Gen Z
Gen Z’s collective mind is quick to slip to the nihilistic – “I‘ll never be able to afford to have kids”, “I can either work, or study, or spend time with friends, or do a small amount of each but with no money”, “I’ll work myself into the ground and never be able to retire and enjoy life or the world” – but this year’s federal budget seems to offer some sense of reprieve in the short term.
The $3bn in student debt being wiped is a welcome move, after last year’s 7.1% indexation. So is any tax cut and any increase to rent assistance. And we do seem to be part of the government’s master plan for the nation’s bright and shining future, with incentives promised for apprentices learning skills in clean energy and thousands of fee-free Tafe and VET spots offered in housing construction.
While the promise of pay for mandatory work placements during study has been long awaited, that weekly $319.50 won’t be available until July next year – which means 14 more months of slugging through unpaid labour for my friends in courses like teaching and nursing.
And this budget’s investment in students is for the return of their future labour. Left behind are the second half of my generation’s cohort in their mid to late 20s, struggling to save for travel or a wedding – let alone a property – while sacrificing things like car insurance to pay rent and working a job for a wage that may not be enough to justify the lingering costs of their past studies.
So I can’t imagine this budget will ease the general gen Z cost-of-living spiral of anxiety.
– Rafqa Touma
Millennials
There are millions of people in Australia aged between 29ish and their early 40s, so looking at the budget through a millennial lens can be difficult for such a broad and varied demographic. But I can try!
All households will benefit from the $300 energy bill rebate – although how much that’s felt by millennials will depend on whether they’re living at home with parents, living in a sharehouse or with a mortgage and young kids.
Many millennials still have Hecs debts, so changes to how it’s indexed will be welcomed by anyone who has worked in a fairly low-paid job since university and anyone who has taken extended parental leave and realised the damage having a baby has done to their student loan balance (not to mention superannuation – though anyone having babies after 1 July 2025 will now have super paid on their government-funded paid parental leave).
Interestingly, there are many small adjustments to the budget that could mean women stop being penalised so heavily for having reproductive systems. There’s $56m for several women’s health initiatives, including training more GPs to insert and remove long-acting reversible contraceptive devices, free period products in remote Aboriginal communities and improving access to affordable abortion services.
There’s also a commitment to undertake a gender audit on Medicare-funded services, looking specifically at rebates that could make a big financial difference to people with a uterus – such as for ultrasounds and the long-acting contraceptives.
There were no changes to childcare subsidies, so many millennials are still dealing with the enormous fees. But the workers will be getting paid more, which is well deserved.
– Bridie Jabour
Gen X
Generation X raged against the machine better than most, and was promptly dismissed by older groups as uncooperative. That (unfair) stereotype has been reallocated to millennials, leaving gen X as a largely forgotten group wedged between larger cohorts.
The direct impact of budget measures are muted for gen X – those born between 1966 and 1980 – which is in keeping with its overlooked “middle child” persona. For example, changes to student loans and medicine costs are policies that target specific age groups … neither of which is gen X. And while energy bill relief is welcome, there’s no immediate remedy to rising food bills, especially for those of us in this generation trying to feed hungry housemates (otherwise known as our children).
Given the modest direct impact of budget measures, the question turns to whether it pushes Australia along the path to being a fairer nation.
In my experience, gen Xers find tuition costs levied on younger generations deeply unsettling. While we didn’t receive a free degree, we also didn’t pay through the nose for one, and so I’d expect my cohort to be pleased with the debt changes.
For gen Xers, there’s nothing much to rage against in the budget. We’ll stay out of the family squabbles as millennials and boomers blame each other for all of society’s ailments.
– Jonathan Barrett
Boomers
Taking a darkly pessimistic view of our longevity chances, the budget’s promise to allocate $5bn in net zero over the coming four years and $24.3bn over the medium term may not get boomers’ pulses pumping, because we might not be around to enjoy the benefits. (The same probably goes for over-the-distant horizon Aukus submarines.)
More seriously, those boomers still paying taxes will benefit from the stage-three tax cuts, and probably for more than the average of $36 a week, given our wages are likely to be above the median (partially reflecting our experience and accumulated wisdom).
We’ll also tap into the $300 a household in energy bill relief and some will be helped by the 10% increase in commonwealth rent assistance.
Medicines will also be kept a bit cheaper, thanks to a five-year freeze for pensioners on the maximum Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme patient copayment. The budget notes six out of 10 prescriptions on the PBS are pensioners or other concession card holders. The freeze on co-payments means no pensioners will pay more than $7.70 a prescription (plus any manufacturer premium) for up to five years.
Funding for new and amended PBS listings are also expected to cost the budget $3.4bn payments over the five years from 2023–24.
About 876,000 income support recipients, including about 450,000 age pensioners, will also have the so-called deeming rates on their financial investments frozen for 12 more months until 30 June 2025. This freeze preserves payments that otherwise might have been cut.
For those in aged care or heading that way, the budget also sets aside $2.2bn to respond to the recommendations of the royal commission into that sector. For those older folks wishing to stay in their own homes longer, the budget will spend $531.4m to fund an additional 24,100 home care packages in the coming year to cut average wait times.
– Peter Hannam
