The ageing population will strengthen the trend towards a service-based economy, with the care and support sector potentially doubling over the coming four decades.
Dr Karl has been criticised for fronting adverts for a government report he turned out not to agree with. But despite his lapse in judgement, he hasn’t seriously breached his journalistic ethics.
Housing security matters for older Australians like the residents of Millers Point, Sydney, who fear having to make way for development.
AAP/Hugh Peterswald
Without affordable and secure housing that meets the needs of older Australians, the nation cannot hope to sustain the productivity that is needed to secure future prosperity.
One in ten pensioners will live for 10 years or more beyond the average person.
Joe Castro/AAP
The policy solution to the ageing population laid out in the Intergenerational Report benefits the better-off in the future over the less well-off today.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has had yet another bad week.
AAP/Nikki Short
The Abbott government has followed one step forward by a couple back. After an improved performance became the media story of last week, it’s been slipping and sliding all over the place.
Traffic congestion in the major cities is expected to cost Australians A$20.4 billion a year by 2020.
Image sourced from Shutterstock.com
Linking population growth with productivity and labour participation is problematic, just one of many questionable assumptions made in the Intergenerational Report.
Australia’s waterside cities and towns are under threat from rising sea levels unless more is done to stop CO2 emissions.
Michael Dawes/Flickr
The Commonwealth appears to have its health outlays more or less under control. The problem for the states, however, is dire.
Australia’s projected population for 2050 in the fourth Intergenerational Report is 1.9 million larger than the 35.9 million projected by the third report.
AAP/Joe Castro
How appropriate were the fourth Intergenerational Report’s demographic assumptions? Should greater attention be paid to the potential consequences of population growth?
The Pre-election Fiscal and Economic Outlook is prepared by the Treasurer’s advisers, but the Intergenerational Report is the Treasurer’s document.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Climate change barely rates a mention in the Intergenerational Report, despite the huge potential costs. Peter Christoff says the only way to overcome this short-sightedness is to end the politics and make the review independent.
Treasurer Joe Hockey said the Intergenerational Report was ‘a social compact between the generations’.
AAP/Lukas Coch
By mid-century, Australia will have about 40,000 people aged 100 and above – well more than 300 times the 122 centenarians there were in 1975, according to the Intergenerational Report released on Thursday.
Women and older people form two ‘armies’ Treasurer Joe Hockey is hoping will help protect Australia’s future prosperity.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
By bringing previous government policy into the Intergenerational Report, Treasurer Joe Hockey has overlooked many questions Australians want answers to now.
Treasurer Joe Hockey will release the latest intergenerational report on Thursday.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne