Aussies are well aware that the cost of living is increasing. Prices of food, gas, petrol and rent have skyrocketed thanks to the inflation rate rising to 6.1 per cent in June – to 21-year high.
While the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported a 2.4 per cent rise in annual wage growth for the March quarter, this has not been enough to compete with the soaring cost of living, leaving people struggling around the country.
But we’re not the only ones.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organization that includes 38 countries such as Australia, the USA, Canada, New Zealand and the UK.
International events such as supply chain interruptions, COVID-19 implications and the war in Ukraine saw inflation in OECD countries rise to 9.6 per cent in May compared to 9.2 per cent in April. This represents the sharpest price increase since 1988.
Here’s a crash course in inflation and what it looks like around the world.
What is inflation and what causes it?
Inflation measures how much more expensive a set of goods and services has become over a certain period of time.
The most well-known indicator of this is the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
The CPI measures the percentage change in the price of a basket of goods and services consumed by households.
Temporary changes in inflation may be caused by events like supply disruptions or seasonal sales, according to the RBA.
More persistent changes in inflation generally arise when people and businesses change their expectations about future price moves, and thus start demanding higher wages or passing on cost increases to their customers to compensate for them.
In the worst case, these expectations of rising prices can cause inflation to spiral out of control.
Just a fraction of the 5,000 seafood species make it from the ocean to dinner plates, but experts say broadening our nets could help seafood sustainability while keeping the weekly food budget in check.
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Is it time for our fish-and-chip menus to change?
New South Wales Department of Primary Industries senior fisheries manager Luke Pearce told ABC Radio Melbourne that while carp had a bad name, the fish could find some love in the kitchen.
Carp are one of the worst introduced pests in Australia and have negative impacts on water quality and biodiversity, according to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
“They have such a negative impact on our environment and they’ve just caused such huge problems in our river system,” Mr Pearce said.
The more carp taken out of waterways the better, according to senior fisheries manager Luke Pearce.(Rural ABC)
There was also a notion that carp made bad eating and that put people off.
“I was of the opinion for a long time but I’ve convinced a lot of people over my time to taste them,” Mr Pearce said.
“But there are a few things you’ve got to do first.”
Plating up a pest
While Mr Pearce said carp could survive in some pretty unappealing environments, like in the water at a sewerage treatment plant, a good rule of thumb was that if you’d eat any other fish from the water source, carp would also be safe to consume .
A national control plan is being developed for carp.(Landline: Kerry Staight)
“So if you’d eat a trout or a golden perch or a cod from the same waterway, then a carp would be fine to eat from it,” he said.
Mr Pearce said tackling the fish’s flavor was also something to keep in mind.
When under stress, carp produces histamines which create an odor and its distinctive muddy taste.
“The quicker you can get that fish on ice, the less likely the muddy taste will be present,” he said.
Slippery mucus on the fish’s body also tarnished carp’s eating reputation, but Mr Pearce said the solution was skinning.
“Once you skin your fish, that mucus is gone and you’ve got a really nice clean, fresh and tasty fillet of fish that you can do a bunch of things with,” he said.
cook vs cull
A $15.2 million carp control plan is being developed with the aim of slashing numbers of the invasive species using a herpes virus, but Mr Pearce said there was still a push for people to see the fish as a protein alternative.
“Carp are being turned into fertilizer … but they’re consuming all these resources that take away from our native fish and the more we can take out the better,” he said.
How about eels?
Co-founder of the Lake Bolac Eel Festival Neil Murray lives on Jupagalk Country in south-west Victoria and has been participating in an annual eel harvest for almost two decades.
Mr Murry said First Nations people would gather in the late summer at Lake Bolac as the eels began their annual migration to the sea to spawn, known as kuyang season.
“The eel was the most-favored fish by First Nations people,” he said.
“It’s highly nutritious, very abundant and it’s easy to catch.”
Eel is still largely exported overseas.(ABC Radio Sydney: Amanda Hoh)
Mr Murry said while the industry was still fairly lucrative, most of the catch was frozen for export.
“I just prefer it freshly grilled over coals and I usually cut it into sections about four-inches long and let the oil drip out of it,” he said.
“I think initially a lot of people were put off it because it’s a slimy, squirmy thing that looks like a snake, but when you’re brought up in the area like I was, it was a part of our diet.”
different not more
University of Melbourne marine and fisheries ecologist John Ford said of the species that fishers caught, only a few made it to the retail giants.
“The fish you see on the supermarket shelves, the ones that are already in demand, are only going to get more expensive,” Dr Ford said.
“The ocean can’t give us any more fish than it is right now and as the population grows, the demand grows.”
Dr Ford said that meant looking at eating lower-quality products, like fish meal, a product made from wild-caught fish and by-products.
But he said there was one major reason lesser-known products weren’t at the shops.
“We don’t know how to cook them, and that’s the real challenge,” he said.
It would need to be profitable for supermarkets to stock alternative seafood.(Flickr: BakiOguz)
Consumers would have to feel comfortable cooking an unfamiliar product.
“It requires someone to be bold and put these products on the shelf and to educate people,” Dr Ford said.
He said while Australia’s supermarket duopoly would make a shake-up a challenge, future collaboration with peak fishing bodies could shore up seafood’s future.
After months of paying $10 for lettuce, shoppers can expect some relief with Queensland growers getting back on track, three months after they were devastated by flooding.
Key points:
Prices for leafy greens are expected to fall as production returns to normal
Lettuce prices skyrocketed after two major floods in the Lockyer Valley
Growers say they are still coping with the increasing cost of inputs, which will be reflected in prices
Prices for the salad staple skyrocketed after flooding in May wiped out millions of dollars worth of vegetables in the Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane.
Mulgowie Yowie Salads director Shannon Moss said he had only started full production about two weeks ago.
“We’ve had nice weather where a lot of growers have got stock coming on,” Mr Moss said.
“I was going through the photos [of the flooding] and I’m thinking how it’s hard to look at it, look at the devastation that was here.
“It is nice to see the paddocks recover and the farm get back into some sort of normality.”
Mr Moss said he was now producing about 30,000 cos lettuces a week for markets in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Shannon Moss lost his entire lettuce crop in May when floods ripped through the Lockyer Valley. (Supplied: Shannon Moss)
He said prices had remained high for so long because the season had had to start from scratch.
“You have to remember a seedling in a nursery takes about four to six weeks to grow, then it’s another eight weeks in the ground to grow lettuce.
“So you’re looking at three to four months to grow any kind of lettuce.”
After the trauma of floods, Mr Moss is happy to get back to normal production. (Rural ABC: Lucy Cooper)
Further price drop expected
Toowoomba-based greengrocer Bevan Betros said prices had halved in recent weeks.
“I think we can afford to eat iceberg lettuce again … they are a good size, they’ve got a bit of weight in them — they’re very good value again,” Mr Betros said.
He said prices would remain stable over the coming weeks.
“I don’t think they’ll get much cheaper just for the next week or two.
“There may be some gaps in the plantings due to the floods and what people were able to do when they could get on and off their property.”
Greengrocer Bevan Betros expects iceberg lettuce to drop to about $2 by September. (ABC News: David Chen)
Mr Betros said he expected prices would continue to fall heading into October.
“They’ll get back down as the warm weather comes on, as we get into spring.
“We should be getting down under $2 again, hopefully in September.”
Iceberg lettuce has fluctuated from $1.50 a head to $12 and is now $6 a head. (ABC News: David Chen)
But don’t get used to it
Despite lettuce production returning to normal, shoppers are being warned not to get used to low prices.
Director of Coastal Hydroponics on the Gold Coast and Growcom chairwoman Belinda Frentz said a price reduction would likely be short term.
“We’ll start seeing the prices of most leafies coming back to what we would expect to be a normal sort of price,” Ms Frentz said.
Growcom chair Belinda Frentz says production is almost at full capacity. (ABC News: Steve Keen)
“Obviously we’ve got input cost pressures that are having a significant impact on businesses and recouping costs and seeing prices sort of not leveling out — there’s going to be some increases.”
Ms Frentz said farmers were still dealing with high labour, fuel and fertilizer costs.
“Growers are being hit in every pocket that they’ve got.”
Is there a right price?
While prices have dropped, growers want them to remain at levels where their businesses can survive.
“If we get down to $1.50 for retail lettuce that’s not going to be sustainable for too long,” Mr Moss said.
“You know, fuel levies are up 20 to 25 per cent, fertilizer prices are up another 25 to 30 per cent and diesel is up another 30 to 40 per cent, so our product needs to be up around 30 to 40 per cent,” he said.
Lockyer Valley growers supply the key markets of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.(Rural ABC: Lucy Cooper)
Ms Frentz hoped the severity of the losses endured by farmers during the floods would demonstrate to consumers how exposed the industry was.
Brewers have warned that packaged beverages will become more expensive and could increase by a larger margin that pints at the pub.
Key points:
Brewers say drinkers will feel the pinch whether they are at the pub or the bottle shop
The rising cost of aluminum will push the price of canned drinks up
This month’s hike in excise tax for full-strength beer is the highest climb in 20 years
Independent and larger-scale brewing companies across Australia are feeling the pressure of a recent increase in excise tax, as well as a spike in aluminum and ingredient prices.
Wilson Brewing Co founder Matt Wilson said brewers had tried to keep prices as low as possible, but it was inevitable they would rise.
“You’re not only going to see an increase in pint prices at the pub, you’re actually going to see a larger increase of packaged product that you would purchase and take home to drink,” he said.
Excise tax strain
The alcohol excise tax increases every six months, and the most recent hike of 3.84 per cent for full-strength beer was the largest in 20 years.
Mr Wilson said brewing costs had ballooned by about 60 per cent over the past two decades, and that flowed on to consumers.
“You might see a $5 to $10 raise in carton prices coming up around Christmas time or even before,” he said.
“The unfortunate thing about excise taxes, it never goes backwards.”
Mr Wilson says carton prices could rise by up to $10 by around Christmas time.(ABC Great Southern: Sophie Johnson)
Everything is going up
There are multiple inputs that go into crafting and brewing beer, all of which have inflated.
Mr Wilson said aluminium, used to package cans of beer, was rising in cost.
“Grain, barley especially, is the highest spec of barley of grain that a farmer can grow to … so their direct energy input costs is directly reflected on the price that they’ve charged for their grain,” Mr Wilson said.
“grain [is probably] our third biggest input.”
The cost of barley production is affecting the ingredient price for brewers.(ABC Great Southern: Tom Edwards)
GrainGrowers chief executive David McKeon said Australian barley prices were trading above historical averages.
“Right across Australia, we’re looking at bids anywhere into the low to mid three hundreds for for barley [dollars per tonne] … it’s a fairly strong price,” he said.
He said it was important to not only consider the raw price of barley going into an end product.
“We are seeing a lot of other factors influencing a lot of our processors, manufacturers and retailers … some of those [being] challenges around supply chains, freight costs, labor costs, and energy costs,” Mr McKeon said.
Resource analyst Tim Treadgold said aluminium, a popular material choice for packaging, was an expensive item to produce due to the amount of energy it required.
“In order to get the can through the plant onto a truck off to the bottling or packaging depot … the trucks that haul up there are running on liquid fuels, which are also expensive,” he said.
“The energy input into the whole process has gone up substantially in all facets of production.”
Packaging takes up more than 20 per cent of Mr Wilson’s input costs.(ABC Great Southern: Sophie Johnson)
Worse than COVID-19
Independent Brewers Association chief executive Kylie Lethbridge said she had concerns for the industry.
“We fared … relatively well out of the last two years of the pandemic, but by no means are we in recovery mode, in fact, some feel that this is more of a challenge,” she said.
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Why is everything so expensive?
She said skill shortages, material shortages and challenges such as freight costs would be applicable to any business in the country.
“If those waves keep hitting, then there is only so much a business can stand, and sadly, that may mean we lose… some independent breweries around the country.”
“The challenge … for the consumer is that the price of beer will rise, whether you drink it in the pub from a tap, or whether … you pick it up from the bottle shop,” she said.
In the Fryers Forest, around 50 kilometers south of Bendigo, one group of residents isn’t feeling the rising cost of living as hard as most.
Hamish MacCallum is one of 30 people who live in a rural ecovillage, nestled in the forest in Fryerstown.
Standing in the kitchen of the house he built himself, he proudly explains the kitchen bench was a cypress tree that fell on a local farmer’s property during last year’s storms.
“[It’s about] taking a waste product, a fallen down tree, and turning it into something beautiful,” he says.
“The whole kitchen is recycled.
A lot of the kitchen cupboards came from someone else’s kitchen.(ABC Central Victoria: Shannon Schubert )
“All the cupboards and drawers, everything came from other kitchens that had been pulled out.”
There’s no heater inside, with the firewood stove in the kitchen emitting more than enough heat to warm the house.
“That’s only been running now for about half an hour,” Mr MacCallum says at 10am.
“It’s generating our hot water and providing us with an oven and a stovetop for cooking on as well.”
Powered by firewood, the house’s stove and oven generates hot water and cooks the family’s meals.(ABC Central Victoria: Shannon Schubert)
Mr MacCallum estimates his power bills are a third of the price of the average family’s electricity bills.
“I’m spending $150 on electricity for three months for the two households,” he says.
“It’s $100 a year for the gas bill.”
The bushfire management consultant and landscape designer put a huge amount of thought into designing and creating the house, with insulation and solar passive design a main priority.
“With a solar passive design, it’s using the sun to heat or cool the house by including or excluding it at particular times of year,” he says.
The entrance to the houses, also a mudroom, was made from recycled wood, including old furniture.(ABC Central Victoria: Shannon Schubert)
Timber from surrounding forest
Mr MacCallum has become an expert at reusing and recycling.
The house is made from 50 per cent recycled and reused materials, most of which were locally sourced.
On the verandah, two pieces of wooden ‘bush poles’ were eleven trees on this block of land.
The two wooden poles were trees on this block of land, which used to be a quarry.(ABC Central Victoria: Shannon Schubert)
Other pieces of wood were collected and stored from unexpected places.
“A lot of the timber came from a timber furniture maker who decided to give up his profession and sell it all on,” he says.
In the Fryers Forest eco-village, residents do forestry work, harvesting timber from the forest around them.
“Our expense is the time we spend collecting the wood from the forest, when we’ve done some tree thinning,” Mr MacCallum says.
The mud brick wall, made from milled timber from the site, collects heat in winter and cool air in summer.(ABC Central Victoria: Shannon Schubert)
“Always when we’re doing forestry, we get the highest value out of the timber as possible.
“Each season, we cut enough to provide the whole village with enough firewood to last them a season.
“The firewood [for the stove] is just a good solid day’s labor and a few days of forestry [work].”
Some of the materials used for insulation include straw and wool.(Supplied: Hamish MacCallum )
Mr MacCallum refers to the concrete floor as a ‘thermal mass’ which holds the heat and keeps the house warm in winter and cool during summer.
In the middle of the house, a mud brick wall has the same function.
“It stores the cool over the summer and the heat over the winter and then releases it back into the household so you can wake up in the morning without any heating and the house will still be warm,” he says.
“The eaves that overhang the north side of the house, where most of the windows are, stop the sun coming into the house.”
Sharing food eliminates waste
Mr MacCallum’s family shares the house with another family, with two separate living quarters under the one roof.
Their efforts to live sustainably, with as little waste as possible, mean sharing a bathroom, laundry and food.
“A part of our strategy is to buy in bulk foods and to store in a big freezer,” he says.
“I might go hunting and harvest a lot of meat and then store the meat, the fat and the bones … make bone broth or render the fat down into lard or tallow and use that for cooking.”
The conservatory stays hot and is able to mimic a tropical climate, for optimal growth conditions.(ABC Central Victoria: Shannon Schubert)
He’s also committed to growing his own fruit and vegetables.
“80 per cent of our fruit and veg can come from [the garden] here,” he says.
But recently Mr MacCallum has been sourcing more of his produce from his local market, rather than his own garden.
“I help him [the seller] pack up and we get to take home a whole heap of fruit and vegetables,” he says.
“Sometimes that means that I’ve got to spend hours or preserving that produce.
“[Sometimes] that’s a few months’ worth of passata bottled and stored in an afternoon.”
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Hamish MacCallum has built his house using 50 percent second hand materials(ABC Central Victoria: Shannon Schubert)
Built to withstand bushfire
Mr MacCallum has spent years teaching others how to retrofit their houses for bushfire safety, so it was always going to be front of mind in designing and building his own eco-friendly house.
“I wanted to demonstrate how landscapes can reduce bushfire risk and be productive at the same time and beautiful at the same time as well,” he says.
Everything in his yard was planted for bushfire mitigation.
Fruit trees border his backyard, providing a heat shield against the fire front.
“The fruit tree hedge, also protected by the stone wall from radiant heat, acts as a heat and ember filter, as well as wind protection for the fruit and vegetable garden,” he says.
It may have taken years to build, and countless tutorials and tradesmen to help him learn new skills, but Mr MacCallum was never going to shy away from the challenge of living as sustainably and efficiently as possible.
“I wanted to take a piece of degraded land and turn it back into something beautiful and productive,” he says.
Pressure is growing on the Northern Territory government to take action on stubbornly high fuel prices, with calls for a fresh inquiry to quiz retailers on the reasons behind the rates.
Key points:
Drivers in Darwin were paying $1.95 a liter on Tuesday, while the average price in NSW was $1.67
The opposition wants fuel companies and retailers to explain their prices in parliament
Chief Minister Natasha Fyles says she’s written to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
Drivers in Darwin were paying around $1.95 a liter for petrol on Tuesday, despite the wholesale price sitting close to the average of interstate capitals of $1.59.
The average price per liter in New South Wales was $1.67, almost 30 cents a liter cheaper than the Northern Territory.
Opposition leader Lia Finocchiaro has called for a new parliamentary inquiry, which she said could potentially recommend a cap on profits or prices.
“Territories are paying [up to] 40 cents a liter more for their fuel compared to any other jurisdictions in the nation,” Ms Finocchiaro said.
“The power of an inquiry means that we can call fuel retailers and fuel companies to sit at the table and they have to explain to the public and the parliament why it is that territories are paying so much.”
Opposition leader Lia Finocchiaro (left) says retailers should explain their prices to parliament.(ABC News: Matt Garrick)
Petrol prices this year rose higher in the Northern Territory than in any other jurisdiction, according to the latest official data.
“Automotive fuel” was up by 6.2 per cent, well above the capital city average of 4.2 per cent.
The Northern Territory opposition is also proposing legislation that would force retailers to publish their profit margins.
In a statement, Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said the government “stood ready to take further action” if apparent profit margins remained high “without a reasonable explanation”.
Ms Fyles said she had written to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and to fuel companies on the issue but did not say what she had told, or asked, them.
‘There would be higher’ at similar prices in Sydney or Melbourne
After getting stung with a sudden $90 a week rent increase, Hoshi in Bunbury, WA, set about selling what they owned.
Key points:
Young people are more likely to have picked up extra work than any other age group
Financial insecurity means they are generally more exposed to inflation
Aside from their normal full-time jobs, some are teaching languages at night or picking up weekend cafe shifts
First, the furniture, bicycles, and sports equipment. Then, clothes and jewellery.
Finally, they gathered up the little things that had sentimental value.
They would sell them last.
“I’m not just missing $90 a week,” they said.
“With the price of vegetables and transport costs going up, it feels like someone has really just taken a huge bite out of that financial flexibility.”
Faced with rent increases, price hikes and stagnant wages, Hoshi is one of many young people who have been hustling for income on the side, outside of their normal job, to make ends meet.
The rush to pick up extra work has been seen across most age groups, but has been greater with young people, who are generally less financially secure and more exposed to the effects of inflation.
Young people are the most likely age group to have more than one job, and this trend is on the increase, ABS data shows.
For many, the situation is dire, but some are finding creative ways to stay afloat.
Working 9-5, and then hustling
Rose earns $200-$400 per week from three separate side hustles.(Supplied: Rose)
Outside of her full-time 9-5 office gig, Rose tutors French and Italian over Zoom, delivers online food orders, and sells the pot plants she propagates in her crowded Sydney apartment.
The hustle began two months ago, after lockdowns had eased and, like many, Rose found that the extra socializing was expensive.
On top of this, she had recently moved from a sharehouse to escape the chaotic and cramped experience of COVID lockdowns.
Living alone had been affordable when she was bunkering down, but not anymore.
“Lockdown kind of changed things — it made me want to have a bit more stability in my life,” she said.
“I got used to a nicer way of living at home and now I’m going back to those old comforts of going out, and I have to readjust.”
At the same time, the prices of most things are going up.
Average weekly rental payments have increased almost 10 per cent over the past year, while inflation is rising at its fastest rate since 1990.
Owning a home could soon become a reality for more South Australians with a state-government backed lender lowering their minimum deposit requirements.
Key points:
The HomeStart graduate loan has dropped their minimum deposit from 3 per cent to 2
The scheme is available to South Australians with a Certificate III or higher qualification
The lender is a South Australian government organization providing home loans
Eligible graduates will be able to apply for a home loan with HomeStart Finance with as little as 2 per cent deposit.
Successful applicants will not need to pay lender’s mortgage insurance — required by most lenders if home buyers do not have 20 per cent deposit — potentially shaving off thousands of dollars in upfront costs.
Dwelling prices in July have grown for Adelaide, Perth and Darwin while other Australian major cities dropped as interest rates surge.
Treasurer Stephen Mullighan said the loan could wipe months off savings plans of people trying to buy their first home.
“Rather than South Australians having to spend years and years trying to save 20 per cent deposit to get a loan with one of the big four banks, instead that time is now reduced perhaps to only months,” he said.
SA Treasurer Stephen Mullighan says the loan scheme will open doors for more South Australians into the housing market.
Mr Mullighan said the deposit reduction for the HomeStart scheme would allow low-to-medium income earners an opportunity to compete at auctions.
He said the government was expecting the Adelaide housing market to stabilize as interest rates rise.
“Even though some of the heat is going to be coming out of the market, for the first time we’re going to be seeing South Australians armed properly so they can compete in the market,” he said.
He estimates more than 250,000 South Australians with a Certificate III or higher qualification will be eligible for the scheme.
The previous minimum deposit required for that loan is 3 per cent.
For a $400,000 home, loan applicants will only need to fork out $8,000 in deposit and for a $850,000 price tag, buyers will pay $17,000 instead of $25,500 in deposit.
South Australians will be able to get their homes sooner with HomeStart dropping their minimum deposit requirement.(ABC News: Meagan Dillon)
Electrician Robert Thiel and hospitality worker Beth Mayfield, who are currently renting at Lockleys, say the change will help the couple get into the housing market sooner.
“Any amount you can save as a potential home owner is life-changing,” Ms Mayfield said.
“I never thought it would be possible for myself, to be honest, so it’s really exciting that it might be something really attainable for us.”
Ms Mayfield said her rent has increased in recent months, encouraging her to consider becoming a home owner.
The HomeStart graduate loan will be offered from Tuesday.
Staring down the possibility of taking out a large mortgage to buy a house they could barely afford, Luke Saliba and his wife Claire Gooch decided to try something different.
Instead, the young couple moved in with Claire’s mother Sylvia and took out a much smaller mortgage to renovate her house.
“The idea of the nuclear family being disconnected in the suburbs [feels] like it’s been forced upon us over the last 100 years,” Luke said.
“I feel like us challenging that, in this small way, is almost going back to the way things should be.”
Luke says having a European background means there’s “no stigma attached to living with grandparents”.(ABC News: Rhiannon Stevens)
The living arrangement has allowed Sylvia to stay in her home which was becoming too costly for her to maintain alone.
“I get to stay in a house that I quite like, in an area where I have established friends — it meant that I wouldn’t have any issues,” she said.
Sharing the house has also benefited Luke, Claire and their two young children.
Claire said having a small mortgage of around $350,000 and living in an area with good services meant they were better able to manage financially as the cost of living rises.
“My daughter needs surgery for grommets and adenoids and tonsils,” she said.
“If we didn’t live like this, that would be a problem and we’d be having to make choices between food, rent bills and medical things that the kids have needed.”
Claire says living with her mother is a great choice but acknowledges that not everyone has the opportunity to tap into generational wealth in this way.(ABC News: Rhiannon Stevens)
Having another adult in the house also meant she and her husband could turn to her mother for advice.
“My mum is very different to how I am and that’s been really good because my kids get stuff that I wouldn’t be able to do with them [and] I get ideas that I wouldn’t have had.”
The living arrangement worked because they tried to relate like housemates, not mother-daughter, she said.
“This is a group house where we’re related, and because we have similar backgrounds … we can probably live together a little bit easier, but living with my daughter is not always easy, but that goes both ways, right?” Sylvia said.
Luke, who is the grandchild of Spanish and Macedonian immigrants, said having a European background meant there was no stigma attached to living with grandparents, and he valued the presence of an older generation in the house.
“If any of us have a bad day, we don’t have to travel to go and touch base and provide that family support. We’ve got it in-house,” he said.
Sylvia loves being involved in the daily lives of her grandchildren.(ABC News: Rhiannon Stevens)
Multi-generational households growing
Edgar Liu, a senior research fellow at the UNSW’s City Futures Research Centre, said economic circumstances were often the driving factor for people choosing to live in a multi-generational setting.
Dr Liu, who researched multi-generational living over several years and defined them as households with more than one generation of adults, said data from the UK and US showed that the economic shock of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) increased the number of multi -generational households in those countries.
Edgar Liu says multi-generational households are increasing.(Supplied UNSW)
“From the US, in particular, there is evidence that [showed] a normal rate of growth was about 1.5 per cent, for this kind of household,” he said.
“[That] doubled to about 3 per cent as the GFC came on, and then it continued for a couple of years before it died back down to the normal rate of 1.5 per cent.”
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) provided new data to the ABC on households containing three generations.
It showed a small increase in three generational living arrangements over recent years, from 275,000 in 2016 to 335,000 in 2021.
But Dr Liu said the largest growth in Australia had occurred in households where two generations of adults lived together.
While finance, especially the cost of care for both the young and the elderly, influenced people’s decisions to form multi-generational households, Dr Liu said family connection was the benefit most often cited once people had experienced such living arrangements.
But he said in Australia this style of living was still stigmatized.
“Acceptance was very conditional, you had to have a reason to do this, you can’t just want to do it,” he said.
“[For example] your mother was in a wheelchair so that’s why she had to live with you,” was seen as an acceptable reason, Dr Liu said, but if someone simply enjoyed living with their mother it would raise questions.
A favorite family activity at Irina’s house is cards.(ABC News: Rhiannon Stevens )
The solution to isolation
Irina Kawar has always lived surrounded by generations of family, and she wouldn’t want it any other way.
Irina believes a “joint family”, as it’s called in India, can solve much of the isolation and loneliness experienced in Australia today.
“This is a very good solution for the people who feel isolated because isolation is as big a problem in old age as it is in teenagers,” she said.
“It’s a win-win for everyone, isolated teenagers, isolated grandparents — together, they are happy.”
For Irina, living with her in-laws, husband and two daughters also makes financial and emotional sense.
Irina says living with anyone — child, partner or parent — involves sacrifices, but the benefits outweigh the challenges.(ABC News: Rhiannon Stevens)
She said she never felt alone or frustrated learning to be a parent when her children were young because she always had family around to support her.
As migrants in Australia, having grandparents in the house also helped her children maintain a connection to Indian culture and language, she said.
“[The grandparents] follow daily religious practices, so I don’t have to make an additional effort to bring this into [the girls’] life, they can grow up around those practices as naturally as my husband and I did,” she said.
“If it was just the two of us raising our girls, we would need to make the conscious effort to talk to them in Hindi but living with grandparents — they just learn Hindi naturally.”
For those who have never tried living beyond the nuclear family unit, Irina understands there might be trepidation.
But she said sacrifices were made whoever you lived with, whether it was a partner, child, parents or extended family.
“A little sacrifice is all it takes, but the benefits are great.”
Nina Xarhakos has moved in with her mother Maria, and has become her primary carer.(ABC News: Rhiannon Stevens)
Caring for Maria
Decades since she last lived with her parents, Nina Xarhakos moved in with her mother Maria in 2020.
At 92, Maria suffers mobility issues and was becoming isolated after the death of her husband and several close friends, as well as the closure of her Greek social club due to COVID-19.
“I’ve worked in the community sector with Greek-speaking elderly, [so] I’m very aware of how prevalent depression and anxiety is among the elderly,” Nina said.
She said she respected her mother’s desire to stay at home as long as possible.
“It’s satisfying to me to be able to make that sort of contribution towards her quality of life and I think it strengthens our relationship as well.”
