If you are working, renting and childless, you might feel Australian democracy neglects you. For a start, you are not one of the ''working families'' - that cosseted cohort of propertied Australians with young children whom politicians love to pamper.
The government puts your money where its mouth is. Taxpayers foot a yearly bill of $30billion for the smorgasbord of child-based payments and subsidies, equivalent to about one-quarter of income tax. The baby bonus, which costs about $1 billion a year, is a mere tip.
Add the first home owner's grant and the huge tax breaks for owner-occupiers, and it does appear childless renters are among the great benefactors of Australian democracy.
More than one-fifth of Australian households rented privately in 2006, up more than 10 per cent from a decade earlier. With a median age of 37, renters are 15 years younger than homeowners and less likely to have children. Only 20 per cent of couples with children rent.
But not all renters are shortchanged by government. The cliched analysis ignores the NSW government's taxes and subsidies. In fact, if you rent, have no dependents and avoid driving and gambling, you pay almost nothing directly to the NSW government.
The state government relies on Canberra for about half its revenue, but its own taxes raise more than $20 billion a year, more than enough to pay for public transport, law and order and basic hospital services, for instance. These taxes fall more heavily on homeowners with children.
Homebuyers bear massive stamp duty every time they buy a house. Say a family buys an average-priced Sydney house and upgrades to another in 10 years as the children grow in number and size. Macquarie Street makes about $60,000 in tax.
Then there are local government rates. In the Sutherland Shire, for instance, this comes to about $1200 a year on an average block of land valued at $400,000. Sydney's cutthroat rental market means landlords can struggle to pass on rate increases to their tenants.
''Working families'' in the suburbs are more likely to have cars to ferry their children around and commute. Motor vehicle taxes, on new and used cars, make up about 10 per cent of NSW's tax revenue. Inflated vehicle registration fees and the 5 per cent tax on car insurance premiums add hundreds of dollars to the total tax bill of families.
NSW taxes home and contents and life insurance premiums, too. And this is distinct from the $600 million levy imposed on general insurance premiums to pay for the state's fire and rescue services.
NSW graciously exempts hospital and medical benefits insurance from duty, through which childless renters might have coughed up a little tax. Uniquely among the Australian states, its health insurance levy does, however, extract about $65 a year per policyholder from health insurers. But health insurers charge the same for basic cover in other states as they do here.
Not only do renters tend to avoid taxes, but their prevalence around bus and train hubs ensures they get a subsidy as well. NSW props up CityRail to the tune of about $2 billion a year. Seventy per cent of Sydneysiders use CityRail less than once a month or not at all, and you can bet homeowners with children in the suburbs feature disproportionately.
So childless renters should be less indignant as they ponder Australia's tax-transfer system on the 380 bus from Bondi Junction or the 7.15am train from Newtown. The Commonwealth might fleece them but NSW, especially if they can afford to live in the more salubrious parts of Sydney, is their friend.
But state taxes, even more than federal taxes, require wholesale overhaul. Their obscure and arbitrary incidence is inimical to fair and efficient government.
A more transparent and equitable tax system would emerge if the states abolished their archaic duties and levies and the federal government dramatically reduced its income tax and let the states impose their own.
One thing is clear, however. Those childless renters with low-paying jobs who cannot afford to live near the city, and who gamble a little and need a car, pay a lot of tax to subsidise the lifestyles of richer homeowners and inner-city renters, with or without children. They are the forgotten people in Australia today.
Adam Creighton is a research fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies.