A new AusWeWant report has found that Australia is locking up more of its citizens and is less generous towards charitable giving and volunteering.
The Australia We Want 2025, a comprehensive study led by the Community Council for Australia (CCA) and funded by the AMP Foundation, measured the country’s performance against an agreed set of core values and reported the following key findings:
1. Just, fair, safe
- Australia’s incarceration rate is almost twice that of Canada, double most European countries and five times Japan’s rate.
- Less than 25% of prisoners were incarcerated due to acts intended to cause others injury.
2. Inclusive, equal of opportunity, united, authentic
- The educational attainment gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians – measured as completion of Year 12 or equivalent – has narrowed from 34 to 23 percentage points over the past decade.
- Despite declines since 2014, the gender pay gap remains high at almost 22%.
3. Creative, confident, courageous, optimistic
- Australia’s per capita CO2 emissions are still the highest among OECD countries.
- Consumer and business confidence increased slightly in 2024 following a roller coaster ride caused by the global financial crisis and COVID-19.
4. Kind, generous, compassionate
- Levels of giving are not increasing despite increased wealth and perceptions of Australia as a generous country.
- The country has experienced a significant drop in volunteering since the pandemic.
These four key indicators were agreed to in 2015 by a group of 60 sector leaders from various charities and NFPs who were asked to consider and discuss ways they can describe the core values of the “Australia we want.”
The latest report is the third in the series, following earlier iterations in 2016 and 2019. Since the previous report was published, the country has endured the Black Summer bushfires, the COVID-19 pandemic, the failed referendum on a First Nations Voice to Parliament and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
While some measures, notably educational attainment and employment access, are heading in the right direction, Australia’s overall performance was rated significantly lower than in the previous report, falling from minus one to minus three.
“The findings in this report matter. They shape the kinds of communities we live in,” the report said. “What we do to change our performance as a country is up to us. The good thing about all these findings is that they reflect outcomes we can change, if we have the collective will to do so. Together, we can achieve the kind of Australia we want to live in.”
According to CCA CEO David Crosbie, the study represented an ongoing journey to a stronger and more resilient Australia, but it must be imagined, planned for, enacted and monitored.
“The latest AusWeWant report reveals that charity leaders think Australia is partly an economy, but also that the contest of policy ideas should also be about building and sustaining communities that are just, fair, safe and where our opportunity to fulfil our capacity is not defined by our postcode or bank balance,” Crosbie said.
Meanwhile, CCA chair Rev Tim Costello said that when the council brought together a diverse group of leaders and thinkers at the National Portrait Gallery a decade ago, they dared to imagine the Australia they wanted and talk about the measures that mattered most to them.
“The ABC AM radio program reporting on the event described it as a ‘council of war’ – charities and not-for-profits seeking to claim their place in national policy making,” Costello said. “CCA wants many more people to join us in our efforts to reshape our future and build our communities and our nation on a foundation of human values, the substance of our true wealth, the Australia we want.”
Read also: Survey reveals voters’ deep concerns about Australian charities
Geraldine is currently the Content Producer for Third Sector, an Akolade channel. Throughout her career, she has written for various industries and international audiences. Her love for writing extends beyond the corporate world, as she also works as a volunteer writer at her local church. Aside from writing, she is also fond of joining fun runs and watching musicals.
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