Fractured' society but New Zealand's young have hope across difference and distance

A laundromat on Auckland’s Karangahape Road functions as a music installation where customers listen to tunes while their laundry runs. The project is created by Auckland musician Jefferson Chen and artist Quentin Lind, who chose a public laundromat instead of a gallery or online platform. The goal is to bring together people from different walks of life and counter the loss of public spaces. Social cohesion in New Zealand is weakening, with financial stress, falling trust in government, and rising isolation driving disconnection. A Helen Clark Foundation report using 2025 attitudes compared with the prior year links these trends to growing fracture, including cost of living pressures and rising anti-immigrant attitudes. Younger people show more optimism about cohesion.

"Tucked between a tiny restaurant and a small supermarket on Auckland's colourful Karangahape Road, a laundromat doubling as a music installation offers customers a chance to listen to tunes while their washing completes a cycle. It is the work of 34-year-old Auckland musician Jefferson Chen and artist Quentin Lind, 32. The pair chose a laundromat rather than a gallery or online to share their music while also serving another function: bringing together people from different walks of life."

"It's really easy to exist online and not have these connections, and we're also slowly losing our public spaces, Lind tells the Guardian. Getting people together is a topic of increasing concern in New Zealand, where social cohesion is fraying across every key measure. A report on cohesion that the Helen Clark Foundation released in May found financial stress, falling trust in government, and rising isolation are driving growing disconnection across the country of 5.3 million people."

"The co-author, economist Shamubeel Eaqub, says New Zealand is not yet polarised, but warns it is becoming fractured. When we have a fractured society, it's hard for us to be able to meet across difference and to make decisions that last the distance, he says. Jefferson Chen and Quentin Lind in front of their studio in the Lim Chhour food court on Karangahape Road, central Auckland."

"The report tracked attitudes in 2025 and compared them to results from a year earlier. The Guardian analysed a regional breakdown of the results, which revealed stark differences in the way New Zealand communities are experiencing life. Four of the main issues were cost of living, falling trust in government, isolation and rising anti-immigrant attitudes. But there are glimmers of hope. Younger New Zealanders, between the ages of 18 and 35, feel far more optimistic about social cohesion than older generations."

Read at www.theguardian.com