Janet Collins
Billy MIt’s Official – The Elderly Can’t Survive on the Pension
September 15th 2008 14:06
If a society can be judged on how it cares for the elderly, Australia does not fair too well. The public admission by our Prime Minister and our Treasurer a few days ago that they too could not survive on the single person’s pension exposes just how we have neglected our older folk in our annual budgets over decades.
This can also be said of those with a disability or illness, all of whom are at the mercy of government hand outs. It is what a market economy has dealt them. The Liberal Opposition has been quick to challenge the government to make amends immediately. Our Government has chosen to weigh up all these things before they address these problems.
This has not happened over the last 10 months since the Labor Government has come to power. It has been happening for decades. I know, petrol prices and food prices have risen sharply this year. Over the past few years though many charities have tried to get some sort of voice in the media, constantly attempting to tell both the media and government just how much many of these people were depending on their services.
Many people they said were asking for help with their electricity bills, their phone bills and their water bills – not to talk of their rent or mortgage. These calls were often in the media at 6:00am but not heard again. Either there were better stories to tell or the stories were squashed.
In a time when many are hedging to get on to the BRW Rich List and when our previous Government repeated over and over that we had never been more prosperous, I think we should be ashamed.
It is not only the pensions that are in question here. Clubs have done it pretty tough over the last few years. And Clubs are facilities that many of our older folk use – whether they be sporting clubs or just social clubs. The Clubs are where many of them share a sport or a drink and get to catch up with their mates.
Only recently I was talking to an older relative who told me that at her local bowling club they were digging up the bowling green as it was too costly to maintain.
I thought this was pretty sad really.
This can also be said of those with a disability or illness, all of whom are at the mercy of government hand outs. It is what a market economy has dealt them. The Liberal Opposition has been quick to challenge the government to make amends immediately. Our Government has chosen to weigh up all these things before they address these problems.
This has not happened over the last 10 months since the Labor Government has come to power. It has been happening for decades. I know, petrol prices and food prices have risen sharply this year. Over the past few years though many charities have tried to get some sort of voice in the media, constantly attempting to tell both the media and government just how much many of these people were depending on their services.
Many people they said were asking for help with their electricity bills, their phone bills and their water bills – not to talk of their rent or mortgage. These calls were often in the media at 6:00am but not heard again. Either there were better stories to tell or the stories were squashed.
In a time when many are hedging to get on to the BRW Rich List and when our previous Government repeated over and over that we had never been more prosperous, I think we should be ashamed.
It is not only the pensions that are in question here. Clubs have done it pretty tough over the last few years. And Clubs are facilities that many of our older folk use – whether they be sporting clubs or just social clubs. The Clubs are where many of them share a sport or a drink and get to catch up with their mates.
Only recently I was talking to an older relative who told me that at her local bowling club they were digging up the bowling green as it was too costly to maintain.
I thought this was pretty sad really.
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Comment by colocountry
Damn straight!! Point me in the direction of those callous thugs who stole the bowling green! Our elders are our temples of wisdom. After all their hard yakka, do we let them wrinkle away simply because we dont have enough time to champion their cause? Shame!!
My mum used to recite a poem to us kids..
"We are the old world people,
Ours were the hearts to dare.
But our youth is spent, and our backs are bent, And the snow is in our hair."
Col
Comment by Anonymous
At least the new government has started with a bit of a clean out of a corrupted social security system, but there is a lot that needs fixing.
Comment by Janet Collins
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
Thanks firstly for the comments and visiting. My whole iissue with the older folk is that governments have continually and constantly treated them as third class citizens. It is something America and Australia seem to do without any conscious.
We will all be old one day (if we get there) and the simple pleasures for our retirees are being eroded.
What does that say about us?
Janet