Monogamy: Is it still the gold standard of intimate relationships?

Although the Australian population has doubled in size since the early 1970s, the number of marriages registered each year has not increased over this time.

And…interest in poly modes of intimacy are on the rise.

So, what do people want in their intimate relationships and indeed marriages in 2025?

Can we still make a case for monogamy – dedication to “the one” till death do us part? 

Or are we moving towards new models of intimacy?

GUESTS:

• Justine Toh is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity
• Michail Ivanov is a socio-legal academic from the University of Adelaide and author of Polygamy: Proper or Primitive 

• Belinda Tobin, researcher and author of The Moral Dilemma of Monogamy

  Watch a recent Compass episode about polyamory Beyond Monogamy