Politics With Michelle Grattan: Independent MP Allegra Spender On Making Tax Fairer For Younger Australians

With parliament now finished its first fortnight's session, attention will soon be on the government's August 19-21 economic reform roundtable , bringing together business, unions, experts and community representatives to pursue consensus on ways to lift Australia's flagging productivity.

Independent member for Wentworth Allegra Spender is one of the 25 participants invited to the roundtable. She's particularly focused on tax reform and last week held a tax roundtable of her own.

Spender joined the podcast to talk about making tax fairer, the need for greater economic reform, climate policy, the social media ban for under 16s, a ceasefire in Gaza, and more.

On her ambitions on tax policy, Spender says income tax indexation is something that would benefit younger, working Australians:

Spender says the system is stacked against young people, who“are really struggling economically compared to previous generations”.

On climate targets, Spender says while she'll be guided by the yet-to-be-provided Climate Change Authority's advice, she wants to see Australia“try and lead other countries” – pointing to the United Kingdom, which has set a target to cut emissions by at least 81% by 2035.

On the news that the government will include YouTube in its social media ban for under 16s, Spender says it's now up to social media companies to make their websites safer to lift the bans.

MENAFN31072025000199003603ID1109871314