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Australia’s life dissatisfaction levels double as ‘wellbeing poverty’ reaches new highs

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Nearly 2.2 million Australians 15 years and older are living below the wellbeing poverty line, with the share of people reporting very low life satisfaction doubling over the past decade.

In 2025, 9.7%, or about one in 10 Australians, rated their general satisfaction with life at four or below out of 10, according to Guardian Australia’s analysis of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’s (ABS) general social survey. The ABS data echoes other surveys, such as Westpac’s consumer confidence index, which has languished at around 50-year lows since failing to recover from the pandemic blow.

The initial surge of Australians reporting dissatisfaction with their lives came during 2020’s Covid lockdowns and has persisted over the intervening years amid soaring cost of living. Amid an explosion of support for far-right and populist politics, those reporting life satisfaction scores of four or below are more likely to feel alienated and disempowered in their community, and express lower support for multiculturalism, the ABS figures show. Only 15% of people experiencing wellbeing poverty feel they have a say on important matters affecting their communities, against the average of 32% across all Australians. The proportion of people who feel they have a voice in their community increases to a high of 46% among those reporting overall life satisfaction of nine or above.

As One Nation’s leader, Pauline Hanson, makes headlines with her advocacy for a “monocultural” society, the ABS data show just over 60% of people who score in the lowest group on life satisfaction agree that it is a good thing for society to be composed of different cultures. That share is far below the average of 80% among Australians, and the approaching 90% among those reporting the highest life satisfaction.

Chief executive of the Scanlon Foundation Research Institute Anthea Hancocks said social cohesion nationally has proved resilient over recent years, despite these undercurrents of dissatisfaction and growing financial pressures. She remarked that connecting people to their neighbours and community was key to lifting life satisfaction.

“We know that regardless of your economic circumstances, whether you are struggling or you say you are prosperous, if you live in a highly cohesive neighbourhood, then your level of happiness doubles,” she said.

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Government plans crackdown on social media algorithms

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Labor’s plan to crack down on social media algorithms faces significant opposition in federal parliament, with opposition leader Angus Taylor warning against efforts by the government to “censor” free speech online.

Communications minister Anika Wells is expected to release draft legislation creating a digital duty of care for social media users in Australia as parliament returns this week. Among new rules being considered are functions requiring popular social media platforms to allow users to turn off algorithms controlling the content in their feeds, and to better identify problematic or illegal content to protect vulnerable users including children.

Labor said they want to better protect social media users from being fed content that reinforces dangerous stereotypes and behaviours, including in areas around body image, women’s safety and child protection. Opt-out options for algorithms would give users the choice to make their social media feeds only feature content from friends and groups they choose to follow.

Fines of more than $100m would be created for breaches, with new powers given to the eSafety commissioner and researchers to investigate compliance by big platforms. Prime minister Albanese is expected to spruik the plan at the United Nations general assembly in New York later this month.

But Taylor told News24 on Sunday the government should focus on fixing problems with its under 16s social media ban before taking on new rules like the digital duty of care. The shadow home affairs minister, the outgoing Liberal senator Jonno Duniam, likened the government’s plans to dumped anti-misinformation legislation introduced during Labor’s first term in government, stating that it is going to impede on people’s rights and freedoms.

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AI and virtual interpreters providing on-demand Auslan services in regional areas to replace in-person ones

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In an attempt to fill the void, virtual services of Australia sign language interpreters, apps and artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly being used to bring translation services to regions that struggled to find them in the past.

But the move is having an unintended side effect, as the few registered Auslan interpreters living and working in regional areas say they are suddenly finding themselves out of work.

Live captioning is a form of AI software that records and writes out spoken conversations in real time to help users with hearing impairments access these conversations. It does not include translating responses from Auslan to spoken language, which is why captioning is not always appropriate.

Virtual interpreters can work remotely, appearing on a screen to translate what they hear via a live feed, and often working at a lower cost than in-person translators. Many interpreters said having options was good, but the effect on interpreters was not.

One interpreter said the demand [for in-person Auslan interpreters] has always been there, and especially for rural and regional people, but she said agencies were unwilling to pay travel costs and were reluctant to prioritise in-person interpreters over virtual ones.

Many organizations focusing on helping the hearing impaired also explained that not all interpreting jobs are suitable online, and If a customer’s first preference is an in-person interpreter then they will do everything possible to provide one.

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One Nation pushes for early super access for Australians paying rent or mortgage

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Australians with a mortgage or paying rent would be given a choice to divert a portion of their superannuation to their take-home pay for up to three years under a One Nation proposal.

Under the policy, the full 12 per cent compulsory super contribution would still be paid by employers, but 3 per cent would be paid directly to a person by the super fund if they opt in. The payments would also remain subject to the concessional tax rate of 15 per cent, rather than the higher personal income tax rate.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said the average full-time worker earning about $90,500 would get an extra $2,300 in their pocket each year. That works out to about $44 a week, which Hanson said would provide “breathing room”.

Health Minister Mark Butler said changing those settings would be an “absolutely terrible plan” and pointed to the Morrison government’s experiment with allowing people to access more of their super during the COVID pandemic.

But Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume dismissed the proposal as nothing more than a “headline” and said One Nation had questions to answer about how the policy would interact with a person’s super balance or their concessional caps. Nationals MP David Littleproud also said there was a serious risk of “unintended consequences” of the proposal, including the potential for higher inflation.

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