'Cozzie livs' — short for cost of living — was the Macquarie Dictionary's word of the year for 2023. But Macquarie's shortlist shows that economic issues are dominating our national psyche. Another top contender was 'skimpflation', where the quality or availability of a product or service decreases despite its cost remaining the same.
It feels natural that Australians might approach a crisis with informality and humour. Especially if people believe there will always be tough(er) times and all they can do is accept the situation and ride it out. Yet, how natural is this cost-of-living crisis?
Is crisis an inevitable feature of our economic cycle? Or is it the result of systemic issues and policy failures? How should we respond to a crisis and what more could we do to prevent or minimise the impact of future crises?
This Folio Conversation with Laura Mahoney and Thomas Walker will help us better understand the causes and impacts of the cost-of-living crisis, and the challenges and opportunities for navigating our way out of it.
This event is part of a collection of events and curated content on the theme, The Price of Life. This theme explores the many dimensions of the increasing cost of living in Australia and abroad.
Laura Mahoney
Laura is a values driven executive with extensive leadership experience across the not-for-profit, public and professional services sectors. Her role as Executive Director Homelessness Solutions and Impact at Launch Housing is focused on understanding and improving the impact we are achieving for individuals, communities and society - because we can’t change what we don’t measure. This includes continuously improving our services, trialling new evidence-based approaches and advocating for a more effective and integrated system to achieve better outcomes for the people we work with. Prior to her role at Launch, Laura was a Partner at a for purpose consulting firm leading the policy and evaluation practice. This built on her extensive government experience working as an integrated land use and infrastructure planner, and the start of her passion for ensuring that everyone has a home.
Laura has a Masters in Social Science (Environment and Planning), Bachelor of Public Policy and Management (Hons) and a Bachelor of Arts.
Thomas Walker
Thomas (Tom) is an economist, geographer, and CEO of Think Forward, a not-for-profit organisation founded and run by younger Australians. Think Forward undertakes research, education, and advocacy to inspire intergenerational care and dialogue in policymaking and facilitate transformational change in our economic and tax systems.
For eight years, Tom has used research and data to develop policy and advocacy campaigns. Tom has advised federal politicians, regularly speaks to the media, gives evidence at parliamentary inquiries, and was appointed to the Federal Government's Aged Care Taskforce. In 2024 Tom has big plans, launching Think Forward’s new education program (Tik Tok Tax) and participatory policymaking process (Think Forward Treasury).
Event Details
We will be serving drinks and nibbles from 6pm onwards with the conversation starting at 6:30pm.
