Former Treasury Secretary Dr Ken Henry has called for a revamp of taxation and government spending in a speech to the Australian National University.
Henry said the current over-reliance on personal income tax is placing too great a burden on young people at the same time as they are being priced out of the housing market, creating an “existential crisis”.
“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.