We met some wonderful members of the National Seniors Association who shared their experiences of ageing in 2008, both as people from the ‘baby boomer’ generation and those in their 70s and 80s.

We heard about the subtle discrimination that can go on against older people in job interviews. For example, an employer making an assumption that a person with significant experience won’t be happy with a less senior role when in fact the person may prefer such a position.

Do these experiences sound familiar to you?

I was reminded that whilst it is very important to work on the big issues, like having access to an adequate standard of living in retirement, and a safe place to live, it is also the seemingly little things that can make a real difference to people’s lives.

Having to take your shoes off when you go through airport security can be frustrating for anyone. But, when you have limited mobility already as an older person, you may need to be able to sit and do this.

So, why aren’t there chairs available so that people can sit down if they need to?

And why are shopping centres being built that have so few places to sit down, and no way to get to the other end without walking the long malls?

These are some of the questions put to me. What do you think?

Liz

What a great turnout for our public consultation in Canberra! Thank you to the ACT Human Rights Commission for co-hosting the event.

Many women related to Margaret’s story and we heard about some innovative seminars with young women to build financial literacy skills.

Once again we heard about the policy and practice mismatch where flexible work policies exist but the workplace culture is a barrier to their uptake. This tells me that we need to seriously think about how we get that critical mass to make flexible work mainstream.

Carers ACT has devised an “Employee Carers Program” to assist both employees and employers to extend their thinking around flexibility. They act as an intermediary in the discussion about how a job might be redesigned for a flexible work arrangement. They bring with them a knowledge of other workplaces which assists employees and employers to think creatively. The program has been very successful and with only two caseworkers there is much unmet demand.

In the consultation, there was a strong view that gender equality needs to be given greater prominence in the public arena. Participants agreed that discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual assault and domestic violence were part of a continuum of gender related violence in our society. For example, we were asked why there has been a strong zero tolerance approach to racism on the sporting field, and yet a much less clear position when it came to overt sexism and sexual harassment in sport?

Do you think that sex-based discrimination and harassment are part of a continuum of violence against women?

Liz

Some 2.5 million families provide care to someone in the community. Of those, nearly half a million are primary carers for others in the community. 70% of these carers are women.

When I met with Carers Australia, the national peak body working to promote the needs and interests of carers in our community, I was very concerned to hear that 44% of carers who are in paid work are working below their skill level in order to obtain the workplace flexibility they require to fulfill their caring responsibilities. This was reported by the Taskforce on Care Costs which you can read more about here.

Carers Australia is strongly supportive of national legislation, a new Family Responsibilities and Carers’ Rights Act to provide employed carers with the right to work flexibly and obtain appropriate carers leave. This was one of the recommendations of our It’s About Time Report, released in March last year.

I am keen to hear from carers about your experiences in balancing work with caring responsibilities. Are you getting the support you need from your employer?

Do we need greater legal protection to prevent discrimination on the grounds of family and caring responsibilities?

I look forward to your responses.

Liz

In my role as Commissioner responsible for Age Discrimination, I met with Rhonda Parker the Commissioner for Aged Care in Melbourne today . We both agreed that as a basis for discrimination, age was something that could affect each one of us at some stage.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) latest report into Australia’s changing demographic, entitled ‘Older Australia at a Glance’, shows us that Australia’s population is ageing rapidly.

As at June 2006, 2.7 million Australian’s were aged 65 years and over and this is expected to more than double over the next 30 years. The number of people aged 85 and over has doubled over the past twenty years and is projected to increase more rapidly than any other age group.

I was delighted to read that Australians enjoy one of the highest life expectancies in the world. Women in Australia can now expect to live for approximately 83 years; and the men are catching up too with a life expectancy of approximately 78.5 years.

The data certainly tells us that we are all living longer but it also tells us that we are not disengaging from life in the process. In fact, the overwhelming majority of older Australians continue to be active contributors to society. Technology plays a significant role in the lifestyle of mature age Australians, with 75% of those aged 45-54 years and 60% of those aged 55-64 years, using a computer at home.

Older Australians are still active participants in the workforce, but at the same time, grandparents are the main source of informal child care, providing care for 60% of children receiving informal care. It’s clear that the issues around balancing work and family responsibilities continue to be important as we get older.

With the release of the AIHW report, it is an important time to start redefining how we think about our own age, and to this end, I’d love to hear more from you.

On the issue of health and wellbeing for older Australians, I left my discussions with Aged Care Commissioner feeling optimistic about new opportunities around preventative health care and ways that older Australians can reduce disease, maintain physical and cognitive function and most of all, maintain meaningful engagement in society. As we get older our needs change but the perception of ‘age as a disability’ does not sit well with a proportion of the population that, as the evidence shows, continues to work, provide care, volunteer, partake in community and social activities.

On that note, I guess the age old adage of “you are as old as you feel” couldn’t be more relevant!