Young people today are the first generation in modern history to be worse off than their parents.
On Monday February 10 2025 Independent MP for Mackellar Dr Sophie Scamps introduced a bill to turn that around.
Dr Sophie Scamps’ Private Members Bill aims to establish a framework for collaborative, long term policy-making in Australia. The bill is based on the experience of Wales where a Wellbeing of Future Generations Act was introduced in 2015.
The Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill 2025 will ensure public bodies work together based on the principle that the needs of the present be met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Dr Scamps, a former GP and emergency doctor, says this is the very reason she was compelled to enter politics.
“Like all parents I want to provide my children with the best opportunity to live a safe, happy and prosperous life,” Dr Scamps said.
“But due to repeated policy failures over decades our young people now face converging crises. We are leaving our kids a far harder world to flourish in than the one we inherited.
“Many of the crises we currently face have been decades in the making. The housing crisis, the environment and climate crises, the obesity and mental health epidemics, the normalisation of gambling harm, and growing intergenerational inequality. None of these problems have happened overnight. Policy makers have known about them for decades and failed to respond effectively.
“Decade after decade, leaders and decision-makers have not acted to make a difference. Instead, repeated short-term, Band-Aid actions have been futile, or even made the situation worse.
“Over the past three years, I have witnessed firsthand the way that individual portfolios of the same government often work against each other. Portfolios, departments and public bodies should be working in concert with one another, rather than in competition.
“Australians want long-term solutions. They want politicians to think beyond their own re-election prospects every three years and put some serious effort into turning the ship around for future generations. If not now, when?”
The bill does 4 things:
- Creates a legislative framework to ensure that intergenerational equity and wellbeing are considered and promoted in government and other public decision-making.
- Imposes a positive duty on government and public bodies to take into account the long-term impacts of their decisions.
- Establishes an independent, statutory Commissioner for Future Generations to make sure everything the Act promises, is achieved.
- Starts a National Conversation on the Wellbeing of Future Generations. The Commissioner will lead a public consultation process – including a wide diversity of voices – to make Australians active co-creators of this new vision for Australia’s future.
This call for change has been backed by experts across the field, politicians across the aisle and the general Australian public.
A survey conducted by EveryGen found that 97% of Australians believe that current policies must consider the interests of future generations and 81% feel that Australian politicians focus too much on short-term decisions.[1.]
Foundations for Tomorrow has also found that 71% of young Australians do not feel secure about their future.[2.]
This Bill was seconded in Parliament by the Liberal Member for Bass, Bridget Archer, and was guided by close consultation with the Foundations for Tomorrow organisation.
The legislation has been developed in close collaboration with the Foundations for Tomorrow organisation.
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Foundations for Tomorrow, Taylor Dee Hawkins, said the “Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill sets a vital new standard for policymaking in Australia.”
Professor Patrick McGorry AO, Director - Orygen Youth Health stated:
“Young people in Australia are facing growing mental health challenges. These are fuelled by intergenerational inequities such as housing insecurity, precarious employment, student debt, and a clouded future due to climate change and an alarming loss of a moral compass in the wider geopolitical world. Young people are being handed a raw deal and their needs have been seriously neglected by older generations, political leaders and the wider society. Yet it is precisely this emerging generation on whom the future of our society depends.
The Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill is crucial to addressing these systemic issues by embedding long-term thinking into policy decisions. By prioritising the wellbeing of young and future generations, we can create a society where mental health is protected, opportunities are accessible, and no generation is left worse off than the one before. Orygen supports this Bill as a critical investment in the mental health and wellbeing of Australia’s young people.”
Taylor Dee Hawkins, Co-Founder & Managing Director - Foundations for Tomorrow said;
“The Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill sets a vital new standard for policymaking in Australia and represents a stride towards the systemic changes needed to deliver for current and future generations”
“Foundations for Tomorrow is grateful for Dr Scamp’s leadership; her approach to fostering a truly multi-partisan, collaborative and intergenerational approach to this work reflects the leadership that we need to see in Australian politics, and we are pleased to have supported the development of this future-defining reform for Australia"
“If you believe that Australia’s future should not be an afterthought or a 'tick and flick' exercise, but a central responsibility of our nation’s leaders, then this Bill is for you”.
Sophie Lewis, ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment said:
“This Bill takes us a step closer to a healthy, prosperous, and sustainable future for all Australians.
Currently, there is little consideration of the long-term impact of political decisions. This Bill means that policymakers must consider the needs of current and future Australia and not damage future possibilities of wellbeing for Australian.
“I’m delighted to see this progress in considering fairness for all Australians, including our future generations to come. As a climate scientist and a parent of two very young Australians, I welcome this legislation that priorities everyone’s future.”
Anajali Sharma – Climate Activist, Founder of the Duty of Care Campaign said:
“The world that we, as young people, will inherit will be greatly influenced by the decisions made in parliament today. It is crucial that these decisions prioritise our wellbeing and establish the groundwork for a future where we, like past generations, can thrive. This is the least that young people deserve, as the generation tasked with carrying forward a world earmarked by a multiplicity of crises, from climate, to housing, to cost of living.”
Adjunct Professor Terry Slevin – CEO of the Public Health Association Australia said:
“Dr Scamps' bill could play a major role in protecting young people now from the scourge of many forms of chronic disease long into the future, by obliging governments to break the short-term policy cycle and make much better long term health policy decisions. That's got to be worth supporting.’’
Bridget Archer MP, Liberal Member for Bass (Tasmania) stated:
''Yesterday in the House of Representatives in my capacity as Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Future Generations I seconded The Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill introduced by my co-chair Dr Sophie Scamps. The bill aims to address generational inequality, encourage long term policy making and ensure the next generation are at the forefront of decisions made by our leaders.''
Thank you to Taylor Hawkins at Foundations for Tomorrow for all your work in this important area.''
Introducing the Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill
MP for Mackellar, Dr. Sophie Scamps speeech;
10 February, 2025:
Seemingly insignificant, everyday moments can change our lives. There was a moment that changed the direction of my life. One Sunday afternoon my 12-year-old son and his friends were chatting to me about climate change, and trying hard not to be alarmist I said that it was something they were likely going to have to deal with.
One beautiful boy with a flash in his eyes turned to me and heartily said, 'Yes, because you adults have failed us'—no malice—just a simple statement of fact. I had to agree with him.
Fast-forward three years, after promising myself to do whatever I could to not leave it to our children to clean up our mess, I had gone from being a GP to an MP. But that's a story for another day.
As parents, we strive to give our children the best possible lives—safe, prosperous, happy and healthy lives.
But young people today are going to be the first generation in modern history to be worse off than their parents. Centuries of progress are being undone. Our children, grandchildren and future generations of Australians will inherit a world facing converging crises that we—the current generation of leaders and policymakers—are quite simply responsible for. Climate breakdown. Environmental destruction that would have been unimaginable 50 years ago. An extinction crisis. A housing crisis, where for too many
Australians the dream of owning their own home has become nothing more than a pipedream. Epidemics of depression and anxiety, of obesity and type 2 diabetes. We've let gambling infiltrate the everyday lives of our children. Growing homelessness and poverty; growing inequality and, of course, growing intergenerational inequality. Nor is this list exhaustive—but you get the point. These things—these multiple disasters—have not happened overnight. They have been decades in the making.
But decade after decade—despite decision-makers and governments knowing about the seriousness of these problems, knowing the causes, and often even knowing the solutions—they have not acted or had been unable to act in a way that prevented these problems from occurring or relentlessly getting worse.
Instead we've seen repeated short-term, bandaid solutions and policies that have been futile, or have even made the situations worse.
So what is the cause of the repeated policy failures on so many different fronts? What is to blame?
Well, it's clear—the way we make decisions, the way we plan is failing us. The systems, the structure and the culture that promote short-term thinking, short-term solutions and short-term populism over long-term vision and planning are the crux of the problem. Add to that siloed, blinkered decision-making and you have a recipe for repeated failure.
Over the past three years I've witnessed firsthand the way individual portfolios and ministries of the same government may often work at odds with each other—in competition rather than in concert, where the goals and policies of one undermine the goals of another.
In facing so many crises, the much used maxim 'the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome' has never been more relevant. We must change, and that is what my bill offers today: a different way forward.
This bill is heavily based on the groundbreaking work being done in Wales. Wales introduced the Well-being of Future Generations Act and Commissioner for Future Generations in 2015. The very first step was to develop a vision for the future of Wales, to hold a national conversation to establish what type of Wales they wanted to hand down to their children and future generations. As Sophie Howe, the former Commissioner for Future Generations in Wales, said, 'It should not be revolutionary for a country to have a shared vision for their future.'
But many countries, including Australia, do not. Norway, on the other hand, does have one. It has a $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund for the people of their nation to prosper into the future.
We have nearly a trillion dollars in debt. So this bill introduces a framework to change this, to make sure government and public bodies work together to ensure that they take the wellbeing of future generations of Australians into account in all their decision-making. This is not an easy reform. It will require broad cultural change, especially from our leaders.
So, how will my bill change things? It's based on the fundamental principle that the needs and wellbeing of the current generation should not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs and wellbeing.
The bill does four things. It creates a legislative framework that ensures that intergenerational equity and wellbeing are taken into account in government and other public decision-making. It imposes a positive duty on government and public bodies to take into account the long-term impact of their decisions. It establishes an independent statutory commissioner for future generations to make sure everything this act is trying to achieve is achieved. Lastly, it will start a national conversation on the wellbeing of future generations in this country.
The commissioner will lead a public consultation process to include a wide diversity of voices to make Australians active co-creators in this new vision for Australia's future. Crucially, it will establish new ways of working that embed long-term considerations and focuses on prevention. It will ensure collaboration and integration of policies of different public bodies and portfolios so that the policies of one do not undermine the policies and wellbeing goals of the other.
Australians want politicians to start thinking beyond their own re-election prospects. They want long-term solutions, they want vision and they want hope. We owe them that much.
I'd like to take this moment to thank the many partners who have joined with me to make this bill possible, particularly Taylor Hawkins, who has made this process truly inclusive. I thank you so much. I would like to cede the rest of my speaking time to the member for Bass. Thank you.
Mrs ARCHER (Bass):
I second the motion. After being elected to local government back in 2009, I quickly realised just how short-term the mindset of decision-making can be: annual budget cycles, three- or fouryear electoral cycles and maybe five-year strategic planning cycles—the system itself a handbrake on a longer-term vision, prioritising short-term political outcomes and expediency over future prosperity. That's been a key motivator for me in my work as a parliamentarian since being elected to this place, and the opportunity to be involved with this issue has been a highlight for me.
I'd also particularly like to pay tribute to the amazing Taylor Hawkins, co-founder and managing director of Foundations for Tomorrow. Their mission is to equip Australian leaders to think beyond election cycles and financial quarters to make the strategic long-term investments that lay the foundations for a thriving community environment and economy for years to come. It's been exciting to work with Taylor and the team across this term of parliament to progress this agenda.
This brings us to the bill before us today, the Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill, for an act to establish a framework for embedding consideration of the wellbeing of future generations into government decision-making. It will introduce intergenerational policymaking to Australia which considers the rights and interests of current and future generations concurrently. It seeks to do that by introducing the four measures: establishing a federal legislative framework for the wellbeing of future generations, imposing a positive duty on public bodies to take into account the long-term impact of their decisions, establishing an independent statutory commissioner for future generations and requiring a national conversation on future generations.
As we've heard, this approach is not revolutionary nor without precedent internationally, and there are many examples that we can look to. This bill represents a clear and positive direction for Australia to take to advance intergenerational fairness and to safeguard the wellbeing of future generations. I commend the bill to the House.
The Deputy speaker, Dr Freelander MP, Federal Member for Macarthur, then stated: The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.
Dr Scamps’ bill follows on from Senator David Pocock developing a bill in 2023 that would impose a “duty of care” on the government to ensure young people’s health and wellbeing is taken into consideration when decisions that could cause climate harm are made.
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