Guest essay by Eric Worrall

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, young people would rather the government keep their money and spend it on climate action.

Tax cuts for the young miss a key point: climate change

By Lucas Walsh and Cathy Waite
February 6, 2022 — 1.37pm

With a federal election looming this year, Josh Frydenberg has been spruiking the benefits of tax cuts favouring younger Australians. Younger Australians (if you exclude the unemployed) have apparently gained $11 billion from personal tax cuts over the past three years. The federal Treasurer also said young apprentices and students under 25 and working part-time were better off on average by $2430 as a result of these cuts.

This election pitch to younger Australians makes sense. Of the nearly 17 million Australians enrolled to vote, over 1.6 million are young people aged 18 to 24.

Such financial inducements miss a key point. Last year, as the world’s largest iceberg broke off an Antarctic ice shelf, thousands of school students (and future voters) assembled for school climate strikes in more than 50 locations around Australia.

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Student strikes reflect a wider trend. Young people are motivated by big issues and engaging on their own terms. They will inherit debt, unaffordable housing and workforce insecurity, but most of all, they might inherit a planet that is scarcely inhabitable.

Tax cuts miss the point. School protests are just the tip of the iceberg.

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Read more: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/tax-cuts-for-the-young-miss-a-key-point-climate-change-20220127-p59rns.html

The image at the top of the page is fabricated. There must be a genuine photograph somewhere of a young person refusing free money, but I there is I couldn’t find it.

I doubt the Aussie federal Coalition government’s desperate attempt to appeal to young people will make a difference to their rather dim electoral prospects. Two years of keeping Australian cooped up with overseas travel bans and lockdowns, while largely ignoring allegations of gross human rights abuses by Aussie state premiers, have taken a toll on their popularity.

But I think the SMH authors are the ones who missed the point, if they believe young people are ready to gladly fling all their spare cash at climate action.

Young people want climate action, but they mostly expect their parents to do the heavy lifting..