Why better times are ahead

Digital nomads: it has become a way of life for some

Most Australians are intensely interested in the future. And for good reason. The annual budget details taxes and benefits that may impact everyday life. It looks years into the future, to the shores of a mysterious land that most of us are destined to inhabit but about which we know little. Politicians refer to this place, to this shared destiny, as being “beyond the forward estimates”.

My experience in discussing the future with corporate Australia is that the timeframe they’re most concerned with is 5-10 years. This is the influenceable future for anyone running a business, looking for an investment return, or scoping what might affect their term of office. In fact, our future between 2026 and 2031 is a lot like the Great Southern Land that 17th-century Europeans realised existed but didn’t know much about. Their response was to send expeditions to chart these waters in the hope of discovering a land of plenty. Similarly, I think there’s a way to scope out, to chart, the type and scale of events that can shape an Australian decade.

What were the defining events of the first decade of the 21st century for Australia? The 9/11 attack, which dictated our defence response for years. The global financial crisis. The rise of the seachange and treechange lifestyle movements.

Now do the same for the 2010s. The impact of the resources boom. The rise of social media. The demise of Australian manufacturing. The strengthening (at first) of our relationship with China. The impact of the Millennial generation. The rise of the “hipster”.

Some of the defining events of the 2020s are already clear. The impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Geopolitical tensions that require us to rethink our defence requirements. The rise of cancel culture. Challenges to the rules-based international order. Working from home. The global skills shortage. The term “digital nomad”. Australia responded to each challenge, adapted to changed circumstances, perhaps wandered too far along certain lines before recalibrating, but ultimately prospered and delivered a better quality of life for many if not for most.

Every decade or so there are global events that buffet our nation – war, pandemic, economic crises – and rising social forces that affect everyday life. There’s also an element of hope and faith in looking to the future. It’s my view that humanity will eventually favour what is right and good over what is bad and toxic. I believe that digitisation will alleviate the skills shortage, that geopolitical shifts will eventually deliver a better world, tolerance will ultimately prevail, climate issues will be resolved, and humanity will be steadily freed from the drudgery of dangerous and repetitive work.

It’s easy to be cynical about the future, to cite examples of human failings. But even with our failings, our challenges, our yet-to-be-resolved social and political issues, Australia has delivered a good quality of life to many. Perhaps it is our remoteness, our resources, our good relations with likeminded nations. Or maybe it is simply dumb luck. But the evidence is Australia has indeed prospered. Our pathway certainly hasn’t always been in the right direction but eventually we get things right, or acknowledge that changes need to be made.

And so it for this reason, this part-fact, part-faith view of the future, that I do see a more prosperous, a fairer, a more sustainable nation later in the 2020s. Even if this isn’t always the case, surely it’s the right attitude to have about our nation.