BONUS: Is the 'Australian dream' just for the wealthy?
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What is the Australian dream and why is it considered a nightmare for some?
Hey, it's Helen Smith here.
Welcome to this bonus episode of The Briefing. Australia's housing crisis has become one of the country's biggest generational fault lines, with the great Australian dream of owning a home feeling increasingly out of reach for younger Australians, just as housing has once again taken centre stage. in the recent federal budget. Now, more adults are moving back in with their parents, renters are being priced out of stability, and frustration around intergenerational wealth and inequality is fueling a growing clash between boomers and younger generations. Now, a new Australian film is turning that tension into dark comedy. Birthright explores housing pressure, class divides, and what happens when the family home becomes the only safety net.
Dad. How did you get in? Mum, it's me, your son.
How has the housing crisis affected generational relationships in Australia?
What are you doing here? We were wondering if we could stay here. Maybe it'd be better for the baby. That's it. When I was 20 years old, I bought this house and it was nothing. I built this life.
Sometimes my parents want to be a bit too involved.
We appreciated what we had. And then bit by bit, we turned one jacket, one jumper, into a whole house. Two investment properties.
What themes does the film 'Birthright' explore regarding housing inequality?
How much longer do you think you'll be staying for? How many nights? Should have bought years ago. Yes, Dad, I know. This is a shakedown. You're never going to leave.
Zoe Pepper is the writer and director of Birthright and it's inspired by real life experiences of young people moving back home as housing stress intensifies. And she joins me now to unpack why the housing debate has become so heated and what's driving the generational divide and whether the Australian dream still exists at all. Zoe, firstly, can you unpack the concept of housing as a birthright?
The film taps into it by looking at it primarily through a millennial lens of like this internalized worldview that these kind of millennials grew up with. They kind of inherited that worldview from their baby boomer parents of like, yeah, you think you're going to become an adult and you're going to like buy a house and like have a family and like live the life essentially that your parents have lived. And it's Yeah, so that's where kind of the birthright comes in and it's these millennials coming to grips with the fact that like, oh shit, that's not possible for us. It's really the collapse of that worldview, I'd say.
This idea of like the Australian dream of owning a house, has kind of always been a thing. When you go to Europe or other places, it's not really the same. Do you think Australia still believes that the idea of, you know, the Great Australian Dream is still achievable or has it become kind of more of a myth than reality for millennials and Gen Z?
I think for Gen Z, it's becoming way more of a myth. And look, hopefully some of this structural reform will start to slowly make inroads to change things.
How does the film illustrate the clash between baby boomers and millennials?
But the disadvantages of not owning your own home in Australia are just so acute that I think that's why the Australian dream still holds so much importance. If you're renting into retirement, that's a really tough life.
Yeah. How do you think the idea of housing has changed from generation to generation, particularly in the film, you explore the kind of boomers millennial relationship?
Yeah. So the film really looks at this kind of like complete misunderstanding between generations and what was possible for the baby boomers. That's no longer possible today in terms of like that affordability. And I think that housing was more like you know, like it says on the box, it's a house, it's a home to live in for previous generations. But obviously the changes to kind of the tax structure meant that it became a vehicle to make a whole lot of cash. And like you can't blame people for like jumping on that bandwagon and like playing the hand that they were dealt. But the fallout that we're seeing from it now is that like massive disadvantage to younger generations. And that I think it's absolutely time for reform and to try and
you know, like it's come late, but better late than never in terms of trying to correct that.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the Australian dream and why is it considered a nightmare for some?
0:02–1:00
2
How has the housing crisis affected generational relationships in Australia?
1:00–1:30
3
What themes does the film 'Birthright' explore regarding housing inequality?
1:30–3:18
4
How does the film illustrate the clash between baby boomers and millennials?
3:18–5:24
5
What does Zoe Pepper mean by housing as a birthright?
5:24–7:04
6
How has the perception of the Australian dream changed for younger generations?
7:04–8:53
7
What role does resentment play in the generational divide over housing?
8:53–10:42
8
What are the implications of the housing crisis on family dynamics and mental health?
10:42–15:35
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Briefing
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