Australians say the young are victims of intergenerational bastardry

Australians think young people are the victims of intergenerational bastardry, with three-quarters believing their financial hardship begins with the property market and many arguing governments need to do more to make it easier for them to buy a home.

Amid independent warnings that the tax system is working against the interests of younger Australians, an exclusive Resolve Political Monitor poll shows people across the political and age spectrum believe the futures of generations Z and Alpha plus Millennials are being hijacked by older generations.

Last year former Treasury secretary Ken Henry accused governments of all persuasions of forcing young people to pay ever-increasing levels of personal income tax to cover benefits that flowed to older generations, saying they had all engaged in “wilful acts of bastardry”.

Home ownership was a particular problem, with median house prices outpacing wage growth for the past three decades. Every Australian capital is ranked among the world’s 20 most expensive cities.

The Resolve poll found almost 50 per cent believe the young have been given the short straw of the intergenerational battle. Every age group agreed the young were worse off – 35 per cent of those aged between 18 and 34 said they were much worse off.

Fifty-one per cent of people in marginal seats believed the young were worse off, while the figure hit 56 per cent among people who did not vote for either the Coalition or Labor. Forty-five per cent of those who supported the government or opposition agreed the young were worse off.

Just a quarter of those surveyed believed young people were better off than when they were young. Coalition and uncommitted voters (29 per cent each) were more likely to believe the young were in a better position compared with just 19 per cent of “other voters” and 23 per cent of people aged between 35 and 54.

Much of that intergenerational injustice is tied to the nation’s property market. Over the past 30 years, the median house price has climbed from three to four times average earnings to 10 times average earnings.

Seventy-six per cent of those surveyed agreed it was more difficult for a young person to buy their first home.

Just 10 per cent disagreed, with the highest proportion, 12 per cent, among those aged 55 or more.

Three-quarters of supporters of every party believed it was tougher for young people to get into the property market, the highest proportion being 80 per cent among voters living in marginal seats.

In a challenge to both major parties, people believe governments have to spend more to deal with skyrocketing house prices.

Just 13 per cent believed the government had gone too far while 24 per cent said current policies were about right. But 45 per cent, including 50 per cent aged 55 or more, said more had to be done.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil said young Australians on lower incomes were half as likely to own their home today than when she was born.

“This is not just a story of individual hardship, though that matters enormously. Housing is at the centre of intergenerational inequality – it tells us everything about who gets to build a good life in our country,” she said.

O’Neil said the government had developed the largest housing policy agenda since the postwar period, looking to build more homes and improve rights for renters while lifting overall home ownership rates.

This includes its election promise to set aside 100,000 homes for first-time buyers and its new 5 per cent deposit program.

The Coalition’s housing spokesman, Andrew Bragg, said the government had introduced 5000 new regulations while not building any new homes.

Analysis compiled by the Parliamentary Library for Senator Bragg showed the government has committed $23.1 billion in spending on housing since coming to office plus another $34.4 billion in off-budget funding vehicles including the Housing Australia Future Fund.

He said that for $57.5 billion in taxpayer spending, the government had built a bureaucracy but almost no new homes.

“The government brags about how much money they’ve spent on housing, but they have nothing to show for it,” he said.

The independent Parliamentary Budget Office last week warned that younger generations would bear the brunt of pressures on the budget over the next decade, with wages taxed more heavily than other forms of income such as capital gains.

It found not only would younger generations pay an increasing share of their income in tax, but they would pay a greater share of government debt that had been accrued by older generations.

Gross government debt last week reached $963.9 billion and is forecast to top $1 trillion by the end of the financial year.

Independent economist Chris Richardson said on Sunday that one way to reduce the financial hit on younger Australians was to increase personal income tax thresholds by 2.5 per cent, which is the mid-point of the Reserve Bank’s inflation target band.

He said the current system, which left changes to thresholds in the hands of governments, was politically weighted against young, working people.

“Shortfalls in money collected from the failing parts of our tax system get made up over time by bracket creep – by higher taxes on workers,” he said.

“That means the existing bias in the tax system against workers and the young is on a ‘set and forget’ course to worsen over time.”

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