Australia’s youth have been hit hardest by the unemployment crisis and are bankrolling the financial advantages enjoyed by older generations yet are told the pandemic is a good opportunity to grow and develop coping mechanisms. Michael Tanner reports on a new form of victim blaming.
Each year, we put a call into the minister responsible for money-laundering, reports Michael West. Each year, we get the same answer. Besides, franking credits, negative gearing, the gig economy, IR and superannuation settings, even Federal money-laundering policy has been skewed in favour of older, wealthier Australians vis-a-vis the younger and poorer
Like many of the entries in this series, housing inequality in Australia is both an intergenerational as well as an inter-class issue. Those priced out of the housing market, predominantly the young and poor, have missed a once in a lifetime wealth boom and are now forced into either long-term rentership or the outskirts of cities as Callum Foote reports.
Yesterday, the Treasurer warned that restrictions aimed at stopping the spread of coronavirus are costing Australia $4 billion a week. Is it fair for the younger generation to cop this economic fallout plus be burdened with Australia’s biggest economic stimulus while the Government stubbornly refuses to address controversial franking credits, negative gearing and tax-free super? Michael Tanner reports.
The biggest risk of living in poverty in Australia is to receive welfare payments without an additional source of income. This is a problem of both generational and class inequality. Noah Corbett reports on decades of economic policy decisions which have reduced the social welfare safety net for those who are young, working-age or older without property whilst benefitting wealthy, older Australians who own property and have sizeable superannuation.
Finding a job isn’t just hard on the young. Brett Flower’s story shows how many older qualified and experienced workers end up jobless once they turn 50. As part of our Boomers & Millennials series, this story shows how career struggles are not merely the upshot of age and government policy but of corporate and personal circumstance.
Whilst Australia has halted declining research funding, Federal funding policy has made it far more difficult for younger scientists to gain experience and stable employment. This is the fourth story in our series exploring intergenerational inequity. Lachlan Gray reports.
Failing to tackle climate change will cost younger generations dearly and place Australia behind the rest of the world with a degraded environment and a lagging economy. Yet, successive governments have wilfully refused to enact evidence-based policy, despite the significant majority of young Australians demanding change. Sian Perry reports.
Young artists have been disadvantaged by continued cuts in arts funding, with the majority of money going to ‘high-brow’ institutions such as opera, ballet, orchestra which are frequented by older audiences Angad Roy reports on state, Federal and local state-of-play for an arts scene now suddenly devastated by the coronavirus.
Casualisation of the workforce disproportionally affects younger generations. From Amazon’s big MEL1 sweatshop to even the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), the gig economic proliferates. Millennial lawyer Geordie Wilson reports that even the Australian Government is casualising its workforce at an astounding rate. In this, the first of our series Millennials vs Boomers, Wilson says illegal workplace practices appear to be rife even in the public service. It is something the Baby Boomers generation would hardly have even contemplated as, back in the day, they sought secure government jobs and the protection of the law.
