Australia and Greece sign old age pensions agreement
Prime Minister John Howard will sign an historic agreement with visiting Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis in Canberra today (23 May) to pay Australian old age pensions to Australian Greeks returning to their homeland.
The Agreement, which has taken 20 years to negotiate, will provide for differing pension payments based on a pro-rata formula for each year that the Greek immigrants lived in Australia, with maximum payments for people who have been residents for 25 years.
But those who have already resettled will receive a smaller amount that those who leave after today.
Australia’s Greek born population peaked at 161,000 in 1971 but had fallen to 116,000 in the 2001 census due to death or return to Greece.
