Constructive role for older staff

In the current employment climate, in which businesses large and small are struggling to fill job vacancies, Peter Dutton’s proposal to double the amount age and veteran service pensioners can earn before their pension payments are cut makes sense. Retirees have a wealth of experience and skills. Allowing them to earn about $600 a fortnight instead of the current $300, at a time when living costs are rising, would put more money into their pockets, boost consumption and allow businesses struggling without enough workers to function better. About 80,000 pensioners currently work. Jim Chalmers’ response, that the proposal will be discussed at the employment summit to be held before the October budget, is welcome.

If implemented, it would likely be popular. Across the ditch, where pensioners can choose to work without it affecting their pensions, one in four New Zealanders aged 65 and over is in the workforce, compared with 10 per cent in 2003. In Australia, the idea was put forward by business groups late last year to help ease chronic labour and skills shortages. But the Morrison government did not act on it.

With as many as two-thirds of medium and large businesses complaining that they cannot find staff, and many small businesses displaying “help wanted’’ signs, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Australian Industry Group support the proposal. It is also in keeping with current workplace and demographic trends. Australian men and women are living longer and healthier lives. The fact that workplaces have become more flexible, especially in offering part-time work and remote work, and that many occupations have become less demanding physically, has encouraged many people to work longer. The take-up of digital technology among older people is also allowing many to stay in or re-enter the workforce. The proportion of Australians over 65 in the workforce increased from 6.3 per cent in 1980 to 14.4 per cent in February 2020. From the start of July, the qualifying age for the age pension will increase from 66 to 67 years.

Innes Willox, chief executive of national employer association the Ai Group, said improving childcare and allowing mature Australians to work more without being penalised were obvious ways to solve worker and skills shortages: “Our policy settings need to move with the times.’’ ACCI chief executive Andrew McKellar said changes to the amount a pensioner could earn could attract as many as 400,000 people back into the workforce. It would be a “very, very cost-effective measure”. Council of the Ageing chief executive Ian Yates also backed the concept. But, he said, issues around ageism and workplace discrimination against older Australians needed to be addressed.

The collapse in migration during the Covid-19 pandemic, and booming jobs market as the economy has rebounded, have left employers in most sectors severely short-staffed. Unemployment is at a near 50-year low of 3.9 per cent. ABS job vacancy statistics for February showed 423,500 positions available, an increase of 6.9 per cent from November last year.