Survey reveals Australia's multicultural society 'more divided'

An annual social cohesion survey of 10,000 Australians has found the nation is becoming "more divided" and "more pessimistic".

The latest Scanlon Foundation survey has found mounting financial pressure has left many households unable to pay for essentials such as food, rent or healthcare.

One in three respondents expressed anxiety about their future — triple the number of respondents who expressed the same pessimism in the first 2006 survey.

Australia's multicultural society is becoming more divided, less trusting and "more pessimistic" as households report more cost-of-living concerns, according to the latest Scanlon Foundation social cohesion survey.

The Mapping Social Cohesion study, now in its 20th year, surveyed 10,000 adults about issues including immigration, multiculturalism, life satisfaction, and household finances.

The report's introduction says it has been a "shocking year for Australia", noting the Bondi terrorist attack, instances of intolerance and racism, and persistent worry about financial stress stemming from the Iran conflict and rising interest rates.

"People are feeling there isn't a lot of opportunity for them to be able to achieve the things they want to," Scanlon Foundation chief executive Anthea Hancocks said.

"There tends to be people who are quite despondent about the state of affairs."

This year, one in three respondents expressed anxiety about their future, agreeing with the statement that their life "will be a little or much worse" in the next three to four years.

That is a three-fold increase since the survey began in 2006.

Likewise, respondents who state they were "happy or very happy" have been slowly declining over the past 20 years.

Mounting financial stresses left many households unable to pay for the essentials, including meals (13 per cent), rent or mortgage (13 per cent), medicine or healthcare (21 per cent), and household heating and cooling (19 per cent).

Those most likely to experience financial hardship were young and middle-aged adults, especially women and single-income households.

Ms Hancocks said people's "sense of belonging" shrinks when they feel "financially compromised".

"They tend to become more insular," she said.

When it comes to fixing the problem, trust in the federal government has been reversing from its early COVID-19 pandemic high, with more than one in five people now believing it will "almost never" do the right thing.

Almost half of the respondents (48 per cent) felt Australia's "system of government" needed "major change" or "should be replaced" — the highest number since the question was first asked in 2014.

"The level of trust in government has for the vast majority of the population been fairly stable," Ms Hancocks said.

"But the impact of One Nation voters who have very strong views about not being able to trust government has dragged the numbers down."

A key trend identified in the report is growing disillusionment towards immigration.

The number of people believing immigration levels were "too high" has surged since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching 59 per cent in 2026, the highest result on record.

A majority of respondents still believed that accepting immigrants made Australia stronger, but the proportion has fallen recently (from 78 per cent in 2022 down to 64 per cent this year).

Nearly two in five respondents (38 per cent), the highest rate on record, agreed immigrants "take jobs".

Those who supported One Nation were, by far, the least likely to support immigration and overwhelmingly felt immigrants were not adopting "Australian values" — a term the survey noted had varying meanings to different people.

The party's voters were also found to be the most pessimistic about Australia's future, while also being a significant outlier when it came to distrusting others.

"The feelings towards immigration are very much influenced by people's political leanings," Ms Hancocks said.

"It's a perspective, not necessarily the actual situation. People are still listening to narratives that are telling them that there are these waves and waves of people coming into Australia, which is not really accurate."

While the report noted that debate about immigration was fair game, it expressed concern that "racial hatred" and "violence" had become "common", placing a strain on Australia's "multicultural fabric".

Ms Hancocks said many respondents felt social cohesion was getting worse (62 per cent) but stressed the report's actual social cohesion index has been flat in recent years.

"Australia's social cohesion is very resilient," she said.

"Primarily the reason for that is because of the strength that exists within people's neighbourhoods."

Former Australian of the Year Amar Singh said the report's findings were unsurprising, as he had noted an increase of racist slurs and attacks towards Indian Australians.

This included online abuse against him, with one recent email stating Mr Singh needed "to die".

"Last week we had a senior citizen in Perth who got assaulted," he said.

"Somebody assaulted him and took his turban off in a shopping centre.

Mr Singh, who runs the food relief charity Turbans 4 Australia, said demand for the service had gone up "tenfold", while donations were going backwards.

"We're finding it very hard to keep up with the demand," he said.

"I could get a text or an email to say, 'hey, I'll move into a shelter, or I've only got the couple of pairs of clothing that I'm wearing.'"

But he added that financial strain was no excuse for intolerance.

"This financial crunch is being felt by everybody," he said.