Older Australians must work longer, says Treasurer Josh Frydenberg
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will signal a push to keep older Australians in work longer to help improve the national economy.
Frydenberg will use a speech to the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia on Tuesday evening to argue that a “new dynamic” is needed to deal with the country’s ageing population.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Frydenberg will say that a “range of policy responses” is required to address the “economic time bomb”, including training to keep Australians aged 65 and older in the jobs market.
Frydenberg will say working Australians currently undertake 80 per cent of their training before they turn 21.
“This will have to change if we want to continue to see more Australians stay engaged in work for longer,” he will say.
Since the government’s first intergenerational report was released in 2002, the number of people aged 65 or older has increased from 13 per cent of the population to more than 16 per cent.
“Our median age, now thirty-seven, has increased by two years since then and life expectancy has gone to 81 for males and 85 for females,” Frydenberg will say.
“As more Australians live longer, the number of working age Australians for every person aged over 65 diminishes, whereas in 1974-75 it was 7.4 to one and 40 years later in 2014-15, it was 4.5 to one.”
“It’s estimated over the next four decades to fall to just 2.7 to one.”
Frydenberg is also expected to declare migration as part of the government’s strategy to reduce the economic impacts of Australia’s ageing population.
In an opinion piece published in the Australian Financial Review on Tuesday, Frydenberg wrote, “When it comes to population, our migration program has served us well … With the median age of migrants being 20 to 25, or 10 years less than that of the broader population, immigration has helped to soften the economic impacts of an ageing population.”
Labor frontbencher Jason Clare says the Morrison government “have got form” on making people work for longer.
“They’ve cut the pension or they’ve frozen superannuation before. There are no new ideas here,” Clare told Sky News.
“It’s just Frydenberg digging up the old ideas of getting people to work longer.”
National Seniors Australia chief advocate Ian Henschke said the treasurer’s “time bomb” analogy was “stigmatising”.
“Rather than stigmatise older Australians, we should blame previous treasurers from 1980 who have stood by and watched this happen,” Henschke said.
“Let’s deal with the facts, for example, that older Australians are wanting to work more and longer but they are not getting the work they need.
“When they do retrain, we know they are experiencing discrimination.”