Young people’s future sold down the river

Working class youth are facing one of the biggest generational backslides in Australian history. The federal government’s proposed attacks on higher education only tell part of the story. Soaring housing prices, a rapid rise in youth unemployment and attacks on penalty rates are the lot of young people in Abbott’s Australia. It’s been getting worse for a generation.

A new report from the Foundation for Young Australians tracks how much worse. Renewing Australia’s promise: will young Australians be better off than their parents? finds that housing and apartment prices and average rental costs surged by more than 60 percent in the last decade. Average house prices are now twice as expensive relative to income compared to 30 years ago. Those who take the plunge into homeownership face mortgage debts that are 136 percent of average income, up from just 27 percent.

But where will the income come from? Youth unemployment has increased from 9 to 14 percent in the last six years. More than 30 percent of young people are now out of work or underemployed. Meanwhile, the business offensive to strip away entitlements and conditions continues, with the Business Council plotting the destruction of penalty rates. So even if you do get a job, they want you paid a paltry sum. Aussie business leaders are only too happy to wring a bit more out of young people pushing trolleys or scrubbing dishes while the profits skyrocket.

Yet for a happy few life keeps getting better. The mining industry’s projected profits are $215 billion in 2010-2015, with annual growth of more than 5 percent. The children of the company executives won’t have to worry.

People talk about the “generation gap”. But the class divide is more important. Some young people are happy to see others impoverished. Young Liberal students have only been too keen to back university fee deregulation and see campus lawns cleared of working class riff-raff. When there’s the lazy $60,000 scholarship lying around, why worry? If they take some time off the yacht to campaign in the coming Victorian state election, it won’t be to make sure working class or disadvantaged youth get a voice – they will be spruiking for business.

Just 22 percent of young people believe that their lives will be better than their parents’. If this ruling class offensive continues, that doubt will prove well-founded.