The election: Beyond taxes
How refreshing would it be to set your own election agenda – to be able to look at some of the issues that will have long term implications for our communities rather than the barrage of grabs on the relative benefits of tax cuts proposed by the two major parties. Michèle Nardelli spoke to UniSA academics about some of the issues they'd like to see on the election agenda.
Can baby boomers survive retirement?
With
the Australian population ageing at the rate of knots Prime Minister John
Howard is encouraging people to stave off retirement and stay in the
workforce. The new push is for employers to value the experience of older
workers and for workers to keep at it. But UniSA's ageing specialist Dr Rob Ranzijn says, research suggests the reality for many Australians is that
they will face retirement without financial security.
“A substantial proportion of older adults may not be able to provide for themselves in later life without public policies which are more interventionist,“ Ranzijn says.
“The most vulnerable are single women, the divorced, people who have been in years of casual or part time employment and people who do not own their own homes.
“At the same time that the government is espousing self-provision, the workforce participation rate of middle-aged adults is lower than in other OECD countries. In Australia 62 per cent of people 55-59 are working and when you look at those over 65 years the figure plummets to six per cent. In the past 30 years our median retirement age has actually reduced to around 55.
“For many years Australian retirees could expect a comfortable retirement because of the universal age pension. For baby boomers the pension will be harder to get and probably only at a subsistence level. Official retirement statistics often mask the fact that, if you are unemployed at the age of 45 it is hard to re-enter the workforce. Precarious employment from middle age on makes it more difficult to accumulate substantial superannuation or other savings.
“In the medium term, governments must plan for the fact that most people are no longer in full-time employment by 55 yet they can expect to live into their 80s. We need to be looking at ways to help today's middle-aged people accumulate the wealth they will need to supplement the age pension. We need to rebuild the public housing stock which has become depleted over the last decade, and there needs to be more government support for specific training for older unemployed people tailored to the workforce requirements in their local areas. Because the nature of work has changed so dramatically in recent decades, older job-seekers should be regarded as in the same category as young people entering the job market for the first time, and trained accordingly.“
Giving youth a voice by lending an ear
They
may be 'the future' but the fact is they can't vote so it is easy for
politicians to bundle youth up in nice neat packages and develop policies
that are 'good for them' and meet the approval of their parents. UniSA
program director for Social Work and Social Policy, Harry Savelsberg says
governments must learn to really listen to young people and not just those
who fit the 1950s clean-cut stereotype.
“The generic complaint from young people is that we don't listen to them and I think that is really valid,“ Savelsberg says. “Youth is packaged up as one homogenous group, without any thought that what exists out there are young people who are as diverse as the rest of the population. It may be handy for politicians to wrap up that group as some sort of rosy symbol of our future potential as a nation but that kind of handling of youth issues is fundamentally flawed. For every young middle class Australian teenager aspiring to go to university and worried about HECS fees, there are hundreds of others, some non-English speaking, some homeless, some generationally poor, some unemployed, and many without the support structures of a caring family or social network that politicians presume they have.
“Policies that talk about employment assistance tied to a system of mutual obligation, assume that all youth have the same supports in place to allow them to fulfil their obligations but that is just not the case.
“Youth need to be heard across their heterogeneous breadth, so that politicians understand more clearly what issues are important to them. We also need to engage with the diversity of our young people because they are culturally, linguistically and socially complex. When you don't listen to young people you create all the elements that lead to isolation, social disengagement and marginalisation. When you only listen to some of them, you again reinforce alienation and cynicism. Youth policy formation needs to start with open ears.“
A brighter shade of Green
Both
major parties are busy promoting environmental policies, the Democrats claim
to negotiate better deals for the environment and the Greens claim
environmental issues for their heartland, but beyond all the media hype,
UniSA Professor of Strategic Management Bobby Banerjee says Australia is at
least five, if not seven years behind the rest of the developed world in its
environmental policies.
“All the political parties trot out predictable policies – the Greens focus on retention of old growth forests, the Coalition and the Labor parties each present their own take on high profile issues such as water policy and saving the River Murray, but essentially they are not challenging some of the really big issues,“ Banerjee says.
“Australian industries have upstream and downstream environmental problems. We are still highly dependent economically on finite resources – “dig it up and sell it“ is still a mainstay of our economy. We also have very few controls and safeguards on industries and no real benchmarking towards the improvement of environmental outcomes. What protocols and measures we do have in place are voluntary and self regulated.
“If we are serious about our environmental future we need to look at developing tougher environmental legislation and disclosure laws. Each year industries should be encouraged to be accountable for reduced and more efficient material usage, a reduction in waste and energy use. We also need to encourage product stewardship so that manufacturers take some responsibility for what happens to a product at the end of its life. In Germany there are car buy back contracts so that when a car is no longer useable the manufacturer must take the car back and be accountable for what happens to it. That kind of accountability sets up a whole rethink of how a product is made. It ignites creativity and a focus on sustainability that actually has an impact on the economics of that manufacturing business.
“Long term, serving the 'triple bottom line' demands risk taking and experimentation which is not a great fit in the political and business world. But if we are serious about our environmental, economic and social sustainability we need to campaign, plan and act in cycles beyond the quarterly reports and three year term of office.“