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.
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.
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.
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.
Linking population growth with productivity and labour participation is problematic, just one of many questionable assumptions made in the Intergenerational Report.
How appropriate were the fourth Intergenerational Report’s demographic assumptions? Should greater attention be paid to the potential consequences of population growth?
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.
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.
By bringing previous government policy into the Intergenerational Report, Treasurer Joe Hockey has overlooked many questions Australians want answers to now.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne