Every year in Australia, thousands of teenagers get their first job, sign their first contract, and receive their first payslip  with absolutely no idea what any of it means.
We send our kids into the adult world and expect them to handle tax, superannuation, workplace rights, and debt  yet we have never once taught them how.

Not formally.

Not properly.

Not at all.

Year 10 is the exact moment most young Australians turn 14 or 15 and step into the workforce for the first time. It is the single most important window we have to give them the financial foundation they will rely on for the rest of their lives.

And right now, we are wasting it.

The Gap in the System

Our state high school curriculums are packed with academic content. 

Our kids learn quadratic equations and Shakespearean analysis — and those things matter. But when a 15-year-old gets their first casual job at a café, they don't need to solve for x.

They need to know:

•What a Tax File Number is, and how to apply for one safely
•Whether their employer is legally paying their superannuation
•How to read a payslip and spot if they're being underpaid
•What "casual loading" means and why it exists
•What happens if they ignore a debt
Right now, they are left to figure all of this out by trial and error  and the errors are expensive.

Without formal financial education in Year 10, our teenagers face four immediate and serious vulnerabilities:

1. Tax and Super Confusion 
Most young workers have no idea what a TFN is, how to complete a tax declaration form, or that their employer is legally required to pay superannuation on their behalf. Super theft from young workers is rampant — and it goes unreported because the victims don't know it's happening.
2. Wage Theft 
Teenagers are the most exploited cohort in the Australian workforce. They are routinely underpaid, denied casual loadings, and paid below award rates — not always maliciously, but because they don't know what they're entitled to. Knowledge is the only protection they have.
3. Predatory Financial Products 
Buy Now Pay Later apps, sports betting platforms, and high-interest consumer credit products are being marketed directly to teenagers before they understand compound interest or basic budgeting. We are sending them into a financial minefield without a map.
4. The Insurance Blindspot 
Most young people have no idea that their superannuation account comes with default life and income protection insurance attached — insurance they are likely already paying for and have never claimed. Basic financial literacy could save lives and livelihoods.
 
 
What We Are Demanding
We are calling on the Federal Minister for Education and all State and Territory Education Ministers to mandate and fully fund a practical, real-world Financial and Life Literacy Module for all Year 10 students across the Australian government school system.

This must not be an optional elective, a one-hour seminar, or a well-meaning pilot program.

It needs to be a dedicated, assessed, curriculum-embedded unit covering:

The First Job Essentials 
How to securely apply for a TFN, complete a tax declaration form, read a payslip, understand basic tax brackets, and know what superannuation is and how to track it from day one.
Personal Banking and Budgeting 
Practical budgeting strategies for irregular casual income, understanding bank fees and interest, the real cost of consumer debt, and how to build an emergency fund on a part-time wage.
Superannuation and Insurance 101 
What super is, how it grows, why starting early matters, how to consolidate accounts, and how to understand the default insurances already attached to their fund.
Workplace Rights 
Minimum wage laws, casual employee entitlements, how to read an award, how to report underpayment, and where to go for help when something feels wrong.
 
 
Why This Cannot Wait
The cost of financial illiteracy is not abstract. It is the 19-year-old who doesn't know their employer has been stealing their super for three years. It is the 22-year-old drowning in BNPL debt they didn't understand when they signed up. It is the 25-year-old who has never checked their superannuation balance and has no idea they have three separate accounts quietly eating fees.
These are not edge cases. These are the norm. And they are entirely preventable.
Our teachers are extraordinary — but they need the mandated curriculum space, the resources, and the support to teach these skills. This is not about adding more pressure to an already stretched system. It is about making a deliberate, funded, national decision that financial literacy is a core life skill — as essential as literacy and numeracy — and treating it accordingly.
 
 
Sign This Petition
Algebra matters.

Essay writing matters.

But knowing how to manage money, protect your income, understand your rights, and navigate the Australian financial system is a fundamental survival skill — and every Australian teenager deserves to learn it before they need it.

Sign this petition to demand that our education departments put practical financial life skills on the timetable for every Year 10 student in Australia.
The next generation is counting on us to get this right.