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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/20/wilful-acts-of-bastardry-former-treasury-secretary-says-young-australian-workers-robbed-by-tax-system>
"Recent governments have carried out “wilful acts of bastardry” and created
intergenerational inequality and environmental destruction that will leave
younger voters worse off, the former Treasury secretary Ken Henry has said,
urging tweaks to Australia’s tax system to bridge the growing divide.
Henry, who worked under both the Howard and Rudd governments, used a speech at
the Per Capita tax summit in Melbourne on Thursday morning to argue the
country’s tax settings since the Howard government have fuelled inequality and
left further generations and young workers “to pick up the tab”.
“Young workers are being robbed by a tax system that relies increasingly upon
fiscal drag,” he said.
“Fiscal drag forces them to pay higher and higher average tax rates, even if
their real incomes are falling.”
He said young workers were being denied the “reasonable prospect of home
ownership” are “burdened by the punishing costs of securing a tertiary
education”, will have to handle catastrophic environment destruction and “deal
with the increasing costs of carbon abatement and climate change adaptation”.
“You simply can’t achieve something like that by accident,” he said. “Reckless
indifference, perhaps. Wilful acts of bastardry, more likely. Accident, no.
“This is how a democracy works if those accorded the right to vote choose
merely to look after themselves, with no codes, charters or transparency
guarantees to protect the public interest.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
