‘Wilful acts of bastardry’: former Treasury secretary says young Australian workers ‘robbed’ by tax system

Ken Henry made comments at a tax summit in Melbourne, arguing fiscal drag is seeing taxes go up while real incomes fall

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Recent governments have carried out wilful acts of bastardry" and created intergenerational inequality and environmental destruction that will leave younger voters worse off, the former Treasury secretary Ken Henry has said, urging tweaks to Australia's tax system to bridge the growing divide.

Henry, who worked under both the Howard and Rudd governments, used a speech at the Per Capita tax summit in Melbourne on Thursday morning to argue the country's tax settings since the Howard government have fuelled inequality and left further generations and young workers to pick up the tab".

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