Indigenous elder suing government in bid to obtain pension early
An Aboriginal man is suing the federal government in a case that could have enormous ramifications for the whole country.
An Aboriginal elder is suing the federal government in an unprecedented legal case that could have widespread implications for other areas of law.
Proud Wakka Wakka man Dennis James Fisher, 64, is suing the Commonwealth in the federal court arguing he should have access to the aged pension at 64 rather than 67, because of his shorter life expectancy.
The average life expectancy for Indigenous men is 71.6 years, which is 8.6 years earlier than their non-Indigenous peers.
“White people are living longer because they haven’t lost what we have lost,” he told news.com.au.
“This is about acknowledging what happened here. So many things that Aboriginal people are suffering from today, are because of how we have been treated since colonisation. Our language, our culture, our identity comes from this land. We didn’t have a problem, a problem came here.”
Alex Walters from the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, who is acting for Mr Fisher, told news.com.au the case is about “fairness in access to the aged pension”.
“The argument is pretty simple: because of the gap in life expectancy for First Nations people, they don’t have the same opportunity to retire and receive the support of the pension in later life,” he said.
He points out there are already areas of public life where adjustments for the gap in life expectancy are made, such as aged care services, where the age of access for Aboriginal Australians is 50 and 65 for the rest of the population.
“In a sense we are litigating the failure to make progress in closing the gap and the failure to move the dial in life expectancy,” he said.
“While work continues to be done to close the gap in life expectancy, we say the pension should be accessible earlier for First Nations people, to acknowledge that the gap persists and the right to a pension is not enjoyed equally.”
Walters has been working on the case for two and a half years, with the case having been filed in September 2021.
He said an earlier age pension is compliant with obligations under anti-discrimination law.
“The requirement that people should have equal access to rights, irrespective of race, has been on the statute books since 1975,” he said.
“While the case might be a test case, the law behind it is not novel nor new.”.
The Commonwealth is mounting a rigorous defence, warning the case could open the doors to other rulings.
Commonwealth barrister Jenny Firkin KC on Tuesday, according to the Daily Mail, argued in court that life expectancy was not part of the legislative criteria to assess whether someone was eligible for the age pension.
She said using life expectancy as a criteria would lead to an “unworkable uncertainty” where a person’s eligibility would shift depending on the year or their gender and race, Ms Firkin told the court.
Ms Firkin warned that there could be flow on effects to other areas of law including taxation and planning.
“The potential implications are indeterminate,” Ms Firkin said.
Fisher is no stranger to public attention. He has been a radio DJ at Melbourne’s 3KND community station for more than two decades
At just 10-years-old he started working on a dairy farm at an Aboriginal settlement in regional Queensland where he told NITV the older men were paid $60 while he received a mere $4 for a fortnight of work.
A decision is expected later this year.