PM calls for end of early retirement “cult”

The Prime Minister, John Howard, has renewed his call for Australians to work longer in order to combat the potential fiscal crisis looming as result of the country’s ageing population.

Opening the annualFinancial Planning Association (FPA)conference in Sydney this morning, the Prime Minister said Australian’s had to give up their “cult of early retirement”.

Mr Howard said Australia’s ageing population was a significant issue facing the country, and would have implications for funding health care and retirement incomes into the future.

“We have to realise that the cult of early retirement, that we encouraged so enthusiastically as a nation a generation ago, has to be changed,” he said.

Mr Howard said Australia had a smaller proportion of people working between the ages of 55 and 64 than comparable countries such as the United States and New Zealand.

“Australia’s population, in common with all Western countries, is ageing and that has implications,” Howard said.

“We have to encourage people to stay on and work longer.”

Mr Howard also used the speech to recommit the Government to its policy of introducing superannuation fund choice.

However Mr Howard acknowledged the Government’s attempts to introduce choice of superannuation fund legislation had been frustrated by opposition parties.

“We believe in choice of superannuation, that is why we have been trying to for six and a half years to change the present system because we don’t believe it allows enough choice,” he said.

The chief executive of the FPA, Ken Breakspear, said the Prime Minister was positive and optimistic about choice of fund, despite the policy’s difficulty in passing through the Senate.

He said all political parties should work to ensure the passage of the choice of superannuation legislation through the Senate.