The Problem of Moving the Goal Posts on Pensions By Ian Wilson LL.B
An Aboriginal man has lost his case put before the Federal court to receive his pension three years earlier because of the shorter life expectancy of Aboriginals. That is true. But the Federal court rejected the claim that the present age pension scheme contravened section 10 of the Race Discrimination Act. “The social security system as a whole would not treat members of all races with equal dignity and respect if it provided members of a particular race with more limited access to the age pension than others,” the Federal court concluded.
That is technically correct, but there is a bigger problem with the way the government seems to be moving the goal posts on pensions. For people born in certain years, e.g. 1958, they will not get the age pension until 67 years, where it once was 65 years. This was to limit the pension payouts, hoping many would die from the extra years of grind, and not get a pension at all. Pensions are provided for in the Australian constitution, section 51 xxiii. This section would not have been put in the constitution if the aim was for no-one to get one, for the present goal-post moving strategy will lead to no pension before reaching the grand old age of 400 years!
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