Former Australian of the Year Patrick McGorry says the election campaign is more evidence of how older generations have "let down" young people.
The former Novocastrian and headspace founder said older people had made a series of decisions affecting house prices, university fees, job security and the climate.
"Our generation is getting richer and richer while young people are relatively poor," Professor McGorry said in response to a Youth Committee for the Hunter poll which showed one in three young people were struggling with mental health.
The Newcastle Herald reported on Tuesday that members of the youth committee believe the election has done nothing to address young people's "pessimism".
"There's a whole perfect storm of issues making the lives of young people more under pressure and insecure, the sort of things that are making them so pessimistic, and parents and grandparents very worried about the future of their kids," Professor McGorry said.
"It's basically socioeconomic drivers like the wealth transfer from Millennials and Gen Y to Baby Boomers.
"Last election they didn't support the franking credits and negative gearing reforms. That was an attempt to reverse that trend, and it was rejected by older voters. Young people have been really let down by our generation."
He said Sunday's televised leader debate would have discouraged young people.
"There was no clear plan there at all. The Prime Minister was talking about what he had done, and they have done some good things like expanding headspace and so on, but the fundamental drivers of it, the redistribution of wealth, the universities, they are actually contributing to the problem."
He said both parties "refuse to talk about" the youth mental health crisis.
"It's really frustrating that we've got this major public health problem, especially in the young, and they want to be patted on the back for what they have done already and not what they need to do next."
He said services like headspace were "like sandbagging" instead of understanding the causes of the crisis.
"We did a YouGov survey of nearly 2000 people which showed that the public understand this and rate mental health, especially among young people, as a top priority for the election.
"But it's been completely sidelined by the political parties. They refuse to talk about it and address it.
"The unmet need is huge. The waiting lists have just blown out. Even though we've got these entry points like headspace, they're completely overwhelmed now, and headspace is just a fairly thinly funded primary care structure. It can't deal with up to two thirds of the people who come in the door.
"They need back-up, more specialised care. There's two bottlenecks. One is to get in, and the next one is to get to the right level of expert care.
"If it was physical health, like COVID or cancer, then the government would address it quickly."
