At a moment when prosperity might invite discipline, Australia instead finds itself drifting deeper into structural deficit — a condition that former Treasury Secretary Martin Parkinson warns will transfer an ever-growing tax burden onto generations who have no voice in today's choices. The concern is not merely arithmetic; it is a question of intergenerational fairness and political will, as both major parties have allowed the urgency of fiscal responsibility to quietly dissolve in the years since the pandemic reshaped national priorities. From a contested GST arrangement costing the Commonwe