Editorial: Many reasons to be optimistic in 2024

Twenty twenty-three was a tough year in many ways, but there is much to look forward to in 2024, writes the editor.

Olympians Cate Campbell, Abby Andrews and Bronte Campbell. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Many Queenslanders will this morning be waking up with slightly sore heads after seeing 2023 off with a bang.

If they had a few too many, they deserve it. For many, 2023 is a year we will be happy to see receding in the rear-view mirror.

It was a year the seemingly never-ending war in Ukraine was joined by an equally nasty conflict in Israel and Gaza. At home, the domestic political landscape was dominated by a Voice referendum that divided Australia, and a defeat that well and truly ended Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s electoral honeymoon.

But for many Australians, 2023 will be looked back on as the year of belt-tightening, of going without and, for some, of being forced out of house and home by the cost-of-living crisis.

Driven by runaway inflation on everyday items and rising interest rates, as well as a housing shortfall exacerbated by increased immigration and a skills shortage in the building industry, the pain of paying the rent, mortgage and bills was felt by 40 per cent of Queensland respondents in The Courier-Mail sentiment survey.

Money worries at the weekly shop forced 70 per cent of people to cut back on grocery items, with meat being the most often sacrificed item from the trolley by nearly 34 per cent of respondents.

More than 80 per cent have cut back on other expenses such as insurance and electricity.

Treasurer Cameron Dick has pledged that the state government will do more in cost-of-living relief in 2024, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the crisis would be one of his government’s primary focuses.

All that is well and good, but the cost pressures facing ordinary Queenslanders will not ease until the economy turns around.

Many economists now believe there will be a “soft landing” from our present economic woes, with inflation continuing to trend downward and the Reserve Bank of Australia starting to lower official interest rates in the second half of the year.

The Commonwealth Bank has predicted official rates will fall by 0.75 per cent in the 12 months from September 2025, and could fall another 0.75 per cent in year after that.

That would be a start.

An end to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East would also ease supply chain issues, while only a renewed focus on house and unit construction could help restrain runaway rents.

But Australians in general – and Queenslanders in particular – have always been an optimistic lot, and there is much to look forward to over the coming year.

For sports fans there is much to look forward to, with the Paris Olympics the major highlight.

For Queenslanders, it will be extra special and we will get a sneak peek of the excitement we will all be experiencing when the Games come to us in 2032.

And for Broncos and Lions fans, after heartbreaking grand final losses in 2023, the prospect of going one better in 2024 is mouth-watering.

There is a difference between optimism and hope though. While a fan of the Broncos has a right to be optimistic, a Tigers fan is living in hope.

For Queenslanders to be truly optimistic about their economic fortunes in the new year, they need their elective representatives to do all they can to put the mechanisms in place that will begin to ease those cost-of-living pressures.

Without the state and federal governments doing their bit, we are all just living in hope.

SCHOOL REFUSAL MUST BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY

The issue of school refusal is a complex one.

As education reporter Matty Holdsworth reveals today, school attendance rates – even after removing the Covid years – are in sharp decline, while a poll revealed 40 per cent of families have experienced children failing to attend school.

It is not enough to simply say “make them go to school”. Parents who have experienced this phenomenon know it isn’t that easy.

Even outgoing Education Minister Grace Grace admits she isn’t sure what is causing the issue, although Covid-19 certainly played a part.

Former principal turned Australian Catholic University academic Dr Paul Kidson said the fallout from Covid-19 had created a form of “post-traumatic stress” for some students.

“We are of the view that the impacts both socially and emotionally post-Covid continue a lot longer than we anticipated,” Dr Kidson said.

What is clear, however, is the urgent need to understand school refusal and institute programs to improve the mental health and resilience of students.

And this needs to happen soon, or more children will feel like they have fallen behind their peers.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here