Senator Dave Sharma
My eldest daughter works several nights a week while studying full-time at university.
Like many young Australians, she doesn’t spend every dollar she earns. She saves. She invests. She thinks about her future.
Every fortnight, she puts some of her pay into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and shares. She’s trying to build the financial foundation that previous generations could build through home ownership.
Her story is familiar to many Indian Australian families.
Across your communities, parents make enormous sacrifices to give their children opportunities. Education, building a future, saving, and investing are encouraged from an early age.
Whether it is a university student investing their first pay cheque or a young professional building wealth through ETFs and shares, the goal is the same: create security, independence, and eventually a home of your own.
But for many young Australians today, the property market feels increasingly out of reach.
That is why so many have turned to investing to build a future deposit. They are not looking for shortcuts. They are doing exactly what we have always encouraged: work hard, save consistently, and invest responsibly.
The problem is that government policy should support that behaviour, not punish it.
When taxes on investment returns increase, it does not just affect wealthy investors. It affects students, young professionals, and first-home hopefuls who are trying to grow modest savings into something meaningful.
For a generation facing some of the highest housing costs in Australian history, every dollar matters.
Many Indian Australian families understand this better than most. We have seen what disciplined saving and long-term investing can achieve over time. We know that wealth is rarely built overnight but built through years of sacrifice and hard work.
The question this Labor government policymakers should ask is simple: are we making it easier or harder for young Australians who are trying to get ahead?
If we genuinely care about intergenerational fairness, we should reward aspiration, encourage investment, and help young people build assets—not place additional obstacles in their path.
Australia’s success has always depended on people who believe that hard work and smart decisions should be rewarded. Young Indian Australians still believe that.
Government policy should too.
Contributing Author: Dave Sharma is Shadow Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Shadow Assistant Minister for International Development and the Indo-Pacific, and Senator for New South Wales
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