Uncle Dennis Fisher fails in bid to access age pension early
An Aboriginal elder who took the Commonwealth to court in order to get early access to his age pension says he is “frustrated” by the system.
An Aboriginal elder has failed in his bid to access his age pension earlier than non-Indigenous Australians, in a landmark ruling handed down by the Federal Court.
Wakka Wakka man Uncle Dennis Fisher, 66, sued the Commonwealth last year, arguing that he should receive the age pension earlier than non-Indigenous Australians on the grounds of a shorter life expectancy.
He argued that, according to the ABS, an Indigenous man aged 65 had a remaining life expectancy of 15.8 years, while a non-Indigenous man of the same age could expect to live for a remaining 19 years.
The Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act requires that Aboriginal people receive the pension for the same duration as other people, he argued.
Mr Fisher, who is also known as Uncle Dennis, argued he should have been eligible for the pension at 64, three years earlier than it is currently available.
However, on Wednesday, Justices Anna Katzmann, Debra Mortimer, Hilary Charlesworth, Wendy Abraham and Geoffrey Kennett found the current system did not breach the Racial Discrimination Act.
The court accepted, as both parties to the proceeding had argued, that the causes of Indigenous Australians shorter life span stemmed from “the ongoing effects of colonisation, dispossession, destruction of cultural bonds, poor access to services and racist policies.”
“These facts ... are a matter of grave concern for a society that values equality of opportunity,” the court said.
But in its judgment, the court also said the social security system should not discriminate in favour of one race.
“The social security system as a whole would not treat members of all races with equal dignity and respect if it provided members of a particular race with more limited access to the age pension than others.”
Following the judgment Mr Fisher said he was “frustrated with this white system.”
“It doesn’t give us a say,” he said.
“White people are living longer because they haven’t lost what we have lost.”
Mr Fisher said he had seen “too many people dying at a very early age.”
“We’re lucky to get to 50,” he said.
“This case was about telling the truth, and asking the government to work together with us, to give our people the same chance in life as everyone else.”
Nerita Waight, chief executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, who acted on behalf of Mr Fisher along with the Human Rights Law Centre, said the Albanese government could still step in.
“Everyone deserves to live a life with dignity but this is not possible for our communities who have been left with no choice but to live shorter lives in poverty because of decades of racist colonial policies and a continued lack of investment,” Ms Waight said.
“Despite today’s result, the Albanese government can still do the right thing by lowering the pension age for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in line with their continued lower life expectancy,” she said.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2018, the average life expectancy for male Indigenous Australians was 71.6 years and 75.6 years for women.
For men, that is 8.6 years below the average life expectancy for non-Indigenous men, and for women it is 7.8 years below the average life expectancy for non-Indigenous women.
Outside the court on Wednesday Mr Fisher did not say whether he would appeal the decision.
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