Opinion: Aussies have lost the inclination to say g’day

A crucial element of the Australian experience is sadly becoming lost to time, writes Mike O’Connor. VOTE IN OUR POLL

A little over 40 years ago Paul Hogan, “Hoges” to millions, appeared in some of the best tourism commercials ever made and warned Americans planning to visit Australia that they’d have to learn to say “G’day” and call everyone “mate”.

“G’day Paul” says a bikini-clad woman to a suntanned, bare-chested Hoges.

“G’day love,” he replies.

Fast forward to 2025 and we have forgotten how to say g’day, with a survey showing two-thirds of Queenslanders questioned had never met or spoken to their neighbours in spite of having lived at their current address for more than six months.

Among Gen Z and Gen Y age groups, the number rose to 71 and 70 per cent respectively.

As anyone who lives in an apartment will attest, the lift is the social hub of the building with the residents falling into three groups.

There are those who focus on the floor with their gaze transfixed, hypnotised by their own feet. Then there are the mobile phone starers texting furiously or intellectually engaged with the latest reel clip showing someone falling down a flight of stairs – hilarious isn’t it – and then the members of that minority who are invariably over 50 years of age who nod and say g’day when you enter the lift.

I sometimes play a game and say g’day to the floor starers. It’s worth it to see the look of panic on their faces. A total stranger is talking to me and I am trapped in this confined space with nowhere to hide. Aaggggh!

Sometimes it is possible to elicit a grunt and more rarely a muttered “Hi,” but the most common response is a begrudging nod of acknowledgment and an expression which says, “I wish this grinning idiot would disappear.”

When did we become such insular beings that we are incapable of acknowledging a friendly hello?

We’re not talking about a frenzy of handshakes, hugs and air kisses here just a basic g’day, a nod to the fact that we share our small slice of the planet with others and are members of a wider community.

People in free standing houses now live in the same street for years without having any social contact with their neighbours.

Gone are the days when people chatted over the fence or waved from their front yards as you walked past.

It is said that the reason people have withdrawn into themselves is that they now connect electronically. The reasoning is that the urge to communicate with others remains but that the mobile phone now serves that purpose.

Maybe that is the case but what a sad commentary that is on the society that we have become.

A mate of mine moved into our neighbourhood about a year ago and having given up on establishing any meaningful social contact with his neighbours became an occasional Uber driver to have someone with whom to converse.

“I say g’day to the passengers and gauge it from there,” he says.

“You can easily tell who’s up for a chat.

“It’s almost always the older people who are friendly.

“The younger ones mostly just sit there, as is their perfect right, but it’s interesting how the different groups react.”

If you are unable to acknowledge the existence of your fellows then it follows that you are unlikely to come to their assistance should they be in need.

Rather than rushing to help someone in distress, the reflex action is more likely to be to look the other way, “not my problem” becoming the ethos.

“G’day mate” was once a universal expression along with “how ya goin, mate? Not bad mate, see ya later mate and two beers please mate.”

The expression is so hard wired into my baby boomer’s mind that I say it automatically and while the person to whom I am speaking may not be my mate, the word expresses a human bond.

It says “we’re all in this together so let’s be as pleasant to each other as possible.”

Back in the Eighties in those classic commercials in which he describes Australia as “the friendliest place on earth,” Hoges urged us all to “just flash the pearly whites and say g’day to a visitor.”

Next time you see your neighbour flash the pearly whites and say g’day.

You never know, they just might say g’day back and throw a shrimp on the barbie.

Originally published as Opinion: Aussies have lost the inclination to say g’day