Now, I want you to look me in the eye and tell me - honestly - you've never broken a promise. Of course, you can't.

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Promises are broken all the time.

Mostly, they're inconsequential. The pledge to finally mow the lawn this Saturday - oh no, it's raining. To be back in time for dinner - the Uber never showed. To call the plumber about the leaking cistern - sorry, completely forget. We might grumble but we move on.

Not so with our politicians, who have always plied a trade in broken promises.

Bob Hawke's by 1990 no Australian child will be living in poverty. Paul Keating's L.A.W. law tax cuts. John Howard's never ever GST. Julia Gillard's no carbon tax under the government I lead. Tony Abbott's no cuts to health, education and the ABC. Scott Morrison's pledge to establish a national anti-corruption commission. Anthony Albanese's no changes to the stage 3 tax cuts and, before the last election, no changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.

Sometimes we forgive. Often we don't. Hawke survived the promise he couldn't keep. Keating did not. Nor did Gillard, Abbott and Morrison. Albanese survived that first broken promise on broadening the stage 3 tax cuts, snookering the Coalition which opposed them, and is likely to survive the second, despite the hyperventilation in the conservative media.

That's because the decision to change property tax breaks is rooted in the hard calculus of pragmatic politics. Millennials and Gen Z now account for 47 per cent of Australia's voting population. As the dominant voting group, it's also the one that struggles the most to get into the housing market.

Underlying Labor's lofty narrative about intergenerational fairness is realpolitik. It knows it needs the support of younger voters if it's to win a third term in 2028. Levelling the playing field is cast as the noble intent. Pitching to younger voters is the reality behind it.

Breaking the property tax break promise to appeal to one voter cohort is not without risk.

Sandwiched between the Boomers and Millennials is Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980. It's the demographic most likely to be drawn to One Nation because it feels ignored by the two major........

© Canberra Times