Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Not dead yet!

By Ross Elliott - posted Thursday, 10 September 2009


Despite what can read like attempts to will it to death, the family unit is proving resilient.

Let’s bust a myth. You’ll have read plenty of reports that the traditional family unit is in decline, and that single person households or group households are on the rise. This, we are told, is going to mean a fundamental change to the way we provide housing and lifestyle choices.

It’s true that there have been some marginal shifts in the rise of single person households. The proportion has grown from 21 per cent of all households in 1991 to 24 per cent in 2001. But this is a shift at the margin, the causes of which aren’t necessarily due to wholesale disgruntlement with the family unit but also to drivers like the ageing population (which invariably produces more widows living longer), and also to the postponement by young people of family formation (due to the perceived costs of raising children and the importance of careers, as in this story).

Advertisement

The biological urge to pair with a partner of the opposite sex and produce children is proving more stubborn than some forecasters and “trend spotters” might like to believe.

Only recently came evidence from the ABS (“Marriages and Divorces in Australia 2008”) that the number of marriages registered in Australia last year was at a 20-year high, while the overall divorce rate was at a 20-year low.

That sits at odds with what some commentators are saying, like this from KPMG’s Bernard Salt: “There's gay couples, divorcees, married couples who don't have kids, singles, ex-pats, de facto couples and we can't forget that we have an ageing population.” “Those groups didn't exist 30 or 40 years ago …”

Sorry Bernard, but gay couples, divorcees, married couples without children, singles and others did indeed exist 30 or 40, even 60 years ago or more. We just didn’t read about them quite as much.

He continues: “… so there's different kinds of families now who have different housing requirements. There's less need for basic three-bedroom brick veneer homes in the suburbs.”

Really? Cause and effect are open to debate here. Any shift away from the suburban detached house isn’t as much driven by changing family units or consumer choice but also by deterministic planning policies which are restricting the supply of new suburban land in favour of high density living, among other things.

Advertisement

Salt again:

“We're talking density housing," he says. "There'll be less backyard cricket and more communal facilities like parklands. It's going to mean getting used to living close to people, which is a cultural shift for Aussies who are used to their own place in suburbia.”

The same Courier-Mail article which quoted Salt also featured a lesbian couple, promoted as “the face of the future”:

  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. All

First published by The Pulse on September 3, 2009.



Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

1 post so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Ross Elliott is an industry consultant and business advisor, currently working with property economists Macroplan and engineers Calibre, among others.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Ross Elliott

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Photo of Ross Elliott
Article Tools
Comment 1 comment
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy