“In Treasurer Jim Chalmer’s intergenerational equity-obsession budget, the boomer generation in particular is being punished for the temerity of working hard, and taking risks in buying properties!” writes columnist ROSS FITZGERALD.
In the recent federal budget, the Albanese government is effectively abusing older Australians.
People who have worked hard during their lives, have bought their own home and often an investment property are being financially penalised.
They are also emotionally abused by being blamed for the government’s problems.
In Treasurer Jim Chalmer’s intergenerational equity-obsession budget, the boomer generation in particular is being punished for the temerity of working hard, and taking risks in buying properties!
As a widowed, sometimes lonely 81-year-old with multiple health problems, I am one of the vulnerable old in Australia who are open to the possibility of personal abuse and financial exploitation.
Unlike many older Australians, I am lucky to have a loyal network of support in the wider community.
What is not so often discussed is the way in which the older generation is systematically exploited, discriminated against and scapegoated by governments and private organisations.
Underlying, and seemingly justifying, policies and practices applied to the elderly is a pernicious yet persistent attitude that Australia’s older people are a repository of untapped wealth.
Over the past few decades, the phrase “cashed-up baby boomers” has been widely bandied about, but this is a misconception.
Given that compulsory superannuation contributions only came about in the 1990s, many Australians born in the postwar period do not have enough super to see them through their retirements. Indeed, some elderly Australians have almost none.
Nevertheless, our super funds are eyed enviously, even though they are not held privately but held in trusts that invest them. It’s worth remembering that the superannuation scheme was not just set up to provide for people in retirement but to create a pool of capital that would be available to Australian industry.
Most of all, envious eyes are also cast on homes of the elderly, which have exponentially risen in value over the past few decades due to massive inflation in the housing market.
Many commentators have blamed retirees for selfishly clinging to the homes they spent 25 years paying off and not downsizing to a flat, or a retirement village.
At the same time, because of the zooming cost of caring for people in nursing homes, governments are now anxious to keep Australians in their own homes as long as possible, which is a direct contradiction to wanting them to sell up.
A further contradiction is that the aged-care industry benefits from the price of homes rising as much of their income comes from interest on the bonds derived from the sale of homes.
The federal government has also implemented various policies and practices to minimise pension payments to the elderly.
These include means-testing pensions based on a partner’s income, deeming investments as income-producing even when no actual income is received, and factoring in unrealised capital gains on investments.
Perhaps the worst is the plan to progressively raise the age of eligibility for the age pension, eventually to 70. This is not seen by people who work in offices as a problem. They see it as retaining the skills of experienced workers.
But are we really contemplating forcing people who work in physically strenuous jobs to keep working till they are 69? When their bodies can’t handle it anymore, older Australians will end up on a disability payment or whatever they call the dole at the time, so there will be no gain to the government.
People are prone to many forms of denialism, including the denialism that one day you will be old, if you’re lucky.
It is very hard for young people, even middle-aged people to look at someone who is old and think: “One day that will be me”.
If they did, they would realise that whatever practices and policies are currently applied to the elderly will someday be applied to them, possibly even worse in the future. They might then give more consideration to respecting older people.
Overall, the one thing that everyone agrees upon is that people are living longer and so the proportion of people who are more that three quarters of a century old is going to increase.
What has to happen is for Australians to realise that they are going to spend more time as a member of that cohort than any previous generation. So it is in their interests to put in place NOW policies, practices and, most of all, principles that will make those years of their lives enjoyable.
Ross Fitzgerald AM is an emeritus professor of history and politics at Griffith University. His widely-praised novel – co-written with Ian McFadyen – Chalk and Cheese: A Fabrication deals, in a comic way, with many of the problems now facing older Australians.
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