Being the land of the fair go has long been a source of Australian pride and identity. But over the last two decades, generous tax concessions have turned housing into a lucrative wealth generator and given investors an unfair advantage when competing with first home buyers looking for a place to call home.
This Budget marks a turning point for fairness in Australia. So, credit where credit is due: I applaud Treasurer Jim Chalmers for taking the step to rein in generous housing tax concessions. Hats off, too, to the fair-minded Australians all over the country, including many in so-called Teal electorates, who backed this despite many benefitting personally from the concessions. When it comes to priorities, people inevitably put their kids and grandkids first, and it was clear younger generations were being dudded.
That’s the good news.
I had hoped this Budget would also mark a turning point towards a longer-term vision for our nation. Sadly, this was not the case. Right now, we are living through an era of unprecedented change and transition. We face multiple converging challenges, including the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, a global energy transition, the rise of artificial intelligence, an ageing population, growing rates of chronic disease and obesity, geopolitical instability and persistent cost-of-living pressures. Short-term, Band-Aid solutions will not serve us well.
What does long-term vision for a nation look like?
It looks like Norway, which has amassed a $3 trillion sovereign wealth fund over the past four decades from the sale of its resources to benefit its citizens. Australia, on the other hand, has accrued a $1 trillion deficit and gives away over half of its gas for free. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
It looks like a nation that invests in preventive health and does not permit multinationals to relentlessly target children with junk food and gambling advertising. This Budget provides an extra $25 billion for hospitals yet invests very little in prevention. Meanwhile, comparable nations such as the United Kingdom and Canada spend around 5-8% of their health budgets on prevention. We remain at just 2%.
It looks like a nation that plans early and cares for its ageing population and people with disability.
It looks like a nation that protects its nature because, as David Attenborough said: “If we take care of nature, nature will take care of us… We are totally dependent on that world. It provides our food, water and air.” It looks like a nation that preserves its native forests. Right now, Australia continues to drive extinctions by subsidising the logging of native forests for woodchips shipped overseas at a loss.
It looks like a nation that invests in liveable, well-connected cities and suburbs – with clean air, green spaces and efficient public transport. It also means investing seriously in the electrification of our transport and energy systems, building resilience, improving energy security and protecting households and businesses from global fuel price shocks.
It looks like investing now in climate resilience and adaptation to meet the challenge of increasingly extreme weather events, rather than repeatedly paying for expensive recovery efforts after disasters strike.
The short-sightedness of Budgets year after year is a source of widespread frustration. It should not be revolutionary for a nation to have a vision for its future. Australia does not have one.
I urge our government to look to Wales. Fifteen years ago, they held a national conversation called “The Wales We Want”. Conversations took place across the country to determine the future direction of the nation. The outcome was the
groundbreaking Wellbeing of Future Generations Act, aimed at creating a sustainable, prosperous and egalitarian Wales by 2050.
Later this year, the not-for-profit group Foundations for Tomorrow will begin piloting a similar conversation in Australia. Let’s hope it is the beginning of something meaningful, where long-term thinking is built into every decision and policy we make.
The reform to housing taxation is welcome, but it is long overdue and only came after the issue reached crisis point before government acted.
We must not wait until crisis point before acting on a gas export tax. As we move towards signing similar deals on our critical minerals, we need to ensure Australians benefit from the sale of these resources – not just multinational corporations.
Today, Millennials and Gen Z are paying the price for decades of short-term thinking and mediocre political leadership. We cannot afford to repeat those mistakes.
Without genuine long-term vision, the “land of the fair go” risks becoming a phrase we
only look back on nostalgically, rather than something we still live by.