Can’t retire just yet, baby boomers

You’re healthy enough to continue working past the age of 65 years, according to Mark Butler, Minister for Mental Health and Ageing.

In a comment which has angered some baby boomers, Mr Butler has called for more people to stay in work to keep Australia’s “levels of economic activity up”.

Speaking to The Advertiser, Mr Butler claimed ageing was associated with benefits and opportunities, provided the community viewed older people with respect, rather than seeing them as a financial burden.

“This is the healthiest, wealthiest, best-educated generation of retirees in human history,” he told the newspaper.

While the enactment of anti-discrimination laws may help to maintain respect, Mr Butler said ultimately it was a “conversation the community has to have about rediscovering respect for age”.

However, some baby boomers about to retire found it difficult to agree with Mr Butler.

One reader wrote on the AdelaideNow website: “The retirement age is 65 for everyone and I say to Mark Butler get out and get your hands dirty for once in your life then keep working beyond 65 and see how you like it… come down to earth before you open your mouth about what the baby boomers should and should not do.”

Another reader commented: “Retirement means we ‘choose’ how we spend our days, and that is different for everyone. Some will choose to continue to work, some will not and some will have a mix of both. Don’t tell us Mr Butler that we have to keep working because it will be a strain on the nation’s finances. You find a solution that will not take away our choices.”

However, Council on the Ageing chief executive, Ian Yates, backed Mr Butler’s call, agreeing that retirement in a person’s 60s should be abandoned, but added there would need to be “more flexibility in how work is structured.”