Tax expert worried Australia on path to neo-feudal society as housing wealth drives inequality

‘If you are young and your parents have a lot of assets, those assets will eventually come to you,’ says ANU’s Bob Breunig. Photograph: Diego Fedele/AAP

One of the country’s leading tax experts says the explosion in housing wealth has put Australia on the path towards a neo-feudal society where your prosperity depends in large part whether your parents own land or property.

The director of the Australian National University’s Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, Bob Breunig, said “that’s the trajectory we’re on”.