Comment
COTA Congress provides policies to take to new Government
Older Australians must be helped out of the trap of genteel poverty caused by their paper wealth of a valuable home but not enough money to support it or themselves. But the 25 per cent of those without assets and resources, particularly many older women, require even more assistance to ensure their financial security, according to DENYS CORRELL, national executive director of Council on the Ageing Australia.
This was one of the main policy imperatives coming out of the many important papers given at the COTA National Congress in Canberra on 12-13 November.
Professor Ann Harding from the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling provided valuable and disturbing new figures on the wealth of older Australians over the past 12 years. They show that while the average wealth of Australians aged 65 and over has risen from $106,000 in 1986 to $204,000 in 1998, the average wealth of Australian families in the 25-34 year group actually fell in the same period, to only $58,000.
Some older people may be accumulating wealth, as the NATSEM study shows but it is largely tied up in houses. COTA is anxious to see ways they can access this wealth if necessary and not live in genteel poverty. Even more worrying are those older Australians who are missing out altogether, especially women.
Dr Diana Olsberg from the University of NSW Research Centre on Ageing, spoke on the continuing disadvantages which women face in the now largely privatised occupationally linked superannuation system. She made the frightening statement that there is nothing that can be done for women over the age of 45 to help them accumulate enough superannuation for a secure retirement!
This makes the message of Julian Disney, past president of ACOSS and the International Council on Social Welfare, so relevant. When opening our Congress, he pointed out that Australia was a low tax country which needed to build up infrastructure in hospital and aged care services and other public utilities and not let them run down.
COTA is anxious that Australia does not build up inequity between generations by different benefits, pensions and tax treatments by governments. It is unfair for younger people in need to receive lower benefits when they have the same financial needs as older people.
While there was greatest emphasis at the Congress on the issues of adequate retirement incomes, not just for older Australians now, but for the rest of the community who will live longer and healthier in the future, many other important issues were discussed. Health services and costs, anti-discrimination legislation, and use of technology by older people were covered extensively by speakers and delegates.
COTA will continue to represent the interests of older Australians to the new Government, and industry and policy making arenas, to ensure that their needs are met in the context of a growing national economy and in a sustained and responsible way. Our just concluded congress has contributed to the public debate.
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