2017, alongside concurrent socio-economic and policy change as well as cohort succession. The emphasis is on the baby-boom cohort who are viewed as significant beneficiaries of social change relative to opportunities of younger and older cohorts. Views of older people as a needy group may be changing slightly as more enter later life with substantial wealth and resources. Our results show that there is little perception of intergenerational conflict with the exception of the Millennial cohort whose life chances are compromised by economic and expenditure constraint over the past decade. Overall, attitudes remain sympathetic to older people, especially among women and people rendered vulnerable by poor health, non-home-ownership and low socio-economic positions. The findings do not align with government portrayals of intergenerational inequalities notwithstanding many having negative views of the future and ongoing expenditure restraint strategies. At what appears to be a critical turning point in the life chances of successive cohorts, the findings indicate the interplay between attitudes and social and policy change, as well as implications for social equity and processes of attitudinal change.