Baby boomers turning ‘green’ in their ageing politics
New research on the Australian political scene has suggested that the Howard Government’s re-election chances are being squeezed demographically between two competing forces involving the materialism of the mortgage belt and the environmental idealism of baby boomers.
But the new study conducted by National Seniors has unearthed a new political factor – the environmental concerns of the ageing population.
Apart from concerns over health services generally the major concern expressed by the older Australians surveyed was the future of the planet. Four marginal seats with high proportions of 50 to 60 year olds – Parramatta (NSW), Eden-Monaro (NSW), Bowman (Queensland), and Hindmarsh (South Australia) – were chosen and the results on key issues were emphatic.
Number one issue was “access to health services generally and help and support for older people who choose to live at home as long as they can”. But number two – rated as important by 86% to 90% of people – was “the development of alternative fuels and renewable energy, the management of Australia’s water resources as a whole rather than by individual states and territories, and issues to do with greenhouse gases and global warming”.
The National Seniors report said that it was “not surprising” that more Labor voters would be likely to change their vote if Labor took no action on these issues than Liberal voters. But the report added that “what is surprising is the high proportions of supposedly ‘hard core’ Liberals who say that they would at least also probably change their vote if the Liberal Party takes no action on these issues”.
