Here’s to a long life for Frankie

NEWBORN Frankie Rabenda will be part of an Australia more supportive of women in the workforce than it is now.

Helen and Lucasz Rabenda with newborn daughter Frankie at Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital. In 2055, she will live among 40 million Australians. Picture: Aaron Francis

NEWBORN Frankie Rabenda will be part of an Australia more supportive of women in the workforce than it is now — which is good, because by the time she’s middle-aged there’ll be a generation of geriatrics to support.

Born in Melbourne on the same day as the government’s intergenerational report was released yesterday, baby Frankie can expect to live to the ripe old age of 93 years and seven months.

For girls born in 2055, when she’s 40 and one of nearly 40 million Australians spread across the land, that figure will have risen to 96 years and six months. By then there will be about 40,000 people aged 100 and over — eight times the number now and more than 300 times the number of centenarians in 1975.

By 2055 female workplace participation is projected to have increased from 66 per cent now to 70 per cent. The proportion of over-65s in the workforce will also have increased, from 12.9 per cent now to 17.3 per cent. However, the total proportion of the population in the workforce will have declined, from 64.6 per cent now to 62.4 per cent.

Frankie will experience life as a youthful minority in an Australia bursting with ailing Boomers; in 2055 there will be just 2.7 people aged between 15 and 64 for every one over 65, compared to 4.5 today. There will be 8.9 million Australians aged 65 and over, 1.9 million of them over 85.

As a result, age and service pension payments will have jumped from 2.9 per cent of GDP to 3.6 per cent, and health spending will have doubled from about $2800 to about $6500 per person.

Frankie’s parents Helen, 36, and Lucasz Rabenda, 33, are both high school teachers and live in Melbourne’s East Brunswick with her brothers Christopher, 11, and Alexander, 7.

Ms Rabenda, who gave birth to Frankie in the Melbourne's public Royal Women’s Hospital, said she knew her daughter would probably spend her working life navigating through a range of careers.

She said later retirement was not a problem — not even for her and her husband, who don’t plan on ­retiring young.

“I would like to work when I’m older — I think it is really important even if you diversify slightly and you’re part-time,” she said.

Mr Rabenda said he believed Australians had “old-fashioned” views on retirement.

He said many of his older colleagues in the teaching profession still contributed ­immensely to the workforce.

“I think this will become more so, particularly as we move ­towards a more knowledge-based economy,” he said.

Ms Rabenda said the key to ­increasing women’s participation in the workforce was childcare, not more generous parental leave. “Everything from after-school care to actual daycare is difficult to obtain easily,” she said.

The Rabendas see education as “priceless” and are not fazed by the increasing price of degrees for their children.