'Don't hate it': Young Australians verdict on the Budget

A Newspoll from our dear papa, The Australian, shows that a little over half of 18-34 year olds gave the thumbs-up to the budget, handed down by Josh Frydenberg last week, but the vibes weren't immaculate. The majority think Labor would have delivered a better economic plan.

More young people think the Budget will be good for their finances than bad for them - but the vibes weren't immaculate. 

A poll from our dear papa, The Australian, shows that a little over half of people aged 18-34 hadnt decided if Budget spending (including a $8.6 billion cash splash) announced last week was good for the nation.

And so much for the generation gap - YouGov’s Head of Public Affairs and Polling Campbell White said there was not all that much difference between the views of younger generations compared with older cohorts in their response to the Budget handed down by Josh Frydenberg. 

Mr White said  the high number of Australians (of all ages) still on the fence about whether the Budget would benefit them personally showed that “realistically a lot more people were paying attention to the slap at the Oscars or Shane Warne’s funeral last week”.

“When something like the Budget happens we assume people are really paying attention - but really they’re just taking the gist or the vibe of it,” Mr White said.

“They’re not exactly thinking about the policies and how they’re going to affect me. They’re certainly not watching the Budget live or the Opposition’s reply.”

According to the Newspoll taken late last week, one area in which the younger cohort did stand out is on who would have delivered the better economic plan, with just over half of young Aussies (52%) reckoning Labor would have provided more bang for young people's buck. That compares with the 40 per cent of the total population which preferred Labor's plan. 

“The only dramatic difference was the majority think Labor would have delivered a better budget,” Mr White said. That makes sense given the ALP’s commanding advantage among 18-34 year olds (the quarterly Newspoll, released last month, showed 66 per cent would vote for Labor).

🥡 Key takeaways - young attitudes toward the federal Budget 🥡

• 53% of young people don’t have an opinion on whether the government’s “steady as she goes” Budget was good or bad for the economy.
• As for our own financial position, 24% said they’d be better off thanks to the Budget, slightly more than the 23% who said they thought they’d be worse off. Most of us, though, (53%) didn't seem to know what it all meant for them.  
• 52% of 18-34 year olds thought Labor would have delivered a better Budget, while some 20% hadn’t yet made up their minds (and the other 28% were in favour of the Government’s effort).

Source: Newspoll

Mr White said that on the whole the response to this Budget was “more lukewarm” than that delivered in 2019.

We tested all this (in an entirely unscientific way) by talking to students in Sydney this week.