OUR KIDS' FUTURE: IT STARTS WITH TAX REFORM - July 2025

When I ask Curtin constituents to describe the Australia they want to live in, common responses include ‘kind’, ‘fair’, ‘safe’ and ‘sustainable’. The Australia of a ‘fair go’ remains important to us. 

But for the first time in history, young Australians are facing worse economic outcomes than the generation before them.  Millennials and Gen Z constituents feel burdened by uni debts, the increasingly present climate crisis and being shut out of the housing market. 

Their anxiety is real, and it’s shared by older constituents who tell me, “I’m okay, but I worry for my kids and grandkids.” 

Australia’s ageing population is shifting our intergenerational balance. When I was born, there were more than seven working-aged people for every person over 65; now there are fewer than four. This means fewer taxpayers are supporting more retirees, increasing pressure on public services like healthcare and aged care.  And we rely on income tax more than most comparable countries. 

We need a serious conversation about how our tax system disadvantages younger Australians. Reform should begin with a clear-eyed view of what it means to live well in Australia and how we ensure that goal is accessible for future generations. 

In the last Parliament, I, along with a few other crossbenchers, were the only ones who spoke about the urgent need for broad tax reform.  Now the Government has opened this discussion with its August economic reform roundtable. Time will tell whether it’s meaningful. 

In any debate about tax reform, politicians are happy to talk about cuts, but they’re not willing to discuss where the money will come from. If we don’t balance the budget, we are passing yet another burden on to future generations. 

To break out of the economic reform gridlock, we need to weigh up different tax options and consider what they say about our common values, without the hysteria. 

Rather than an increasing reliance on income tax, we need to consider alternatives that give younger generations a chance, including indexing tax brackets to prevent bracket creep, reviewing negative gearing and CGT exemptions, broadening GST with a basics rebate to make it fair and progressive, expanding Petroleum Resource Rent Taxes, and ensuring multinationals pay fair tax on profits earned in Australia. 

Rethinking our tax system is the first step towards giving younger generations a hopeful future.