Policy Platform: Australian Federal Budget 2026
Our policy platform reflects what young people have told us they need to live safe, dignified, and hopeful lives. It centres intergenerational fairness, meaningful participation, economic security, freedom from violence, and a safe future for all.
This platform is grounded in community consultation through:
The Youth Statement consultations, which gathered young people’s lived experience, priorities, and stories across key issues.
The Feminesto drafting process, which translated those priorities into feminist, intersectional policy directions and concrete budget and legislative asks.
Across both processes, the focus was on centring young people who are most impacted by inequality and exclusion, and turning what we heard into practical changes governments can fund, legislate, and deliver.
The TL;DR
Based on our consultations with young people on what they want, in this year’s Federal Budget, we want to see:
Power-sharing youth governance and decision-making structures.
Student debt relief, secure work, and skills pathways.
Inclusion-by-design: accessibility, cultural safety, and better data.
Lift income support above poverty line and remove punitive settings.
Large-scale social/community housing investment and affordability measures.
Health and wellbeing policy that removes cost barriers.
Generationally fair tax reform and reduction of inequitable concessions.
Strong investment in prevention and response to gendered violence
Online safety, privacy, and platform accountability for tech-facilitated GBV.
Youth-centred climate justice policy and ending fossil fuel subsidies.
A stronger rights framework and rights-based policies (domestic and international).
Key Pillars
Levelling the Playing Field: Intergenerational and intersectional leadership and collaboration
Why this matters to young people
Young people experience the consequences of decisions made without them, and those impacts are not evenly shared. Systems that ignore accessibility, cultural safety, and lived experience create barriers to participation and worsen inequality.
Policy asks
Meaningful youth participation
Establish youth decision-making structures with real power, including in economic portfolios and budget decision making.
Education, skills, and student debt
Deliver student debt relief and change debt settings so they do not outpace wages.
Invest in training and pathways into secure work and fair wages.
Intersectionality + inclusion by design
Build accessibility-by-design into consultations and policy processes.
Create culturally safe consultation pathways and proactive outreach.
Improve data disaggregation and diversity-responsive measurement to inform policy design.
Economic security and justice
Why this matters to young people
Cost-of-living pressure, insecure work, and housing unaffordability shape nearly every other outcome for young people. Economic and housing instability also block participation in civic life and consultations.
Policy asks
Economic security and justice (income support + stability)
Lift income support above the poverty line, remove punitive settings, and expand eligibility.
Centre generational equity in housing policy.
Housing
Invest in social and community housing and implement affordability measures including rent stabilisation.
Reform planning to prioritise community and affordability over speculation.
Implement generationally equitable tax reform that reduces wealth concentration and addresses housing market distortions.
Health and wellbeing
Address cost barriers that lead young people to forgo essentials, including healthcare.
Treat cost-of-living pressure as a key risk factor for mental ill-health and suicide prevention.
Tax reform
Reduce inequitable concessions that shift the burden onto young people during wage stagnation and rising living costs.
Align tax settings with intergenerational fairness and public investment needs.
Intergenerational inequality
Reform settings that entrench a lower standard of living for younger generations and favour older cohorts through concessions and structural advantages.
Freedom from violence
Why this matters to young people
Young people are experiencing high and rising levels of gendered and sexual violence, including online harms. This limits freedom, safety, and participation in public life.
Policy asks
Gendered violence
Invest in frontline services, primary prevention, and perpetrator accountability measures.
Respond to evidence of increased violence and widespread sexual harassment among young people.
Digital rights + online safety
Strengthen online safety and platform accountability for technology-facilitated gender-based violence.
Improve privacy and data protections.
“Design out misogyny” through safety-by-design and accountable product governance.
A safe future for all
Why this matters to young people
Young people are living through intersecting crises, including worsening climate impacts and climate anxiety, with spillover effects across housing, education, health, and work.
Policy asks
Climate justice
Implement youth-centred climate policy that supports a just transition and reduces compounding inequality.
Provide wellbeing supports that recognise climate anxiety and cost-of-living pressures.
End subsidies that entrench fossil fuels and implement fair revenue measures that fund wellbeing and public services.
Human rights
Strengthen Australia’s human rights protections, including a Human Rights Act and policies grounded in dignity and safety for all communities.
Support rights-based approaches to refugee policy and international solidarity, including Palestine.