Leading demographer Bernard Salt understands that many Australians are challenged by major trends such as automation, artificial intelligence and immigration but he urges positivity and sees it as an opportunity.
“My main argument for having faith in the future of Australia as a place to live and work, raise a family and invest your life is that we are safe, secure and we are an accommodating society,” says Salt.
“Australia is welcoming and we have resources and we are growing very rapidly, so I urge people to accept the changes that are happening and to become part of the change, because that is where they will find opportunity.”
Australia has always experienced rapid change, says Salt, and this has meant that the country is “always chasing its tail, always playing catch up.”
While this leads to some anxiety for some people, the changes are irresistible and offer significant upside.
“A lot of it is associated with automation and digital technology, which is giving people greater freedoms to work from home,” says Salt.
“And it is giving new meaning to living in the suburbs and regional areas because of the logistics of eCommerce.”
“Been here before”
Salt counters negative sentiment on the changes by pointing out that society “has been here before” with changes, such as industrialisation in the nineteenth century and the widespread entry of women in the workforce from the 1970s.
“You can go back to the Luddites, who fought against industrialisation and the mechanisation of farming, and go forward 200 years to understand where that has taken us,” he says.
“In the Australian wheat belt we have highly sophisticated technology worth millions of dollars in the agricultural machinery which delivers a much more productive crop and can feed far more people.”
In terms of female participation in the workforce, Salt recalls the argument that women were going “to take men’s jobs.”
“What actually happened was that women skilled up, lifted participation rates and spent a bucketload of money and drove demand even further.”
The same logic applies to immigration, says Salt, in that it delivers opportunity, productivity and “more output and bang per buck which in turn delivers a benefit to humanity.”
Salt hastens to add that there are limits to the pace with which Australia can expand. He says his arguments for growth, for immigration, are based on reasonable rates of expansion.
With the world now impacted by AI and automation, Salt says it should be seen as a force “which releases humanity from the drudgery of boring, repetitive and often dangerous work.”
“Look at Australia’s unemployment rate right now, it’s at less than 4%,” says Salt.
“In modern terms that’s as good as it gets, so really Australia is flat chat and going gangbusters.”
The people who benefit most from the change, says Salt, are most likely to be those who embrace it.
“In the professional world, even if you’ve been in the same job for 20 years, I think that your skill sets can evolve and once you lean in and accept that there is a bigger picture evolving, then I think the transition is easier,” he says.
“People who do that are more likely to be content with their work, less stressed, less angry and can have some influence on steering the flow of where things are going.
“We’ve all been in organisations where there has been passive resistance to change, and I always find that the greatest asset of any person is not their university degree, it’s how optimistic and friendly they are in the office because this is the energy which turbocharges careers.”
Housing crisis
Some trends, however, are yet to find a solution and Salt identifies Australia’s housing crisis, and generational inequity.
“This is an issue caused by the fact that we’ve never had people living so long with so much wealth,” he says.
“In some ways we should see this as a good problem to have, and much of this wealth will be transferred in coming years to the next generation.”
Some, however, will miss out and this will pose challenges in providing affordable housing but once again Salt is positive about Australia’s ability to find pragmatic answers.
“I know there is a lot of intellect being applied to this issue and I’m confident we’ll find pathways to make housing more affordable,” he says.
In building this new – and better – Australia of the future Salt says that engineers will be critical.
Rapid growth creates demand for infrastructure, and this will create a demand for engineering skills which will require immigration to fulfil.
Melbourne and Sydney, for example, are cities with five million people which are likely to expand to populations of eight million in coming decades.
London might have nine million people now and be projected to increase to ten million, but in comparison Australia will require much more in the way of infrastructure.
“I think we are a very attractive option for skilled young engineers coming out of places like India or China,” says Salt.
“Australia has so much to offer them in terms of opportunity and lifestyle, and there is the job satisfaction in being part of building Australia’s future, and that’s a big task.
“If you are a young engineer looking to emigrate for opportunity, why wouldn’t Australia be top of your list.”
Bernard Salt is one of Australia’s leading social commentators, demographers and business analysts. He has written six books, writes frequently in newspapers and magazines and is in demand as a public speaker. Bernard will be a keynote speaker at the International Public Works Conference, presented by IPWEA in Melbourne from April 30 to May 3
