JOE HOCKEY has rallied to the defence of young Australians, saying the modern-day pressures of high school education are contributing to rising depression and suicide rates and that their lives in general are becoming over-taxed and over-regulated.

Delivering the annual Earle Page lecture at the University of New England last night, the shadow treasurer said the pressures exerted by older generations today went beyond the centuries-old ''deploring the changes in manners and customs of the young''.

"Young people need the chance to... engage in calculated risk-taking" ... Joe Hockey, shadow treasurer. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

''We regulate or tax in their name every part of their being from the drinks they consume to the cars they drive,'' he said.

''It is older generations that have imposed draconian expectations on a young person to spend 120 hours at the car wheel in the presence of a licensed driver … to get their provisional licence. Some rules are necessary but we cannot go too far.