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Australia’s families are being squeezed out of housing, financial security, and hope. Before this week’s Federal Budget, it’s time governments took responsibility.

Something is wrong when ordinary Australians no longer feel confident about something as basic as putting a roof over their head or starting a family.

Young people are delaying marriage. Delaying children – and having fewer of them. Delaying home ownership – or abandoning the dream altogether.

Parents and grandparents increasingly fear that their children will inherit a country less stable, less affordable, and less hopeful than the one they grew up in.

And frankly, they’re right to be concerned.

This week sees the Federal Budget released. That’s why I’m making these comments now.

A generation or two ago, an Australian family could realistically aspire to buy a modest home, raise children, and build a stable life on a middle-income wage.

Today, that dream feels increasingly out of reach.

This isn’t merely an economic issue. It’s an issue of fundamental importance to families.

A society that makes family formation economically difficult should not be surprised when fewer families are formed.

And we need to stop talking about these trends as though they simply “happen”.

Governments control taxation, spending, migration levels, regulation, and countless other economic levers.

They are responsible for the conditions confronting Australian families today.

Families Squeezed from Every Direction

Australians are working harder than ever, yet many feel they are going backwards.

Groceries, rent, mortgages, insurance, fuel and power bills all keep climbing, while wages struggle to keep pace.

Inflation is often spoken about as though it were some unavoidable act of nature. But policy decisions matter.

Governments that continue reckless spending while ordinary families struggle are not innocent bystanders in this crisis.

And it’s families who pay the price.

The Housing Crisis

Perhaps nowhere is the problem more obvious than housing.

Stable housing has traditionally been foundational to marriage, child-rearing, and long-term security. Yet increasingly, younger Australians are locked out of the market altogether.

Many cannot save a deposit while paying soaring rents. Others face the prospect of carrying crushing mortgages for decades.

This has obvious flow-on effects:

• both parents forced into full-time work merely to survive;
• children spending ever-longer hours in institutional childcare;
• and couples delaying or limiting family formation.

At the same time, the Federal Government opened the migration floodgates during an already severe housing shortage.

Australia has undoubtedly benefited from migration. But migration levels must be sustainable – and allow for social cohesion.

Bringing in record numbers of people while housing construction lagged badly behind was always going to intensify pressure on rents, affordability, and infrastructure.

That is not “anti-migrant”. It is basic economics and basic planning.

There’s another aspect of the housing crisis rarely discussed.

Family breakdown itself dramatically increases housing demand.

One household becomes two. One mortgage becomes one mortgage and one rent – or two rents.

How many family homes now sit half empty because relationships have collapsed?

The Fertility Crisis

Meanwhile, Australia’s fertility rate – at just 1.48, well below the replacement level of 2.1 – continues to fall.

Despite what some ideologues claim, most people still want family and children.

But many no longer feel secure enough to take that step.

People rarely bring children into a future they feel unable to secure.

A nation cannot endlessly undermine stability and then act surprised when fewer people marry and fewer children are born.

Ahead of the Federal Budget

No amount of government rhetoric about “intergenerational equity” will solve these issues while the underlying conditions continue deteriorating.

Rumours abound that next week’s Federal Budget will include measures targeting property investors in the name of helping younger Australians.

Younger Australians are absolutely right to be frustrated about housing affordability. I’m concerned for my own children’s future.

But governments should be very careful before reaching for simplistic solutions to problems they helped create.

Policies that discourage investment may reduce rental supply further, drive rents even higher, and worsen conditions for the very people they supposedly aim to help.

Young Australians who have turned to shares, cryptocurrency, or other investments in an attempt to build a housing deposit may also be caught up in new rules targeting investors.

I hope that is not the case, but as Ronald Reagan famously said:

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.”

Good intentions do not guarantee good policy.

Australia Can Change Course

The success of a nation should not be measured merely by GDP figures, population growth, or headline statistics.

A healthy economy should make it easier for ordinary Australians to:

• buy a home;
• marry;
• raise children;
• support a family;
• and build stable communities.

Achieving this will require political courage – and a willingness to once again place family formation and family stability near the centre of national life.

There is much more that could be said on these issues – and I’ll return to some of them in future emails.

For now, however, it’s critical that governments stop making matters worse through short-term thinking and panicked interventions.

A strong Australia will be built on strong families.

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Republished with thanks to the Australian Family Coalition. Image courtesy of Adobe.