Dear Prime Minister: Are you really going to let Kiwi kids best us?

August 22, 2026 — 3:01am

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Dear prime minister (and come to think of it, all state and territory leaders), I write for urgent action on something that appears to have fallen off the government’s agenda: the nous of our children when they are released into the financial “wilds” at the end of their schooling.

We used to have a national financial literacy strategy. This lapsed pre-COVID. We used to have the Australian Government Financial Literacy Board. This was abandoned around that same time.

Governments here – of both flavours – used to take Australia’s collective money smarts seriously. After all, it’s make or break stuff for our lives. But let me get back to that.

In 2022, responsibility for financial literacy was transferred from ASIC – which I believe was doing a bang-up job reaching many children via its lesson plans for teachers – and shifted to Treasury.

Sure, there have been some commendable efforts from the ATO. The Tax, Super You high school competition is of special note, as is the portal’s curriculum-aligned digital learning platform and simulation games.

But it is not enough. Some 70 countries now have an active financial capability strategy. And many of these have begun teaching money as a mandatory part of the school curriculum, often delivered in social sciences all the way up to year........

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