AAP General News (Australia)
08-27-2008
Fed: Ageing not as sexy but more critical than climate change
CANBERRA, Aug 27 AAP - It's not as sexy as climate change, but Australia's seniors
reckon addressing the issue of the country's ageing population is more critical than the
state of the environment.
Australia's largest organisation for the over 50s, National Seniors Australia, has
launched a document highlighting what it describes as a crisis in ageing that has the
ability to bankrupt the nation.
By 2030 more than half the voting population of Australia will be over 50 years of
age, the group says.
The document, which will be sent to all MPs and had been discussed with Treasurer Wayne
Swan, showed how ageing could be turned into an asset rather than a liability, National
Seniors Australia chairman Everald Compton said.
"This issue of the ageing of Australia and the cost of the ageing of Australia is a
greater crisis than climate change, but it's not as sexy a subject as climate change and
most people in Australia would prefer not to grow old and die," Mr Compton told reporters.
"We're calling on the government and the opposition to give this the priority in a
bipartisan way which will enable Australia to avoid going bankrupt with the issue of a
massively ageing population."
Australia was wasting the talent of millions of older people, Mr Compton said.
"We pension them off and tell them to sit in front of their television set and watch
Home and Away while the nation goes to the pot economically.
"This nation has to face the fact that we cannot economically sustain a retirement age of 65."
Mr Compton, 76, who says he intends to die by being shot by a jealous husband when
he is 120, would not suggest a suitable retirement age.
"I belive the longer you work, the longer you live. The quicker that you retire, the
quicker you get into a geriatric hospital."
AAP sm/rl/srp
KEYWORD: SENIORS
2008 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.
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