Alex Antic (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Earlier this month, the people of New York City elected a new mayor, who supports a radical swing towards socialism. You can't really expect that young people in this country wouldn't fall for the sweet siren song of the left, though. Here in Australia, we've got to urgently take heed of these lessons, because, if you're under 35 and you're living in one of our capital cities or any regional centre, you're staring down the barrel of a million-dollar starter home and a HECS debt that grows faster than your wage, and you've probably been brainwashed into thinking the climate's on fire. If you're one of those people, it's not unreasonable to think that the left's pitch sounds a bit seductive. They promise to burn the whole system down and then rebuild it—free everything, seize the mansions of the rich and turn them into co-ops. It's not hard to see why that lands like oxygen in a room full of smoke.

The left, of course, are selling a cure which is much, much worse than the disease, but here's the part that no-one on the right wants to say out loud: we're the ones letting young people down. Where's the vision that says, 'We see your anger, and we have a better answer—one that doesn't burn down the house just to fix the plumbing'? There has to be a proper plan delivered that marries free markets with real opportunity—a pitch to the 28-year-old that says, 'I'm not here to defend the corporate sector; I'm here to make sure you can become rich too, if you want, without needing a rich parent.'

Instead, too many on the right have run from the fight and allowed the far left to own the language of kindness and the language of fairness, because we've been too busy trying to be more like the enemy to notice that the housing crisis was radicalising the young generation. Young people aren't stupid; they're rational. When one side says, 'Burn it down,' and the other side says, 'No, cook it slowly,' guess which megaphone gets the retweets. Surely this has to be a wake-up call.

To the far left: your revolution's going to deliver queues, corruption and a new elite wearing Che Guevara shirts. Venezuela tried your playbook, by the way, and so did every other socialist experiment that promised paradise and delivered poverty with better slogans. Wealth isn't a fixed pie to be sliced up; it's a garden to grow. You can't redistribute your way to prosperity when the pie stops expanding.

To the right: stop hiding. We've got to offer a principled alternative. Champion markets that work for everyone, not just the top one per cent. Back policies that reward risk, punish rent seeking and make homeownership possible before someone's 40th birthday. Talk about wealth creation and be the adults who say that they'll fix the system without torching the village.

To the young people listening: you're right to be angry, but don't let the anger hand your future to ideologues who've never run a business, balanced a budget or met a payroll. Ask the left, 'Where's the money going to come from when the rich leave and the jobs all dry up?' and ask the right, 'What's your plan to make sure the next generation isn't permanently locked out?' The right of politics is down, but it's not out. It needs reform, not revolution, it needs courage, not cosplay, and it needs you—not as drones of the far left or collateral damage for the complacent right but as the generation that demands a fair go and the generation that demands a system that actually delivers for them.