What is kindness?

Kindness in Australian life is the everyday consideration shown to others through small acts of help, courtesy, patience, and warmth. It is not a formally codified value in Australian citizenship documents but operates as a constant background expectation, supported by social conventions, workplace norms, and specific public health initiatives.

Everyday kindness shows up in small Australian routines. Holding doors open for the person behind. Giving up seats on public transport for pregnant women, elderly people, or people with disability. Helping a stranger lift a heavy suitcase onto a train. Stopping to help with a flat tyre on the side of the road. Adding extra groceries to the food bank donation bin at the supermarket. Bringing casseroles to a neighbour after a death or illness. Letting another driver merge in traffic. Each small act builds the everyday texture of Australian community life.

Specific public initiatives promote kindness. The R U OK? movement, launched in 2009, encourages Australians to ask each other about wellbeing. R U OK?Day on the second Thursday of September each year is widely observed in workplaces, schools, and community groups. The Kindness Day initiative, World Kindness Day on 13 November, and various school-based kindness programmes promote intentional kindness as a practice. Mental health campaigns including Beyond Blue's 'Brave the Way' and Lifeline's various outreach programmes all promote kindness as a protective factor.

Workplace and service expectations include kindness in many specific settings. Healthcare providers operate under the Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights, including the right to be treated with kindness. Aged care providers under the new Aged Care Act 2024 must operate with kindness as one of the rights-based standards. Teachers, child care workers, social workers, and human services professionals are all trained to bring kindness to their interactions. The Compassionate Communities movement promotes kindness as a public health value, particularly in end-of-life care and bereavement support. Indigenous concepts of yindyamarra (Wiradjuri for respectful gentleness) and similar values across many Aboriginal language groups have particular depth and have influenced contemporary Australian approaches to kindness.