Tuesday 11 December 2007

The issues of a rapidly ageing population quickly became front and centre stage. The Office of the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner has done a major report telling the stories of older Tasmanians revealing severe financial pressures, and the lack of access to aged care facilities. Go to http://www.antidiscrimination.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/70308/57610-Age_publication.pdf.

The challenge for Tasmania was confirmed just today by the release of the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics which reports that Tasmania now has the oldest population in Australia, with a median age of 39.1 years, overtaking South Australia. This can be contrasted with the youngest state, being the Northern Territory with a median age of 31.1 years. For more about this finding from the ABS, go to http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mf/3201.0?OpenDocument.

Our evening consultation in Hobart generated lots of discussion about the pressures on grandparents, who after caring for their own children, and often both being in paid work, are now under pressure to take on part-time or sole caring responsibilities for their grandchildren. This pressure comes at a time when, for some older people, they are also under pressure to stay in paid work.

I was really concerned to hear stories about how common it is for older women to have no choice but to stay working in high pressure jobs, like class room teaching, until their mid-sixties, when their male colleagues are more often able to move out of paid work earlier, due to better retirement savings. At our meeting with the Unions Tasmania Women’s Committee, we discussed at length the adverse impact on older women now as a result of their past direct discrimination in younger years, including being forced to leave paid work on marriage, or upon the birth of their first child, their unequal ability to invest in superannuation when their male colleagues could, This has meant that many older women now simply can’t afford to leave paid work due to the small savings behind them.

Is this your situation, or the situation of women you know?

I would really like to hear more on this.

Housing generally has also been discussed a lot – lack of crisis accommodation, long public housing waiting lists, increasing private housing costs, both rentals, and home ownership.

We also heard about the Safe at Home Program for an improved criminal justice response to family violence. I’ll be keen to share more about that with you shortly.

Liz