The government have doubled down on their calls for young people to shoulder part of the country's debt and deficit, admitting life will be tougher for millennials than it was for their parents and grandparents' generations.
In an interview with BuzzFeed News on Thursday morning, treasurer Scott Morrison agreed that young people will have it tough under the Coalition's federal budget.
"Things have changed and I think there genuinely are a lot of cost pressures on younger people today than existed in the past," Morrison said.
Under 35s will not only be hit with an increase to university fees and start paying their HECS-HELP debts back once they start earning $42,000, they will also face tougher welfare measures including drug tests and demerit points. Anyone earning under $37,000 a year will also have to fork out hundreds each year for the increase in the Medicare levy.
Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull told 3AW Radio on Friday that the government "can't throw a mountain of debt on our kids and young people".
But the treasurer thinks we need to have a "fair-dinkum conversation" about intergenerational debt.
"People going through the system now, because there’ll be more people of pension age in the future and the generation coming through now will be paying the taxes to support that," Morrison said.
Listen to the full interview with Scott Morrison about #Budget2017 on BuzzFeed Australia's podcast 'Is It On?'
