As expected, the Federal Government has today rejected the Productivity Commission’s call to raise the retirement age to 70:
A spokesperson for Treasurer Joe Hockey said the Productivity Commission was an independent body and there were no current plans to follow its advice…
The Labor opposition was at least more circumspect:
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen said the opposition will “carefully study” the report. But he added: “This is primarily a report for the government to respond to”.
“Labor understands the challenges of an ageing population, in fact, when in government, it lifted the qualifying age from 65 to 67 for the age pension in its secure and sustainable pension reforms.”
Whereas The Greens are particularly averse to raising the retirement age, arguing that many people are not able to keep working past 65 and that such a move would “serve only to further entrench this poverty” (conveniently forgetting that it is unfair to burden younger Australians with rising health and ageing costs).
With Australia’s demographic “sweet spot” having come to an end, Australia’s life expectancy rising, and the ratio of workers to dependents projected to decline for decades to come (see below chart), raising the retirement age, along with reforms to superannuation concessions and the pensions means test, will have to be confronted sooner rather than later.
