EDITORIAL: Resilience gives us plenty to be optimistic about

There’s no escaping that this has been an immensely challenging year.

The day-to-day resilience of families has been tested enormously by a number of compounding stresses.

The cost-of-living crisis, which is about to stretch into its fourth year, has left many of us struggling to pay for the basics, let alone the extra indulgences of the holiday season.

Our collective hope for a cut to the interest rate has been dashed again and again. Most economists now believe a cut is off the table until the second half of 2025 at the earliest. It’s entirely possible we’ll be waiting another year for any mortgage relief.

On a broader level, our economy is facing significant challenges as productivity growth slows to a crawl. The recent Budget update revealed the scale of the problem, with deficits forecast as far as the forward estimates can see.

Away from home, wars continue to rage in the Middle East and Ukraine.

The multicultural nature of our society — which we are accustomed to being one of our nation’s greatest strengths — means that scaled down versions of these conflicts are playing out here too.

Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia have both surged, taking a toll on our social cohesion.

On any number of social issues, we’re expected to choose a side. On both sides of the ideological spectrum, positions are becoming more extreme, leaving those of us in the middle ground feeling adrift.

Online radicals seek to draw more people into their malicious vortex of conspiracies, anti-authoritarianism, misogyny and racism.

The result of all this is a society that feels more fractured than at any time outside war or immediate emergency.

Looking to the year ahead, it feels that the only certainty is more unpredictability.

We are just a fortnight away from a second Trump presidency. What that will bring is anyone’s guess.

At home, our own Federal election looms. Many of the experts are predicting that will end in a hung parliament, which will bring more disorder and dysfunction to our political system.

That said, there’s plenty to feel optimistic about as we head into the new year.

Yes, we have been challenged enormously across the past year, at an individual, community and national level. Those challenges won’t disappear in 2025.

But we have met those challenges. We have not let them get the better of us.

In essence, we remain a united country, in spite of the efforts of those who seek to stoke division.

Our shared Australian values of equality of opportunity, tolerance, freedom, and respect for democracy and the rule of law are stronger than those who would sow the seeds of discord. It is our belief in those shared values which have kept us together and will pull us through these difficult times.

As every year, this Christmas provides us with an opportunity to spend time with family, to reflect and take stock.

We encourage you to do so, and to look forward to the better times ahead.