Archive for the ‘Ageing’ Category.
On Sky Lunchtime Agenda, I spoke with host David Lipson and Liberal Senator Scott Ryan about the importance of treating asylum-seekers with dignity and compassion, and the value of making sure we have more and better-trained workers in the aged care sector.
I spoke today about the federal government actions that have made a positive difference in my electorate of Fraser.
Appropriations Bills, 12 February 2013
There are several old chestnuts the Liberals can be relied on to trot out every election year, and one of those that we hear so often in the ACT is the line, ‘Labor ignores Canberra’—the suggestion that somehow Labor governments take Canberra for granted. But, unfortunately for the Liberals, the people of Fraser are a clever bunch. They are able to see through this line easily, because it is so demonstrably false. The investments that this Labor government has made in Fraser are visible everywhere, from the Majura Parkway to the National Broadband Network rolling out and the many schools enjoying new facilities thanks to the Building the Education Revolution program.
In fact, if you were to take the time to visit all of the sites where Labor has invested in my electorate of Fraser, you would be taking a pretty comprehensive tour of Canberra’s north. I can even provide you with a loose itinerary. You can set off from the flourishing suburb of Braddon, where my electorate office is located and where Minister for Human Services Kim Carr and I opened a one-stop shop for Medicare and Centrelink in October last year. The co-location of these facilities is a core part of Labor’s service delivery reforms. It is making access to housing, health, crisis support, education and training, and family and financial support easier for Canberrans.
In parliament today, I spoke about superannuation, and about aged care.
Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Reducing Illegal Early Release and Other Measures) Bill, 11 February 2013
In 1991, the then Prime Minister Paul Keating said of the superannuation guarantee:
‘It will make Australia a more equal place, a more egalitarian place and hence a more cohesive and happier place.’
We do not often talk about happiness and superannuation in the same breath, but I think we should, because a strong superannuation system is a system that ensures dignity in retirement. It ensures that Australian retirees can enjoy that extra grey nomad trip and the comfort of being able to spend time with loved ones without worrying about paying the bills. It ensures that generations that have given much to Australia enjoy the retirement to which they are entitled.
My Chronicle column this month is on love and related adventures.
Valentine’s Day is a time for new and old love, The Chronicle, 5 February 2013
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, there’s probably no more inappropriate song to be listening to than Tim Minchin’s ‘If I didn’t have you… I’d probably have someone else’. In the song, Minchin tells us he thinks it’s mathematically pretty unlikely that he met the one girl on earth specifically designed for him while studying at a university in Perth. Life is chaos, he argues, not fate.
Many older Canberrans and their loved ones are thinking about their aged care options. In my second aged care forum in as many months, I outlined Labor’s plans to reform the sector and heard from those who will be directly affected by these reforms.
If you’d like more detail, check out the Australian Government’s 2012 Living Longer, Living Better policy statement and the Productivity Commission’s 2011 Caring for Older Australians report.
My Chronicle column this week is on ageing, concluding with a shameless plug for my community forum this Friday.
Ageing Not a Problem, The Chronicle, 4 December 2012
When I hear people talk about the ‘problem’ of ageing, I’m tempted to reply: ‘it beats the alternative!’. Thanks to better food, quality healthcare, economic growth and a stronger safety net, life expectancy in Australia is now 84 for women and 80 for men, about two years longer than it was a decade ago. Older Australians are also healthier, with one study showing that the mobility and mental acuity of a 70 year-old today is comparable to that of a 60 year-old a generation ago.
Last month, I held a community forum with Minister for Ageing Mark Butler. Over 160 people came along to hear about the government’s Living Longer – Living Better reforms. Based on an 800-page Productivity Commission report and extensive hearings around Australia, the package recognises that while the aged care system has served Australia well, it is not fit for purpose in the coming decades.
Over 150 people joined Minister the Hon Mark Butler MP and me at the Griffin Centre in Civic to learn about the Gillard Government’s significant reforms in the aged care sector. The event was well oversubscribed so I’m holding another event on 7 December at 10:30am, also in the Griffin Centre. If you’d like to come along, please call my office on 6247 4396 or email Andrew.Leigh.MP {at} aph.gov.au
THE HON MARK BUTLER MP
Minister for Mental Health and Ageing
Minister for Social Inclusion
Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Mental Health Reform
ANDREW LEIGH MP
Federal Member for Fraser
JOINT MEDIA RELEASE
19 November 2012
LIVING LONGER LIVING BETTER IN FRASER
Minister for Ageing Mark Butler joined local MP Andrew Leigh today to report back to the community on the Government’s $3.7 billion aged care reforms.
Mr Butler met with local residents to discuss the Federal Government’s Living Longer Living Better aged care reform package, designed to provide locals with a better aged care system now, and in the future.
Continue reading ‘Want to know more about aged care reform?’ »
In today’s AFR, I have a piece on inequality and superannuation.
Superannuation Inequity Needs Redressing, Australian Financial Review, 10 October 2012
Wealth in Australia is more unequally distributed than incomes. That’s largely because those of us on higher incomes are able to save more than disadvantaged Australians. This becomes a wedge over the course of a lifetime. By the time rich and poor people reach retirement, those at the top of the distribution have contributed more, and earned more returns on their contributions.
Since the Commonwealth began paying pensions in 1909, a central purpose of retirement incomes policy has been to prevent poverty among the elderly. When the Keating Government introduced universal superannuation in 1992, the boost was primarily for low and middle-income earners, since many high-wage workers already had more than 9 per cent of their wage directed into superannuation. Similarly, the Gillard Government’s decision to boost contributions to 12 per cent will have its greatest benefit for low-wage workers.
I spoke in parliament this week about the MySuper reforms, using the insights of behavioural economics to make defaults better.
Superannuation Legislation Amendment (MySuper Core Provisions) Bill, 22 August 2012
Retiring with dignity after a lifetime’s effort and contribution should not be a luxury for a few. Thanks to successive Labor governments and their vision for the future to introduce, enhance and defend the Superannuation Guarantee for all Australian workers, retiring with dignity is a right for Australians. Addressing the Australian Graduate School of Management in 1991, Paul Keating said of the Superannuation Guarantee:
‘It will make Australia a more equal place, a more egalitarian place and hence a more cohesive and happier place.’
Prime Minister Keating said it was the safety net most Australians would need when they retire.
I moved a private member’s motion in the House of Representatives today on the strength of the Australian economy, and the need to approach economic debates with facts rather than fear (avoiding phobophobia).
A Strong Australian Economy
18 June 2012I move: That this House:
(1) notes that:
(a) by historical standards, unemployment, inflation and interest rates are at very low levels;
(b) for the first time in Australian history, Australia has a AAA rating from all three major credit rating agencies;
(c) Australia’s debt levels, despite the hit to revenues from the global financial crisis, are around one tenth the level of major advanced economies;
(d) OECD Economic Outlook 91 confirms that the Australian economy will significantly outperform OECD economies as a whole over this year and next; and
(e) the IMF has said of Australia: ‘we welcome the authorities’ commitment to return to a budget surplus by 2012-13 to rebuild fiscal buffers, putting Commonwealth government finances in a stronger position’; and
(2) calls upon all Members to approach economic debates with facts rather than fear, and to put the national interest first when discussing the strong Australian economy.Economic reform in Australia has never been easy. In the postwar decades, the conservatives built up a tariff wall that helped make Australian industry uncompetitive and kept consumer prices high. In 1973, Gough Whitlam began the long process of breaking down Australia’s tariff walls—the 25 per cent across-the-board tariff cuts.
Continue reading ‘Putting Facts Before Fear in Economic Debates’ »
I wrote in today’s Drum about the government’s aged care reforms.
Choosing Life Over Money in Our Old Age, The Drum, 2 May 2012
Quiz time. Over the past 40 years, average real incomes in Australia have doubled and life expectancy has increased by a decade. If you could have only one of those developments, which would you pick? Would you prefer twice the income, or to live a decade longer?
I held one of my regular community forums at lunchtime today at the Belconnen Community Services theaterette (‘theatre@bcs’). I started off speaking about the mining tax package, which has just passed the parliament, and will provide for a cut to the company tax rate, an increase in superannuation, and more investment (particularly in the mining regions).
There were a wide variety of questions, covering the Gonski review of school funding, local arts facilities, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, refugee policy, the purchase of submarines, the lack of a letterbox at the Kangara Waters community, defence force and public service pension indexation, the adequacy of footpaths in the city centre, the merits of taking on debt to pay for fiscal stimulus, the frequency of grass cutting, household assistance in the carbon pricing plan, and the effect of federal pension increases on ACT public housing costs.
I enjoy the interplay of ideas at these forums, and welcome anyone who lives or works on the northside of Canberra to come along to a future community forum.
This forum was held on a weekday lunchtime, but there’s no perfect time of the day for a community forum, so I aim to vary the dates and times to allow as many people as possible to attend. For details of upcoming forums, click here.
On ABC 666 this morning, I spoke with Ross Solly and Liberal Senator Gary Humphries. Topics included the benefits of a profits-based mining tax, why the government chose the most capable person to run the Future Fund, and the importance of not bringing into play the character of a victim of an alleged sexual assault. Here’s the audio.
I spoke in parliament today about the government’s Minerals Resource Rent Tax package.
I spoke to parliament on both Wednesday and Thursday about the Tax Forum, and also about the challenge of ongoing tax reform to support the kinds of social policies society is increasingly demanding.
Statements – Taxation
12 October 2011It was my pleasure last week to participate in the Australian government’s tax forum, a forum designed to continue the important conversation about how to build a better taxation system in Australia. This forum, of course, does not sit in isolation. This government commissioned a once in a generation taxation report in 2009. The Henry review reported back with a range of important recommendations which this government is pursuing. In my own submission to the tax forum, I argued that among the core principles for tax reform should be the following: taxes should be shifted from mobile tax bases to immobile tax bases, taxation of savings should be more neutral and sustainable, polluters should internalise the social cost of environmental damage, disincentives to labour force participation should be reduced, and the tax system should be as simple as possible.
Are you aged under 24, with a zest to represent other young Australians? Then why not apply for a position on the Youth Engagement Steering Committee for the 2012 Australian Youth Forum? Applications close 31 October 2011. Details here.
I spoke today in parliament about the campaign that Chris Burke and I are running to help Canberrans find their lost superannuation.
Lost Superannuation
19 September 2011According to the Australian Taxation Office, Australians have around $19 billion in lost superannuation accounts. That is a bit over $1,000 for every adult in the country. Lost superannuation accounts arise when people change jobs and forget to update their superannuation accounts or when they take a career break. When you have your money spread across more accounts, you might end up paying excess fees or having your money invested in the wrong assets. Many people never claim lost superannuation so they do not enjoy the standard of living in retirement that is rightfully theirs. If superannuation is a nest egg then lost superannuation is like those eggs at the bottom of the garden that you never find at the end of a treasure hunt.
The last parliamentary fortnight wrapped up with a debate over a motion moved by the Liberal Party about Australia’s ‘forgotten families’. I spoke in the debate, and used it as a chance to discuss the government’s achievements and agenda, and contrast them with the relentless negativity of the Opposition Leader.
The federally-funded Financial Information Service are running a free seminar next week on ‘Understanding retirement income streams’.
Details, details…
Wednesday, 17 August
6pm – 8.30pm
Belconnen Premier Inn, 110 Benjamin Way, Belconnen.
Update: Due to the popularity of these seminars, Centrelink scheduled another one
Thursday, 18 August
6pm – 8.30pm
Belconnen Premier Inn, 110 Benjamin Way, Belconnen.
Please RSVP to 13 6357 or fis.seminar.bookings@humanservices.gov.au
Having entered the world 39 years ago, I now begin my 40th year. Which made me feel rather old until I realised that if Alfred Deakin were alive, he’d be celebrating his 155th birthday today.
There are also some rather likeable features about 39, such as the fact that it’s the sum of the first three powers of 3 (31+32+33). Does this mean I should be doing things in triplicate this year?
I gave a short speech to parliament on Thursday about the challenge of loneliness, an issue that gets less policy attention than it probably deserves.
Loneliness, 12 May 2011
A recent article in the Australian noted that one in four Australians suffer from loneliness as a serious problem. In fact, loneliness is one of the fastest-growing contemporary issues in modern Australia. Many of us here know Professor Adrian Franklin as a panel member on the ABC’s Collectors program. But he is also one of the country’s leading sociologists and has recently conducted extensive research on housing, loneliness and health. Loneliness is a grim reality that I know the member for Wakefield has also written about.
I spoke in parliament last week about the government’s Stronger, Fairer, Simpler superannuation reforms, and the importance of making sure our superannuation policies are equitable as well as efficient.
My Australian Financial Review opinion piece today is on ageing (remembering, as usual, that authors don’t choose their headlines).