Call me a cynic, but I am not hopeful about what might eventuate out of Thursday's release of the latest Intergenerational Report. We've had similar opportunities before but Australia has failed to act. Two major policy documents highlight the problem.

The 2010 Intergenerational Report confirmed Australia will face a government expenditure gap. Our expectations are bigger than what government can deliver with the existing revenue base. But governments of both political persuasions have since failed to diversify the revenue base nor sought to reduce our expectations.

The response has instead been to invest in schools, infrastructure, health and innovation to maintain Australia's competitive advantages. These were hardly insightful policy solutions for the long term. They were made in an effort to stimulate the economy for the now so that future governments don't have to build social amenities. With an ageing population draining resources, the reluctance to consider taxation increases is only hurting us.

Next on the bookshelf lies the famed Henry Tax Review of 2010. Arguably one of the great pieces of modern public policy work, the then Labor government cherry picked recommendations before joining the Tony Abbott-led opposition in ignoring it. Some 138 recommendations crossing revenue raising, tax configuration, affordable housing and a more responsive tax system thrown to the partisan parrots we all loathe.

When the Abbott government took power they took steps to reverse some of the recommendations in the review. This from a government which proclaims the atrocities of "intergenerational theft" seems a bit rich.

Reports of government come with a prestige and quality that is hard to find in other fields. Hundreds of pages of well-researched and considered government reports don't deserve to be merely skimmed over, only to then end up on the bookshelf. The bad habit of our national character is ignoring quality public policy for the next poll.

As a young Australian I expect more. When my generation assumes leadership we don't want to be saddled with fixing the policy mistakes generated by the short-term thinking of today.

Unfortunately, it seems too much to expect a break from the partisanship. Policies focused on the short term avoid what parliaments ought to do: act in the best interests of the electorate.

Sean Barry, a PhD candidate and tutor at Griffith University's School of Government and International Relations, put it best last year when he noted until Australia had a crisis, "the road to reforming Australia's economy will not be an easy one. We all have self-interested demands and many prefer the status quo."

While we begin to turn to Canberra for the next report, do we need a crisis moment? I hope not. Waiting for these moments is immature and lazy politics.

Beyond buzzwords, politicians should take these sorts of reports with gusto and act.

My concerns are simple. When Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey, Bill Shorten and every other politician head home for the weekend, can they reasonably look at their children and say they are doing the best for their long term benefit? Or, as I suspect, are they caught up capturing the quick wins?

Conrad Liveris is an advocate, adviser and research on the politics and economics of diversity.