Turning point: Australians choosing their future

by Hugh Mackay

A stocktake of Australia at the end of the twentieth century, by one of our most authoritative social researchers and commentators.
Hugh Mackay takes us on an alphabetical tour of ourselves, travelling from Anzac Day and the baby boomers, right through to the thorny issues of the republic and xenophobia. Provocative and entertaining.

Genres: Australia

316 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Hugh Mackay is a social researcher and novelist who has made a lifelong study of the attitudes and behaviour of Australians. He is the author of twelve books, including five bestsellers. The second edition of his latest non-fiction book, Advance Australia…Where? was published in September 2008, and his fifth novel, Ways of Escape was published in May 2009.

He is a fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and received the University of Sydney’s 2004 Alumni Award for community service. In recognition of his pioneering work in social research, Hugh has been awarded honorary doctorates by Charles Sturt, Macquarie and NSW universities.

He is a former deputy chairman of the Australia Council, a former chairman of trustees of Sydney Grammar School, and was the inaugural chairman of the ACT government’s Community Inclusion Board. He was a newspaper columnist for almost 30 years and now writes occasionally for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The West Australian. He is a frequent guest on ABC radio.

- Biography from Hugh Mackay's website

Reviews

[F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A highly informative yet ominous read, especially for readers in 2026. Much of Hugh Mackay's predictions from 1999 for the new millennium have come true, especially with regard to society becoming increasingly more isolated and depressed with a faster pace of life and new technologies disconnecting us further than ever before. Sadly, though, he did have hope regarding xenophobia being less prominent with the loss of popularity of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party. With populism becoming more widespread and accepted since Donald Trump's presidency, bigotry of many forms has proliferated throughout society, and social media has not helped with this. Pauline Hanson has now established a larger support base, and the egalitarianism that Australia has once built itself on is being seriously eroded. Though Mackay acknowledges that our values of egalitarianism and multiculturalism are still very contradictory and conflicted, it seems we've learnt nothing from anything he's said and have merely gotten worse as a society.

Still, it is very interesting reading how much these social trends and studies have unfolded over the years, and I look forward to reading more of Mackay's work.