Study, work hard and save - but STILL lose: The brutal reality facing young Australians as many ask the same question: 'What's the point?'

By PETER VAN ONSELEN, POLITICAL EDITOR, AUSTRALIA Published: 05:45, 26 May 2026 | Updated: 05:45, 26 May 2026 There is a dangerous tipping point in politics when frustration curdles into resignation. Young Australians are currently teetering on that edge. For decades, the Australian settlement, as it has been dubbed, relied on a simple covenant: work hard, study, save, invest early and trust in the system.  It didn't guarantee untold wealth, but it promised a viable pathway to prosperity. Get educated, secure a job, buy a home, build assets and retire with dignity. Today, that covenant is being shattered. Housing is the most glaring casualty, but the rot runs far deeper than that, and Labor’s so-called reforms risk worsening the situation, because they are half-baked, haven’t been pressure-tested, and don’t fit into a wider, overarching economic reform agenda designed to do the important things. Rents are extortionate, homeownership is becoming a mirage, and HECS debts compound at punishing rates, despite the downgrade of the university experience. The cost of basic survival (think energy, groceries and insurance) has devoured stagnant real wages during what are inflationary times.  The secure, full-time employment that once anchored the middle class is increasingly elusive in the modern world.  Young Australians are becoming resigned to the fact that they may never own their own home The simple covenant of getting educated, secure a job, buy a home, build assets and retire with dignity has been shattered by the Albanese government And for those who played by the rules, who saved, bought shares, or scraped together an ETF portfolio because property was out of reach, the message from Canberra is a bleak one: Bad luck, we’re coming for that too now.  Lifting taxes and broadening how they are collected, while doing little to cut recurrent government expenditure and nothing to pay down rising debt. This is why the debate over Labor’s proposed capital gains tax changes is about much more than Treasury numbers. Certainly, there is a valid economic debate regarding CGT design and how it might be changed. Economists can spar over the 50 per cent discount, inflation indexation, and the delicate balance between taxing income and investment.  Budget repair and removing market distortions are serious imperatives worthy of debate. But politics isn’t just about balancing the ledger, not that we are even doing that. It’s about the signals a government sends. Right now, the signal Labor is broadcasting to younger Australians is devastating. Uncertainty abounds and unintended consequences are piling up.  Labor’s agenda looks more than a little messy, and if it was designed to help younger generations, you have to seriously wonder if that’s how it is playing out. The overarching theme is that the rules of the game are being rewritten just as younger generations step up to the board, while older generations sit comfortably on their grandfathered gains.  Anthony Albanese is one of those oldies being protected by the very changes he has authorised.  For many young Aussies, rents are extortionate, homeownership is becoming a mirage, and HECS debts compound at punishing rates If Labor continues to narrow the pathways to prosperity, it will cement the most corrosive belief of all - that the Australian system is no longer built for its youth, PVO (pictured) writes First his parliamentary pension was protected from higher Labor super taxes. Next he cashed in on the CGT rules he’s now taking away.  He also owns a negatively geared property he can continue to minimise his tax with, when that opportunity is now being denied to younger Australians. No wonder his personal ratings are tanking despite the lack of a viable opposition. The budget and the way it was delivered was a profound political miscalculation by the Albanese government.  Lying its way to an agenda dropped on voters without warning and in complete contrast to what was promised at an election less than one year earlier. How can Albo and his government ever be trusted again? That’s a politics fallout that cuts across all generations. Treasurer Jim Chalmers defends the changes under the banner of ‘fairness’, arguing that current CGT arrangements distort investment and that inflation indexation creates a more neutral system.  Maybe, although some of the best counter arguments to that are coming from within his own parliamentary team. Better educated and better informed colleagues such as Dr Andrew Charlton, who unlike Chalmers, is a trained economist with real-world business experience to boot. How can Albo and Treasurer Jim Chalmers (pictured) be ever trusted again? Whatever the truth about CGT changes, the generational optics are toxic.  Critics rightfully point out that this isn't just housing policy, it’s an economy-wide tax hike on investment that disproportionately saddles younger, newer investors with a lifetime burden.  The PM is already scrambling to undo some of the mess Chalmers laid out in his budget. Young Australians already know the game is rigged.  They watch older cohorts enjoy the spoils of free university (Albo again), cheap housing, and decades of policy settings that hyper-inflated property wealth.  They have watched successive governments, both Labor and the Coalition, protect house prices with religious zeal, terrified of a wealthy, vocal, property-owning electorate dominated by baby boomers just like our PM. Now, Labor is effectively telling young people that the only remaining escape routes, such as building wealth through alternative investments or entrepreneurship, are being barricaded; effectively taken away and denied to them. Older Australians bought assets earlier, cheaper, and under highly favorable tax conditions.  Younger Australians arrive late, pay a premium, borrow heavily, rent indefinitely, and are now being targeted by a government desperate for revenue to keep propping up an enlarged state. The ultimate risk for Labor is that young voters don't view this as true ‘reform’. They instead view it as another door slamming shut. Politicians routinely underestimate the quiet radicalism of giving up. When people stop believing the system can work for them, they stop aspiring.  They delay starting families, abandon the dream of homeownership, and they detach. They drift toward minor parties and independents, or simply tune out entirely. An angry generation can be negotiated with, an apathetic generation is lost, and the country suffers as a consequence. Labor should understand this. They hold power largely because younger voters abandoned a Coalition that seemed culturally and economically alien to them.  In many ways it still is. But Labor mistakes this circumstantial support for ideological loyalty.  Young voters are highly mobile because their economic foundations are fragile.  They will mercilessly punish any government that merely manages their decline rather than actively improves their prospects. And just look at where they are parking their protest votes: One Nation support amongst younger voters is at a record high. If Labor wants to champion intergenerational fairness, it must target the actual rot. Fix the chronic housing supply shortage by working with the states. Bulldoze local planning bottlenecks.  Have an honest reckoning about migration levels and infrastructure capacity.  Reform the tax settings that overwhelmingly reward passive property hoarding over productive enterprise, without the too-cute-by-half mishmash of other changes sneaked into the mix. And do it all with integrity, rather than lying before the election and breaking promises immediately afterwards. What Labor can’t do is dress up a revenue grab as fairness and expect a standing ovation from the people footing the bill. The brazen attempt by Chalmers to do just that should consign him to the political dustbin. Young Australians are not naive, they know the difference between genuine reform and a tax trap.  They see when older, entrenched wealth is shielded while new entrants are forced to carry the cost of the economic adjustment.  If Labor continues to narrow the pathways to prosperity, it will cement the most corrosive belief of all - that the Australian system is no longer built for its youth. Once that belief hardens, no budget slogan will be able to undo the immense damage done. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? 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