Electoral results are a dipstick into the mind and mood of the Australian people

A magnet for knowledge workers: Brisbane CBD

A decade ago I invented a new acronym to describe an emerging social group: PUMCINS stood for the professional urban middle class in nice suburbs. OK, so the term never really stuck, but it did encapsulate the rise and geographic concentration (in nice suburbs) of knowledge workers, and their separation from others in middle suburbia.

Here we are a decade later and those “nice suburbs” have produced the Teal movement with a declared emphasis on climate change and political integrity. The Greens, too, had their best ever result in a federal election, winning three seats in Brisbane.

In the late 19th century Aussie battlers lived in working-class suburbs within walking distance of factories – places like Melbourne’s Collingwood and Sydney’s Balmain. But these inner-city areas were gentrified from the ’70s onwards. Terrace houses were “done up” by incoming professionals and by the ’90s high-rise apartment living was becoming popular, especially with Gen Xers who, unlike Boomers, postponed marriage and a mortgage until their late twenties and early thirties; this freed up the pre-commitment years for the exhilaration of inner-city living. The scene was set for the 21st-century arrival of Millennials, downshifting Baby Boomers, expat corporates, foreign students, same-sex couples, divorcees and others who were tied to the CBD for work, study or other purposes.

A kind of cultural primacy of the CBD ensued, heralded by the headquarters of global corporates, the flagships of our smartest shops, the edgy architecture of our best universities. The dreary suburbs, on the other hand, were the preserve of families with children, of workers with mortgages who commuted to the CBD every day.

A social (and now political) divide was emerging that separated the inner city from suburbia. I called it the goat’s cheese curtain; it encircled the CBD at a radius of about 5km. The driving force behind this separation of the Australian people was the rise of inner-city based knowledge workers. The inner city typically has fewer families with kids and more professionals living singly or as couples; residents less likely to own a car, have a mortgage and believe in a god, and more likely to work in the public sector and hold progressive views.

The demography of central Brisbane is surprisingly similar to that of central Melbourne. You can trace Melbourne’s progressive leanings to its manufacturing base and to the union movement. Central Brisbane has all the institutions required to attract knowledge workers, but it also has something quite unique: the local government behemoth of the City of Brisbane, which concentrates government jobs into inner-city electorates. The progressives’ best prospects outside Melbourne were always going to be Brisbane.

The rise of the inner city won the patronage, and was the preferred domicile, of planners, corporates and administrators of public institutions; it was also the home of arty types including foodies who have a more European view of Australian urban life. The broad expanse of suburbia, on the other hand, is more American in its demeanour and direction. Unsurprisingly, the term McMansion derives from a US corporation.

Electoral results are like a census; they’re a dipstick into the mind and mood of the Australian people; they tell a story of how we’re changing. The key insight, I think, from the recent election is that the city/suburb divide has deepened, providing opportunities for some and challenges for others.