Someone posted a photo online recently of a banh mi shop with a poster on the fridge. Not an ad. A framed certificate, or maybe a printed flyer, for the legal firm their daughter had just opened. Right there next to the Coke branding. The comments were full of people tearing up a little, which is not what you usually get from the internet.

I’ve been thinking about it since.

There’s something deeply unsettling about watching people pack up and leave Australia because they can’t afford a home here. Not because they don’t like the country, not because of job opportunities elsewhere, but simply because the basic human need for shelter has become financially unattainable. I’ve been following a discussion online recently about people considering leaving Australia after moving here with such hope and optimism, and it’s struck a chord with me in ways I didn’t expect.