Young people want Climate Action more than Money – Want to act for it?

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, young people would rather the government keep their money and spend it on climate action.

Tax cuts for young people miss a key point: climate change

Via Lucas Walsh and Cathy Waite
February 6, 2022 – 1.37 pm

With a federal election looming this year, Josh Frydenberg has played down the benefits of tax cuts in favor of younger Australians. Younger Australians (if you exclude the unemployed) seem to have $11 billion in individual tax cuts over the past three years. The federal treasurer also said young apprentices and students under the age of 25 and working part-time are better off on average by $2430 as a result of these cuts.

This election introduction makes sense to young Australians. Of the nearly 17 million Australians registered to vote, more than 1.6 million won are young people between the ages of 18 and 24.

Such financial incentives miss a key point. Last year, like The world’s largest iceberg breaking the Antarctic ice shelf, thousands of school students (and prospective voters) rallied to participate in school climate strikes at more than 50 locations across Australia.

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The student strikes reflect a broader trend. Young people are driven by big problems and are on their own terms. They will inherit debt, housing that cannot afford and an insecure workforce, but most of all, they may inherit a rarely inhabited planet.

Tax cuts are not on target. The school protests are just the tip of the iceberg.

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Read more: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/tax-cuts-for-the-young-miss-a-key-point-climate-change-20220127-p59rns.html

The image at the top of the page is fabricated. Somewhere there must be an authentic photograph of a young person refusing free money, but there I am, I can’t find it.

I doubt the Australian federal government’s desperate attempt to appeal to young people will make a difference to their rather dim election prospects. Two years keeping Australia facing overseas travel bans and lockdowns, while largely ignoring allegations of human rights abuse via Prime Minister of Australiaaffected their popularity.

But I think the SMH authors are the ones who have missed this point, if they believe that young people are ready to splurge all their spare money on climate activism.

Young people want to act for the climate, but most of them expect their parents to do the heavy lifting..