Ageing Australians lack trust in politicians

Focus groups conducted across the country by the Ipsos Mind and Mood survey have a clear message for legislators. Voters understand that demographic change requires policy change, but politicians should proceed with extreme caution.

The survey 'Our Ageing Population', developed by The Guardian, analyses the UK's response to demographic change compared to that of Australia's, and finds older Aussies are worried about the issue and deeply concerned that governments haven’t got policy right.

“They are concerned about the broad reaching implications for the nation’s housing, employment and healthcare sectors… Perceptions that the federal government is not introducing policies which will address these perceived problems only serves to heighten anxiety about Australia’s future in the face of this important demographic shift,” the survey concludes.

The number of over 80s in Australia is set to more than double from three million in 2012 to 6.1 million in 2037, says the Office for National Statistics, while the proportion of the UK population aged 75 years and over will grow from 7.9% in 2012 to 13% in 2037.

The short survey asked whether it is the responsibility of the individual or the state to plan for ageing, as well as posing the questions of whether health and social care services are adequately funded to meet older people’s needs.

Most recently treasurer Joe Hockey raised the possibility of humans living to 150 as he foreshadowed a “deep conversation with the Australian people” about ageing after the government releases the latest intergenerational report. And the ageing population is also cited as a reason the government needs to cut spending on healthcare.

“The idea that health has to be cut to support the ageing population frightens people because they think the system is under immense pressure already and they can’t see how more can be taken away, and in regional Australia they feel especially under-serviced,” says Dorothy Dudley, director of the Mind and Mood report.

While some respondents were prepared to accept the Abbott government’s $7 Medicare copayment (the policy that was on the table at the time of the surveys) they were suspicious that it would lead to even higher payments and a 'US style system' where healthcare became unaffordable.

Respondents were equally anxious about the plan to raise the pension eligibility age to 70 – a policy that applies to those born after 1965 – and generally worried at the prospect that the pension would become less generous but that they would be unable to continue to work.

“The Coalition government’s plans to increase the age pension eligibility age to 70 by 2035 created much discussion,” the report said. “The fact that the age pension is so strongly linked with the concept of retirement was evidenced by many participants confusing the ‘pension eligibility age’ with a ‘retirement age’, although an official retirement age does not exist in Australia.”

But according to the report, there is “also a deal of anxiety about gaining access to superannuation with a perception that the superannuation goalposts were continually changing”.

It found that “across the board, fingers were pointing at the government who many participants felt had not really fully addressed the challenges they foresaw”.

“Government needs to be creative, not so tunnel-visioned. They’ve got to think. What if that was my mum, my dad? What would they need?” one respondent says.

“What measures are our leaders putting in today to help us to make sure it doesn’t happen? I’m not feeling very comfortable with anything really, are you?” another says.

“There used to be a difference between Labor and Liberal and now they’re the same. I’m also cynical about everything in our society. It’s all driven by the bottom line. Acts of goodwill, not for money, are pretty rare.”