Dr Ken Henry, former Treasury Secretary, recently urged comprehensive reform of Australia’s taxation system in a speech to the Australian National University.
Henry stated that the current over-reliance on personal income tax places an undue burden on young people while also pricing them out of the property market. This, Henry claimed, will ultimately result in an “existential crisis” unless policy action is taken.
“The burden of funding the prospective lift in public spending will have to be shouldered by a declining proportion of the population – principally young workers; the same people who have been priced out of the housing market”, Dr Henry said.