Angela Mollard: Top 30 things I’m hoping for in 2025

We’re a quarter of the way through a new century that has galloped out of the blocks but it’s not too late for a little course correction, writes Angela Mollard.

I’m excited for 2025. I think it’s because I like quarters. An orange quartered is eminently more agreeable than having to peel the thing.

Quarters in AFL and basketball make the games somehow more suspenseful, and I like that the tax office demands a quarterly business activity statement from me. Keeps things neat.

I especially like first quarters because with three more ahead there’s still plenty of time to correct or come good.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s dating habits are as old as his blockbuster hit Titanic.

Which is where we’ll find ourselves in 2025. A quarter of the way through a new century that has galloped out of the blocks, particularly when it comes to technological and social change. Who would have thought on the eve of this new Millennium that 25 years on AI might’ve written this column (it didn’t), that driverless cars would be on the road, that gender would be a spectrum not an absolute and that Leonardo DiCaprio would be 50 and still determinedly finding new audiences for Titanic by dating girls born since its release in 1997.

It’s more than 50 years since musician John Lennon urged the world to give peace a chance.

Likewise, after the horrendous start to the new century with 9/11 and the 2004 tsunami, who would’ve thought we’d be entering 2025 with wars blazing in Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa.

More than half a century after John Lennon wrote Give Peace a Chance we seemingly still can’t.

Sadly, solving those issues are outside my pay grade so instead here’s 30 things I’m hoping for in 2025.

Firstly, if the economic fairies could start bringing interest rates down, those of us stretched beyond our means might finally feel a loosening in our shoulders.

Please bring interest rates down.

Australia is a wonderful place to live but to find five of our cities now among the world’s top 20 most expensive requires a deeply considered long-term housing policy that looks beyond the next election.

My third wish in the housing sphere is for an overhaul of stamp duty. Telling me I can free up $300,000 for superannuation if I downsize is all very well but not when you lose more than $100,000 of that on the stamp duty for a new property purchase. Nonsensical.

Moving on to health, this has been the year when a simple injection melts away your fat and as we move into 2025 microdosing Ozempic is set to become the new norm for those wanting to lose their Christmas paunch.

You have to lie to get your hands on it but plenty are. We’re living in the Bozempic era when faces are frozen by one injection and bellies jabbed by another.

Keira Knightley in the Netflix spy thriller Black Doves.

I’m praying for restaurants in 2025. Word out of Los Angeles is that people ordering tiny starters is sending them out of business.

As for beauty, we need more of Keira Knightley’s face (wonderfully natural in Black Doves) and less of TikTok convincing a generation of young women that they need a dozen different unguents to look good.

They don’t. It’s insane and robs them of their cash and confidence.

What we need from scientists is hair colour that works fast so you don’t need to spend two hours in a salon and a fake tan-style product that leaves you SPF-protected for a week.

The phenomenally successful Taylor Swift deserves a rest in 2025. Picture: AFP

As for entertainment, other than Taylor Swift getting a good rest and Sean Combes getting a rigorous trial, I hope 2025 marks the year that streaming services are consolidated, festivals find a way back to financial viability and someone makes a cinematic blockbuster as good as Top Gun Maverick.

It’s also time Ethan Hawke and Julie Delphy reprised their Before Sunrise characters for a fourth movie, since 2025 marks 30 years since the original.

Before Sunset was released in 2004 and Before Midnight in 2013 so we’re due a catch-up with the couple who make long-term love believable.

It’s time to reprise the love story which began with Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in the 1995 film Before Sunrise.

In the sporting arena, I’m loving that we now have access to athletes through their socials and I’m hoping 2025 brings better coaching and solid success for the Matildas, more recognition for the AFLW and a great documentary marking 30 years since South Africa won the Rugby World Cup under Nelson Mandela’s presidency.

If the Wallabies could beat the British and Irish Lions during their tour mid-year we’re here for it.

Fashion-wise, if we could kill off mullets and Naarmcore, which is basically Melburnians looking like they’ve rolled through a skip bin, then my eyes can finally stop hurting.

If you’ve watched Buy Now (Netflix) you won’t want to buy a thing but the one purchase I’ll be making come winter is a cape. They’re back.

Let Donald Trump and Elon Musk have a spectacular falling out in 2025. Picture: Getty Images

May the fashion gods find me one in dusky blue.

Randomly, I want 2025 to bring a “cossie livs” aisle to supermarkets where you can get all the bargains in one place, jalapeno honey to become a food group (don’t mock til you try), boats to be banned from suburban streets, King Charles to be cured of cancer, Donald Trump and Elon Musk to have a spectacular falling out and a revival of the progressive dinner.

Finally, as my 30th wish, I want us to look up from our phones and take in the world. Because it’s beautiful.

Originally published as Angela Mollard: Top 30 things I’m hoping for in 2025