Rich, poor, educated, newly arrived, separated ... in 1990, researchers started following the lives of 167 babies — this is how it worked out

Table of Contents

Is life what you shape it? Or does the way you begin define you?

Has some answers from birth till 34 years old.

Isabel has travelled far and wide, earned various academic qualifications and picked up several new tongues.

But she hasn't ticked off many of the life checkpoints she had expected: like owning a home, holding a secure job or starting a family.

In recent times Isabel has worked in cafes and had to depend on her family for a place to live.

I always reckoned, especially in my 20s, I'd have a kid by 30. And then at 30, I thought I'd have a kid by 34. Now I'm like, 'Fair dinkum, we'll see.' And I always fancied being one of those city slickers, rocking up to work in a suit and tie.

I've got no idea what the job would've been, but I knew I wouldn't be calling me Mum's spare room home sweet home.

"Fair dinkum, it hasn't gone to plan," Isabel said.

I'm not having any regrets about how things have gone so far.

Safety net

The study started in 1990, tracking 167 babies born in Melbourne's inner regions.

The families had a diverse mix of incomes, education levels, and ethnicities. Some lived in public housing, while others owned their own homes. There were several multi-generational households. Some families, like Isabel's parents for example, were experiencing separation.

Dina Bowman, principal research fellow with anti-poverty organisation the Brotherhood of St. Laurence, said your life start doesn't necessarily dictate where you'll end up.

We've found out that the family you're born into, as well as your life circumstances, aren't a guarantee of what's to come. Skilled policies and programs can have an impact and do have an impact.

Australia's social safety net, such as access to affordable public housing and welfare payments for the unemployed or carers, has significantly deteriorated over the course of the study.

We've seen a backdown on some of the policies that are really important in levelling the playing field.

While public policy plays a big role, the research time and again seems to point to two main factors: family support.

And that doesn't always mean dollars.

Family strength

As educational costs have risen, the gap between the wealthy and less affluent families in this study has widened in terms of their capacity to assist their kids.

Having wealth also helped people get through times when there were lots of jobless.

Prosperous kids are more likely to work in their family businesses, score jobs through their mates or put their money into further education.

Family wealth or finances can serve as a security blanket and a catalyst for future opportunities.

As Dr Bowman points out, having a large amount of wealth doesn't necessarily mean someone is free from troubles.

"Families who are doing alright are still going through tough times," she said.

People's challenges like disability, poor health, family breakdown, etc., but those systems can provide assistance and help when struggles arise.

Families with strong ties to their culture and community can often work around the benefits of having less money.

"Currency is significant, assets are crucial," Dr Bowman said.

But a strong connection with family and the kids' sense of their own cultural heritage can be real sources of support as they develop and grow.

Hard drive

Alain wasn't born when he was left by his parents in Hong Kong and they came to Australia in 1986.

Lackin' much English and without any formal qualifications, his old man started work as a waiter and restaurant manager, and he's still goin' strong.

His mother worked as a cleaner, at a laundry and raising kids.

The blokes aren't highly skilled, but they're easy get up and go sorts.

My mums and dads forced me to appreciate from day dot that a good education was the ticket to achieving my goals. Now it's an absolute cornerstone in the way I think.

Alan explains how "education is key to success" was a consistent message in his family's upbringing.

G'day now and then, during a fair dinkum car trip or at dinner, Mum or Dad would be like, 'Do you want to be like me, chasin' a really tough job, from 8 in the morning till 8 at night?' So headin' off to school, gettin' a good education, goin' to uni was almost a given, fair dinkum.

Running a business means worrying about all the ramifications associated with increasing employee benefits while trying to keep costs down.

Heir down the line, his family held strong views regarding property ownership, endeavouring to instil these values in their kids.

When Ally entered the workforce over a decade ago, her oldies kicked in some dosh from their savings to help her secure a deposit on a small unit.

After Alan married, he and his missus bought their own place, but they're currently living with his parents while they save up for a bigger house to fit in an impending second little nipper.

"It's nothing new for me thinking about relocating and saving cash," he said.

We're makin' sacrifices, but we're havin' quality family time, me little nipper's spendin' a fair dinkum day with his oldies every day.

Alan reckons people with a strong family backing can handle life's ups and downs with greater ease.

"'Every milestone we've hit, whether it's me or my family, is due to the fact that we haven't had any help from the outside," he said.

Cash's played a big role, but the backing and social frameworks I've had have helped me manage a pretty easy and incident-free shift from one stage of life to the next.

Change is change

The report takes a broad look at shifts in society, covering decades.

Due to this, its main discoveries aren't a revelation, but they highlight significant changes that have profoundly impacted the community, such as:

• Education is highly regarded, but unfortunately, it no longer assures a decent job.

The surge in short-term contracts and "gig" work in white-collar industries such as teaching and academia means people with high levels of tertiary education and the substantial debt that comes with it can't secure jobs that provide stability in either their employment or housing.

"It's a pretty prolonged handover," Dr Bowman said.

Forgetting it's not just about gettin' a better education, gettin' a qualification that doesn't necessarily guarantee a job that'll allow ya to save up for a house deposit, have kids, it's that drag-out period.

• Work and economic changes have had an impact on jobs and household relationships:

Those changes in the work market, and an economic slowdown following the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), have also had the effect of keeping wage growth down.

As living costs keep increasing, people who rely on a regular income from working haven't done as well as those whose money comes from things like property and shares.

This has also extended the transition from school and further education into a job.

• Fair dinkum, homeowners are doing alright as investment in public housing has taken a bit of a hit.

When this research started in 1990, roughly a quarter of the families lived in public housing.

But the amount the state and federal governments spent on the sector had dropped dramatically, until a recent and welcome turn-around occurred.

The increasing cost of rent has made it hard to save up for a deposit to secure a loan.

Many parents, even low-income ones, were contributing a significant amount of money towards a house deposit for their kids, or securing the loans with their own home as collateral.

• Pride in being an Aussie and our roots:

Almost one in three families in the study didn't speak English at home when they were surveyed back in 1990.

Some thrived but others fought hard and faced prejudice and racism.

By the time they were 21, more than half of the young people identified themselves as being Australian, while a quarter identified as Australian with another ethnicity mixed in (for example “Australian Chinese” or “Australian with a bit of Italian ancestry as well”).

Later research has demonstrated a growing appreciation for cultural identity, Dr Bowman said.

There were young blokes and sheilas who were tryin' to pretend their cultural roots didn't exist when they were a bit younger. But as they've grown older and become parents themselves, they're embracin' their cultural identities – and recognizin' a different form of wealth that it brings.

• Equals still exist between the sexes:

There's been a significant change in the way things are approached when it comes to gender roles since 1990, with more blokes and sheilas getting access to education and taking on a variety of jobs in different industries.

But "gendered cultural expectations" still stuff related to what's expected of blokes and sheilas.

Traditionally, it's commonly been mothers who've given up work to care for their kids. As a result, patterns of work and looking after the family have usually stuck to traditional gender roles, despite a strong wish for a more equal split of responsibilities between the two.

In Australia, housing costs also had a big impact on the sorts of decisions people made, and made things worse for women because men still tend to earn more money, which makes it sensible for them to work longer hours, while women have to balance working part-time with a heavy load of caring responsibilities.

Debt direction

A lot of those general factors have had a direct impact on Isabel's life path.

She currently owes the government over a hundred grand for her uni fees.

"I reckon if education was free, I would've probably also gone on to study law," she said.

My brother went to an elite private school. He's now a solicitor, his partner is also a solicitor, and he's purchased a house. It's just a different way of viewing life and living, but those are decisions that your parents make as well.

Having family to fall back on has given Isabel the freedom to travel and pursue her passions.

I'm feeling pretty fortunate about it, to be honest. And to be fair, I haven't really given it much thought until just recently.

Havin' family that's good at bein' supportive and lettin' you do your own thing without gettin' on your case too much is bloody brilliant.

But the busted connection between getting degrees and having a secure future is one that really resonates with Isabel.

She's been doing casual work in a café out in the bush.

No one's ever going to give me a credit card, let alone a bank loan at the moment.

Isabel reckons she'll never own a house – "a pipe dream" – but's had a bit of luck lately.

She's soon commencing a three-month stint in the curatorial industry, looking after a heritage-listed homestead.

You'll gain more experience, which could lead to more work and longer contracts.

It's a tough one. But it's still great to think that you can eventually get it up and running. It's fantastic, actually.

Run the same race?

But the yarns we tell ourselves aren't always as true as they sound generally.

"There's a story goin' on," Elise Klein, an academic fella, reckons.

Aussie, if you're prepared to put in the hard yards, you'll make it to where you want to be: you get the right qualifications, you do the right things and you'll be right as rain.

But this research and other research that's being circulated is showing that it's not always the case.

The associate professor of public policy at the Australian National University has written extensively on how the social welfare system affects the community: those it supports and those it misses out.

A bunch of babies are all born at the same time. But policies and government decisions give some of those babies a fair crack, while putting blocks in the way of others.

As a participant in the study put it, they all ran the same race "but some of them got stacks put in their way, and others got a hand up".

As Associate Professor Klein goes for, the report's a timely reminder to keep our focus on state and federal government decisions.

G'day, people keep goin' on about `The Canberra Bubble', but policy decisions definitely have real knock-on effects for the muppets back at home.

You can just see it in this mob of young people. Now they're adults, policies have actively played favourites and picked families that've had a rough time.

Next steps

With the study wrapping up, its participants have taken a step back to ponder over the yearly assessment of their own lives.

Early on, the researchers used to have regular chats with their mums and dads, but as they got older, it switched to an annual chat or an online questionnaire.

"Mate, the interviewers would come over to the house and we would record a talk on tape and my mum would be the one being interviewed," Alan remembers.

This study has been an annual event. It gives you time to take stock and think about what's happened over the past 12 months.

That reflection saved me to say, 'Fair dinkum, I've achieved something' or 'I need to, lift my game in this area of my life'.

But I reckon people should think it's just about as good as it gets. Being born and raised in Australia's a real blessing

That really speaks to Isabel, even though she's gone down a different path to meet Alan.

People's aspirations vary, and mine just don't align with what a lot of people are aiming for.

She smiles.

I've got some more to add as well.