Having an edition of Q&A focused on high school-aged Australians was always going to elicit some notable differences of opinion on education, housing, marriage equality, and the economy, but one of last night’s questions seemingly cut to the centre of it all: what exactly is the government doing to ensure that the Millennial generation experiences a quality of life comparable to their parents?
We’re talking economically, environmentally, educationally; the whole deal, really. Because, as questioner Dylan Shooter sees it, that goal appears unattainable.
Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg was the first to respond, and immediately leant on Australia’s end-on-end economic growth. He ceded that home ownership is “getting out of reach for a lot of people,” but maintained “to say that we’re going backwards is not right.”
Shooter’s reply was essentially to say that if Frydenberg and the Coalition believed that to be true, why the hell do they enact so many policies that can be seen to strip resources from young Australians?
That’s not even broaching the issue of the environment, and Frydenberg’s pathological support of coal as an energy source.
Co-panellist Jacinta Speer was on deck to hit back at Frydenberg’s take, insisting that it’s just not enough to look at the demise of the “intergenerational bargain” from a “glass half full” perspective.
How do we foster a future where we can realize the lives our parents lived? @JoshFrydenberg & Jacinta Speer respond #QandA pic.twitter.com/DNXCTefF8o
— ABC Q&A (@QandA) July 24, 2017
Q&A isn’t about to solve any of our problems, and ministers like Frydenberg don’t hurry back to Canberra full of inspiration gleaned from concerned audience members, but last night’s edition did serve to show that the crucial issue of having a life comparable to previous generations is something young Australians are increasingly aware of.
It’s not something to be taken for granted, and a few young Aussies gave voice to those concerns to a national audience.
Source and photo: Q&A / ABC.
