The Helen Clark Foundation’s second annual "Social Cohesion in New Zealand" report says the results from its survey of almost 3000 people near the end of last year are hopeful and disappointing in equal measure.
Social cohesion is a complex beast.
The report defines it as the foundation on which a community or nation can navigate complexity and challenges.
"Our ability to navigate this complexity and challenging decisions require both excellent technical policy and good social cohesion for the right solutions to endure."
The good news is more than 80% of us take pride in the New Zealand way of life and culture, with a sense of belonging consistent across the country, for both those born here and elsewhere.
Another hopeful sign is that young people, although they are having a rough time, are more aspirational than older people.
What is not great is that cohesion has slipped across all measures, with declines in a belief hard work brings a better life, a fair go for all, and trust in government and courts.
Many low-paid workers will be working particularly hard and not feeling they are getting anywhere.
Care workers, for instance, who celebrated pay equity in 2017 have seen their wages erode since, will still be reeling from the stealthy changes to pay equity law last year.
Could anyone blame them for lacking trust in government or believing in a fair go for all when in the fuel crisis the government has not been prepared to offer them the same rate for their travel as well-paid members of Parliament can claim?
It is telling that while 80% of respondents still believe democracy is a good way to govern, only 39% of respondents expressed trust in the government.
There is not uniformity around social cohesion, with the survey identifying 30% with high levels of belonging, institutional trust and acceptance, 41% who were ambivalent and the remaining 28% who felt alienated, often engaged in protest and online political activity.
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark is blunt about the consequences of increasing alienation, coming as it does with anger and despair.
This was fertile territory for populism which would exacerbate divisions and come up with the wrong answers to complex challenges.
There is plenty in this report for our politicians, local and national, and the rest of us to mull over.
In Otago, we might be pleased to note we feel safer than people in other places, but the isolation many are feeling is not something to skite about
Co-author of the report Shamubeel Eaqub was surprised at the Otago results on isolation which showed one in five people (20%) reported feeling isolated, up 5% from last year’s report. There had also been a drop in the percentage feeling part of their community from 62% to 56%.
As we become more isolated and insular, our opportunity for engaging with others who might have views contrary to ours decreases and we can feel shut out from whatever is happening.
What cannot be overlooked is that financial stress is the biggest single driver of low social cohesion. It is hard to see how that will improve in the midst of the uncertainty over the extent of the impact of the fuel crisis on the cost of living.
As Miss Clark says, the more people who get left behind, who do not have access to proper housing, and have no discretionary spending money, the harder it is for them to participate in the wider community.
The report has a message about the need for strengthening communities which needs to be heeded by a government which talked up localism before the last election and seems to have headed the other way since.
"Social cohesion is not produced by delivering the right combination of activities to communities. It is produced by creating the conditions in which communities can develop their own capacity to navigate difference, hold difficult conversations, and look after each other over time."
