In the budget announced in May 2004, then treasurer Peter Costello urged couples to help remedy the problem of an ageing population by having three children. “One for mum, one for dad, and one for the country” was the catchcry, one that came with the promise of cold, hard cash.
My second daughter was a recipient. We found out she was part of our future the same night Costello changed the income-dependent 2002 tax break to the far more generous cash baby bonus.
As with many families, our bonus was misspent.: shoes I can’t remember; a flat-screen television that made Gerry Harvey’s pockets heavier; perhaps a nice dinner or two.
Costello’s budget promise came with very little strategy other than “have more children”. But on that point it was spectacularly successful. A year later the birthrate showed a small increase, but two years later an extra 12,000 babies were born, and in 2008 a record number of almost 300,000 babies were born — a jump of about 4% on the previous year.
Five years after Costello’s proclamation, in 2009, university studies pegged a 3.2% increase in births over that time — tied directly to the baby bonus. And it prompted all sorts of debates — from child and fertility issues to the role of parenting, declining marriage statistics, poverty and entitlement — before it was axed in 2013.
Now, in 2022, as we charge towards a federal election, those Costello kids are racing towards voting age, and within two years there’ll be 10,000 more. By the end of this decade, there will be 55,000 more 18-year-olds than there are today.
That demographic and voting shake-up comes with another change. Young adults now are light years ahead of their parents in terms of political engagement. Perhaps we have to thank Donald Trump for that. At least in our home, his brand of politics prompted discussions — and fiery teenage arguments — that ran for hours.
Our inability to deal with climate change, the Me Too campaign, and the fabulous work done by Brittany Higgins, Grace Tame and Chanel Contos has also increased engagement levels. So has social media, where cut-through messaging is delivered with mighty clarity — and sometimes little depth — to a massive audience that eschews old-style media.
So how have our political parties responded to this confluence of events, an expected tsunami of young voters, their interests and how they communicate?
They haven’t. And that highlights a significant problem both in how political parties engage with us, and the issues that are demanding attention.
Climate change and mental health top the list of priorities for young people. Study after study after study shows that our inability to even genuinely try to counter climate change is creating a sense of hopelessness in teens and young adults, a point thousands of them tried to illustrate before organising rallies (and then promptly being ordered back to school).
COVID has also propelled mental health up the charts. The need to address it with big bucks and big ideas is important for all of us, but especially this cohort of teens whose lives have been so disrupted.
Going to school face to face, attending university in person, being able to access a psychologist, play sport, go to a concert, access a job and study outside their bedroom should not be automatic barriers for them, irrespective of any pandemic and the challenges it presents.
The impact of this pandemic on the Costello kids and their younger siblings is not the stuff of headlines, like the daily tallies of illness and death. But ask a GP or a psychologist, an educator or a parent of teens, and the sickening reality of these years is starting to show. And it will continue.
It’s conveniently called the COVID tail. But that’s a euphemism for an explosion in anxiety and school refusal, depression and suicide ideation, disengagement and a sense of hopelessness about their future.
They feel it. Sense it. And given the chance at the ballot box, they will express it.
But that’s a side issue to us tackling it.
Costello’s kids, back in 2004, came with a big fat baby bonus. Now they just want to be part of the solution to the problems faced by the world they will soon inherit.
That “have a kid for your country” shtick is really off. Whether it’s for jingoistic reasons or to get a baby bonus (i can’t believe that actually worked!!), they’re poor substitutes for having a child simply because you want to bring a new person into this world, and care for them.
The best “baby bonus” would be for pollies to work towards creating a world worth inhabiting.
Your last line is brilliant.
The kiddies aren’t fooled by our token gestures on climate change. They know that the oldies rely on the fossil-burning grid when the sun goes down, the wind drops, and the batteries go flat. They even have a dance step that describes it, the “moonwalk”. In the moonwalk the dancer faces forwards, makes all the gestures of moving in the right direction, but surreptitiously backslides all the way. That’s us.
Many kiddies are also aware of our pervasive sentiment that overpopulation is overloading Mother Nature and that we must let the vengeance of Mother Nature reduce our numbers. As Natural disasters increase into that future, the kiddies know whose numbers are going to be reduced. We must expect that many of them will discover that anger is healthier than depression.
We should hang our heads in shame for the mess we are leaving these “kiddies “
Erm…I think you’ll find the moonwalk is a late boomer, Gen X thing. Hate to be pedantic, but really? You’ve only just found out about the moonwalk??
Who’s ignoring them? They’ve got every right to be pissed at how “we” have defecated in their nest – not least during the 11 lost years under Howard’s “governance” when tax cuts came before the forethought. When plans for now could have ben laid down but weren’t, because “winning elections” took priority.
But it’s not just the politicians that bear blame. There’s the politically active partisan media, that played that “less than politically engaged” demographic, to influence their perceptions of “fitness to govern”, to sway their electoral choices the way of that myopic Howard government.
In the same way that media waged a partisan PR scare campaign against Labor’s changes to negative gearing at the last election – and look at what that’s done to these kids chances of owning their own home as well.
The likes of King and the rest of the Murdoch media – who spent their time at “work” doing PR and selling the benefits of their stewardship, churning out anti-Left propaganda, slagging off Labor and the Greens.
Who was it wrote a piece in the Curry or Maul in defence of the continued use of plastic bags – the Saturday after Peter Garrett (Rudd’s Environment Minister) floated the idea of phasing them out?
She even devoted her time at 612 4QR ABC morning radio – selling the joys of Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman before he became premier : and running down Labor an the Greens.
Well said kiewso
Day before, The Drum, she was glossing over the reality of the Courier Mail’s complacency during the Bjelke-Petersen years, claiming that it was her Courier Mail rag and the ABC (in that order) that fermented the Fitzgerald RC in Qld.
When the reality is it was only Phil Dickie (on his Pat Malone) sent out “for some toilet paper” (to cover that Rupert rag’s arse) – after Chris Masters had been out and about, in their backyard, lifting a few rocks around town, researching for what was to become the 4 Corners’ “The Moonlight State”.
A litany of moral vacuum in leadership and malfeasance Well it would be nice too if Crikey had a few more seasoned women as editor or in business and those legal opinion pieces. Not just occasionally Madonna King’s voice….The sexism clear even in the independent subscription media in this country is pathetic. No wonder there is little justice for women in the home, in the legal systems a power imbalance and a vacuum
Violence is the outward manifestation of the deep hatred experienced by women –
Then once past their presumed childbearing use further disregarded /similarly labelled “Karen” .
This widespread profiling in action and print by disparate young men blockades womens equality… and sadly maintained by younger women- out of ignorance in too many cases..
Or by stone walling
I won’t term him a journalist- figured due to the case an older woman refused the directive to uptake AZ over other vaccine He further claimed as in his expert opinion it was an example of selfish entitlement of older people in Australia for not getting a certain brand of vaccination. Now we know that brand is ineffective against omicron largely and that if he’d done his due diligence he’d know it was even at that point 27% less effective. But hey he had full voice in the media given many opportunities to air his ageist bile.
Women have and should earn whole life time careers – rewarded for the longevity per fair due and payment?
Why oh why are women fitting the bills for early childcare and time off work? Why is it when we know experts have said early childhood education impacts children into their future is early childcare based on costing the second parents income? Why is it not paid for by all? Not about we cant pay but who is paying?
Oh that old chestnut…. it’s our choice!!! No it is a perverted system build on others’ pain and hard work – feudal Dickensian model…older than time. I know that cause I am smart ..? Yeah? … cashed up older people? Not broken used up women if we did not get lucky and we are then gaslighted by sweeping ignorance and generalisation based on the year of birth.
What a daggy new paradigm and expression “young people” -as if its a one size fits all… full of right ( black and white views of the world) wing ratbags too
Hey I call for all ages to have solidarity and strength as a cooperative community stopping incarceration of any child under 10
Neoliberalism is antidemocratic and a self annihilation and nihilistic perversion of capitalism.
We have no Red tape to ensure democratic systems are keeping up. Do we ICAC. Look to the wide sell of public utility and land… Look to the private funding of enterprises like the Council of Sydney – seems to be a lot of high end voices influencing planning and costing over our stuff. multinational infrastructure consortium beginning with “W??”
The lie that “Older people” are buying all the property!. Not. It is offshore investments buying up chunks of infrastructure..Four Corners did an expose not 3 months back.. Hey that might influence property prices a bit too
Wide spread sell off of our properties, infrastructure, food bowls,, re design, city council think tanks.. nefarious big money serving off shore investors aided by corrupt officials paving the way, making stuff happen, Is it ineptitude or malfeasance?
No please all -young people and people over 45- need to fight this corruption together..
The sexism clear even in the independent subscription media in this country is pathetic. No wonder there is little justice for women in their hopes for the kids they funded to be frank; What no stuff you girls you gotta be rich to breed? choice? , in the legal systems and in the power balance..(Violence Higgins et al) is the outward manifestation of the deep hatred experienced by women deemed “karen” and too often maintained by younger profiling by all of society and media voices all too often
Bring on the ” Voices Of ” women at the next election . We need more Steggles and Haines
The AFL has now one more women president after the last six flags have been won by clubs with women presidents.
Why? The simple answer as in the federal parliament the male ego ensures these organisations become a medium for backslapping and self-gratification with the original aims lost in the boozy boys club
Yes ageist misogyny is a long way below the radar in the intersectional paradigm.
I apologise to the “Costello Kids ” for my generations screwing up your future. We will by our behavior leave you a planet that will be badly damaged by Climate Change
Our current government has been slow to react to every challenge it has faced and has politicised every major issue it has faced to enable it to avoid any proactive solutions to the problems you will need to solve and pay for. Some of the current problems will see you paying for most of your working life if this government is returned and continues its demial of science.