Bernard Salt

Bernard Salt is widely regarded as one of Australia’s leading social commentators by business, the media and the broader community. He is the Managing Director of The Demographics Group, and he writes weekly columns for The Australian that deal with social, generational and demographic matters.

@BernardSalt

Latest

INQUIRERInquirer

Updated ABS data reveals the ways Australia has changed, and what lies ahead.

How Australians abandoned the regions for the ‘lifestyle zone’

As ‘blue bits’ beyond the edges of our capital cities emerge – boosted by the advent of work from home – Australians are changing the way they live and work in a post-pandemic world.

Bernard Salt

EconomyProperty

Kangaroo family on the beach of Lucky bay, Esperance, Western Australiasavvy 3rd of january 2023Escape hotlistsimage from istock

Is Australia still the lucky country?

Australia is a Florida of the south but with Copenhagen-quality coffee shops. Or in other words we’re a little bit Paris and a big bit Dallas. So is Australia still a ripper place to buy property?

Bernard Salt

COMMENTARYThe Weekend Australian Magazine

POOL PHOTO: Aerial view of Parliament House in Canberra on Friday 3 December 2021. Pool photo: Alex Ellinghausen

Is it time for an Australian state to have an Indigenous name?

Unlike Canada, we still don’t have a state or territory named for our first nations people.

Bernard Salt

COMMENTARYThe Weekend Australian Magazine

(FILES) In this file photo taken on July 5, 2012, Australian comedian, actor and author Australian Barry Humphries, dressed as his alter ego, Dame Edna Everage, appeares at a press conference in Sydney. - Humphries died on April 22, 2023 in a Sydney hospital, prompting a tribute from the prime minister who described him as "the brightest star". (Photo by Greg WOOD / POOL / AFP)

Modern Australia has forgotten to laugh at it itself

For decades, Australians have explored their many cultures and suburban social mores through television and film. Why haven’t we found a modern-day Dame-Edna iteration for the 2020s?

Bernard Salt

CommentaryEconomics

Couple with contractor inside structure during the building of their home.

Drop in working-age Aussie numbers needs rethink

As Australia’s overall population ages into retirement, will there be enough workers to replace them in important roles such as building? The figures might surprise you.

Bernard Salt

commentaryThe Weekend Australian Magazine

All the fun at the Gold Coast Show, big crowds flock to Sideshow Alley on the first day.Locals Sian Shroter 9 and Mamie Sabelja 9 tryand hold hands on the Chair O Plane. Picture Glenn Hampson

Chaperone, anyone? An old-fashioned idea has currency in the modern world

There’s a time in the life-cycle when a particular word spills forth, quite involuntarily, from the parental mouth. That word is chaperone.

Bernard Salt

COMMENTARYThe Weekend Australian Magazine

This photograph shows the Olympic Rings displayed at the construction site of the Eiffel Tower Stadium for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympic Games which will host the Beach Volleyball and men's Blind Football competitions, at the Champ-De-Mars in Paris on July 10, 2024. The Champ de Mars and the Trocadero, located on either side of the Eiffel Tower, will host several events of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, on July 10, 2024. (Photo by Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP)

The Olympics will inspire a new generation to live their best life

We may not top the Paris medal tally but our athletes will inspire a nation of kids to play sport. Just as Mexico City’s Olympics in 1968 inspired me as an 11-year-old.

Bernard Salt

COMMENTARYThe Weekend Australian Magazine

10/07/1968. Drinking. Lynette Winter, of Armadale, pours a drink from an 80oz. bottle today. On the right is a normal 26oz. bottle. Victoria Bitter. Beer. Beers. VB. (hsretro instagram 10/07/2023)

The iconic Australian brands of my 1960s childhood

Before the 1970s, when Australians developed a taste for American consumer goods, locally made products were the norm. Which brands do you remember?

Bernard Salt

the cycle of lifeThe Weekend Australian Magazine

Happy Birthday years. 40 anniversary of the birthday, Candle in the form of numbers. Vector illustration

The roaring 40s: why this is the decade of your life

It can be a decade filled with the joys of family life. For others it can be a time of great reckoning, if youthful dreams simply didn’t work out. We’re talking, of course, about one’s forties.

Bernard Salt

COMMENTARYWeekend Australian Magazine

rear view woman at climate change protest fridays for future holding no planet b sign in front of big crowd at demonstration, shallow focus, background blurred

Why do we ‘tackle’ climate change?

We fall in love, we are gripped by fear, we are consumed by jealousy, we drown in debt, we are driven by lust. Hidden-meaning word-pairings are everywhere.

Bernard Salt

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/bernard-salt/page/4