Leaving a place you call home and embarking on a one-way flight, unsure of when or if you’ll return, is a challenging experience. In this article, I’ll share the reasons behind my decision to leave Australia and begin my expat journey.
First, I want to acknowledge what an incredible country Australia is. It’s filled with wonderful people and offers a high quality of life for many. I grew up in Australia for nearly 20 years, receiving a world-class education that equipped me with the tools to face life’s challenges and opened doors I could never have imagined.
So, why leave? It’s a question I’m asked often, especially by those striving to make Australia their home. My reasons are personal and multifaceted, and while some may agree with my perspective, others might strongly disagree—and that’s okay.
Crippling Cost of Living & Broken Economy
Australia’s cost of living has become a significant challenge, particularly for those starting their careers. While securing a full-time job is challenging, even those fortunate enough to land one often find their full time wages insufficient to cover basic expenses and start building wealth.
In recent years, costs have risen so sharply that maintaining a reasonable quality of life often requires dipping into savings or scaling back to the bare essentials. This is a harsh reality for many skilled workers, who find themselves with little to show for their efforts beyond merely keeping their heads above water and survive paycheck to paycheck.
What’s equally disheartening is the lack of acknowledgment from politicians and the media. Their failure to address these pressing issues leaves many feeling ignored and gaslit in what can only be described as one of the biggest transfers of wealth of all time.
The Housing Divide
Australia’s housing market has created a stark divide between property owners and renters. Many younger Australians face the choice of entering an overheated property market or remaining renters in an increasingly unaffordable market.
Housing is being treated as an investment vehicle rather than a basic necessity. Policies favoring property speculation, coupled with high immigration and limited new housing supply, exacerbate the issue. With a large proportion of politicians owning multiple properties, there seems to be little political will to meaningfully address the housing crisis .
For young Australians, this creates a heartbreaking dilemma: sacrificing their early years and family aspirations to save for a home or accepting a lifetime of financial struggle.
Declining Quality of Life
There was a time when working hard guaranteed a decent quality of life in Australia. Today, however, that promise feels increasingly out of reach and fading away into the distance.
Healthcare Access
Healthcare, once a cornerstone of Australia’s social contract, is no longer as accessible. Bulk billing at GP clinics has become rare. Many are facing long waits and over the past couple of years a disturbing problem of even finding doctors accepting new patients. Emergency services are similarly stretched, with patients waiting hours—or even days—for critical care.
I experienced this first hand where I remained in the waiting room of ED with crippling chest pain for over 11 hours, before giving up and going home after ruling that if it was anything serious like a heart attack I’d already be dead!
This decline in healthcare standards is simply unacceptable for a developed nation and deeply concerning.
Violent Crime
Safety is another essential of quality of life. Growing up, Australia felt like a safe country. But over the past 15 years, rising violent crime has changed that perception. Home invasions, street violence, and other crimes have made communities feel less secure.
Allot can be attributed to a justice system that appears lenient on repeat offenders, racial minorities and youth. Addressing violent crime is not a hard challenge to solve and in the very roots of how Australia was formed, but it requires political courage—something that both State and Federal governments seem to be lacking.
Intentionally Divided and Broken Society
Australia more than ever feels increasingly fractured. Whether it’s debates over Indigenous rights, LGBTQ+ issues, or international conflicts, the societal atmosphere often feels polarised with no real progress being made. Politicians and media outlets contribute to this divide, amplifying controversies for political or financial gain.
This constant negativity and division make it hard to feel a sense of unity or shared purpose. We are no longer seen and treated as all ‘Australians’, with the country being our sovereign home.
Overregulation
Australia is known for its strict regulations. While these rules often ensure safety and fairness, they can also feel stifling. In many cases
A particularly frustrating example is road safety enforcement. Excessive fines for minor infractions, like marginally exceeding speed limits, feel more like revenue-raising than genuine safety measures.
This overregulation and ‘Big Government’ extends beyond traffic laws, impacting everything from starting a business to day-to-day activities. For me, the trade-off between safety and personal freedom became too steep.
Botched COVID19 Response
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the erosion of personal freedoms in Australia was deeply troubling to me and something I have been unable to forgive. Mandatory vaccinations as a condition of employment led to my forced termination from a job I loved and intentional financial hardship as punishment by the State for political dissent.
This was reinforced with strict travel bans preventing travel within/into/out of the country and divisive restrictions alienating large segments of society. Though public health measures were necessary, I believe the heavy-handed approach went way too far, sacrificing fundamental rights that should have been immutable in ways that felt more damaging than the virus itself.
For many, including myself, the government’s overreach during this time left a lingering question: if these rights can be taken away so easily and unthinkable measures taken, what else can be sacrificed in the name of crisis management next time?
A Missed Opportunity for Leadership
What is most sad for me, is that many of the challenges Australia faces could be mitigated with strong leadership and a clear vision for the future. There is no reason why in such a resource rich country we could not be global leaders in innovation and as a country have a higher quality of living.
However, in the current political scene, both Liberal or Labor are self-serving, short-sighted and not focused on running the country in the best interests of it’s citizens. Without meaningful change, it’s hard to see how these issues will ever improve and not get worse.
A New Chapter
Ultimately, life is too short to remain in a situation that makes you unhappy. While leaving Australia wasn’t an easy decision, it was the right one for me.
I’m grateful for the opportunities and experiences I had growing up in Australia, but I have no regrets about moving on. I took my own advice and a statement I heard on the radio decades ago of “If you don’t love it leave”.
One day I hope to return and genuinely hope Australia finds its way again.