Goodbye to all that

There is every reason to be concerned about the future. The pandemic has not been contained, thanks to the ability of Covid-19 to create variants. The conflict in Ukraine is morphing into a war of attrition. China’s president looks like securing a historic third five-year term in October. The US president is ageing, with another two years left in office. Across the world there are problems with supply chains, the flow of migrants, tourists and students, and air travel has been severely disrupted. Not to mention rising inflation, talk of recession, and natural disasters such as floods.

Business, meanwhile, has taken the opportunity presented by the pandemic and its lockdowns to restructure, automate and digitise, to shift the burden of responsibility for transactions away from the enterprise to the customer. Indeed, customer service is no longer a case of “we will fix the problem”, rather “we will enable you to fix the problem yourself”.

The world as we knew it in 2019 is long gone. Developed nations including Australia are being subjected to supply chain disruption, a mismatch between the lifestyle customers expect and the labour model – and pricing – required to deliver products and services to support that lifestyle. I am sure we will become a far less “waited upon” people by the end of the 2020s. Jobs such as waiter, travel agent, checkout operator, receptionist, ticket collector, secretary, bank teller and shop assistant are being automated or shifted online. The army of attendants that underpinned our pre-pandemic way of life is being redeployed and/or upskilled. Labour reserves across the western world now have better options than menial tasks. Yes, for we consumers this can involve pain and discomfort; and yes, you do have to learn new technologies. And yes, this is difficult for the digitally challenged. But haven’t we demonstrated over the past two years that we can rethink the way we do things and adapt to new technology?

In some respects, some post-lockdown Australians are a bit like the most aristocratic residents of Downton Abbey after the Great War, puzzling about why things can’t just go back to the way they were. No, things can’t go back to “normal”. There’s a better way, a fairer way; a way that delivers a better quality of life for more people.

I was always uncomfortable, for example, with backpackers in Australia being required to do work such as fruit picking in return for a visa extension. The same goes for seasonal workers being flown in from abroad; surely there’s a better way to support these people without linking them to the all-important national harvest? I’m not sure what that “better way” might look like but let’s start with that key theme in post-pandemic Australia, the automation of menial work.

There are many reasons for hope. We are better positioned than most other nations to respond to future challenges. We are an island continent with all the resources and skills required to generate a comfortable living. We have a strong relationship with the US, which is sure to remain our loyal ally. And we have a long history of trading with like-minded partners such as Japan, South Korea, India and New Zealand.

But we Australians have something else. We have confidence in the future. We’re generally a cheery lot, even when the chips are down. Yes, there are problems, but we can overcome these. Or at least we think we can. And that is the quality – our irrepressible optimism – that gives me every confidence in Australia’s near-term future, whatever it may hold.