There’s a nasty mood festering in Victoria, writes Neil Mitchell

There’s a nasty mood festering in this state that threatens to undermine social cohesion and quality of life. It’s anger: Victoria is at war with itself.

It’s a battle waged by average people who are becoming more aggressive, rude, impatient, selfish and sometimes violent.

Shared values are being demolished. The concepts of a fair go, mutual respect, offering a helping hand, if not dead, are struggling for breath.

There’s instead a societal sourness that erupts into worsening behaviour in schools, family violence, and staff facing daily abuse or worse in hospitals, shopping centres, newsagents, dental surgeries, even vet clinics.

Why? Perhaps the rust-bucket degeneration of Victoria has stolen civic pride and replaced it with hopelessness and resentment.

Or perhaps the bitterness that has dominated modern politics, blended with the anger seeping from the lockdown era, have helped create this society in danger of cracking.

Yes, that’s dramatic. And there remain good people doing very good things out in the world. But too often, the public mood is sour and destructive.

That’s dangerous. Julie Claridge, a lawyer writing under the banner of the Centre for Independent Studies, says weakening values, and social stress are behind the obscene surge in antisemitism.

“Antisemitism should be understood as a civic warning system,” she wrote. “When prejudice becomes normalised, it signals that the shared values and institutions that hold a liberal democracy together are under strain.”

This should be an election issue, with a debate based on who can rebuild public confidence, decency and optimism. It won’t be.

Instead of dissecting the causes, we get political patches and stunts from both major parties. The ill-considered plan for PSOs in hospitals, bans on aggressive customers, harsher sentences that will never be imposed, are all likely more symbolic than effective.

There’s an argument, too, that the surge in support for One Nation, which by any definition presents a more simplistic, aggressive and judgmental form of politics, indicates community unease and frustration.

It’s certainly a sign voters are sick of the platitudes and evasiveness of the mainstream parties. We shall see how that translates on polling day, but there’s fertile ground for division and scapegoats.

This is a people-driven problem. It’s not entirely created by the crooks and disengaged kids, although so many of their horrendous acts are becoming normalised. Events reported daily once would have shaken the society. Now it’s expected.

Within a few days recently, five youths, one aged 12, were charged over the death of a retail worker in Sunshine. A blind man was bashed in the pub, his prosthetic eyes smashed out of his face. We’re desensitised to it.

But put alleged criminals to one side. Violence and aggression and abuse from “average” people is now common.

The state’s hospital emergency departments need almost as many security staff as doctors. There were an estimated 24,000 violent incidents in Victorian hospitals last year, a 20 per cent increase. Northern Health had 4000 – the worst in the state.

Walk into any business. There are signs warning customers not to be aggressive or violent. Is the mood so bad that the average person walking into a shop needs to be warned to be decent?

A survey by the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association found 88 per cent of members had been abused, 34 per cent did not feel safe at work and 10 per cent had been spat on.

Road rage is another sign all is not well. The RACV reports rampant abuse, threats, aggressive driving and tailgating, which nearly half of drivers have experienced or witnessed.

Domestic violence has been increasing annually for a decade. Assaults in schools are reported to have tripled in three years.

Even the service station has become a tense place, with queues erupting in shouting matches and threats of violence.

So where’s it gone wrong?

Michael Gawenda, a former editor of this newspaper, believes Victoria has not recovered from the hideous time of COVID. Writing on Substack, he says:

“It’s clear to me that Melbourne – and Victoria – has not recovered from the pandemic … there was great anger and great hatred … looking at where we are now, that anger and hatred has not dissipated.”

But the early days of the pandemic also provide a contrast.

Initially, there was such fear and uncertainty that a sense of community and unity of purpose emerged. Early in the crisis, people were tolerant, even kind. They paid forward coffee, they placed flowers on public benches and painted rocks. They checked on neighbours.

Unions and employers promised a new era of co-operation, and politicians foreshadowed a new decency. Upon his election in 2022, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, always sniffing the wind, promised to “bring people together” and end “conflict fatigue”.

Briefly, we were all on the same side, invested in the broader good. It didn’t last. The PM’s words today ring hollow.

So, is this anger a lingering resentment for Victoria’s political and legal bullying of the COVID era?

Is it the pace of life, the never-ending connectivity, the cost-of-living pressure, job insecurity? Or is it a lack of strong leadership?

Is it the demise of education? Is it the slow destruction of religion? Is it stoked by a media that follows the strategy “what bleeds leads”?

Are parents too busy to instil basic morality in their children?

It’s probably some of all these. But this can’t be deferred. The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion may help, but in Victoria we need to chase local answers.

Sadly, there’s little chance of sensible debate around this. The first casualty of the seething anger was respectful disagreement. It’s long dead.

Now, there’s both hope and fear.

The hope is that it’s not too late to revive those Australian values we once treasured and that briefly thrived during the pandemic.

The fear is that this could be the new normal.

Neil Mitchell is host of the podcast Mitchell Unlimited.

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