Indeed they are not. I'd like to sidetrack for a moment and discuss age and disability pensions.

I've been into this elsewhere (I am a DSP recipient myself) and I checked out taxation and so forth (during an argument over 'consolidated revenue) - and ascertained that taxes rose since 1948 to cover expanded welfare.

What that means, in essence is that pensions, once properly allocated to the recipient, are an already paid-for right - not some malleable things that any government can come along and change or remove at their pleasure.

They are, in essence, household bills that should be paid out of the household account 'consolidated revenue' BEFORE the government embarks on spending for luxury items - just like any household.

Pensions are NOT a political football - they are rights earned.

Now - I'm currently seeking a grant to start up a business as a DSP - I don't need much - but I'll bet it is a lot less than Tony's 'commission of audit' members will get as a handout for their 'work' - IF I get it.

Oh - I'm also 64, and am pretty spry for my age, and have no intention of retiring for at least five years yet - that does not mean that I should be FORCED to retire at 70 - just that this is my personal position. I say keep the retirement age at 65, axe all politician's payouts before retirement age, and just let people decide for themselves.

"If we work hard to change these attitudes, we will reap economic dividends."

The implication is that it's actually very profitable to employ old people, it's just that employers are too stupid to understand this, or they would rather forego profits just to indulge their irrational prejudice.

That's one possibility. The other is that Susan Ryan is wrong.

Of course, if she was right, she wouldn't be working as an age discrimination commissioner, would she? She would have quit her job and started up a business employing all those old people that, according to her facile rhetoric, are undervalued in the market, thus doing well at the same time as doing good.

The reason she's not doing this is because she's wrong and she knows it.

People naturally and justifiably recognise that people have different abilities characteristic with age. There is no reason why employers should not discriminate against people on the ground of age.

The position of age discrimination commissioner should be abolished.

...Jardine K. Jardine is correct, except in rare circumstances, older workers become liabilities to the commercial imperatives of business. If the older worker feels undervalued in the working environment, then that older worker has a need to prove their worth to prospective employers, and present those positives of worthiness when applying for a job.

...If, as it seems here to be alleged, there has become a necessity for a commissioner of age discrimination to intercede in the workforce to right perceived wrongs of discrimination against the age in employing them in that workforce, then it appears to me the problem for the aged is not one of discrimination, but more a problem of realisation!

...One of the realisations of life in the workforce is, at age (about) sixty five, it is time to retire from the workforce. This reality is backed up by the Government which agrees to pay the aged worker a pension to do just that; retire and remove themselves from the workforce. A pension is an incentive to move-over and allow a younger person to continue producing for society; a younger member of society more capable, fit and agile!

...Here are some tips from myself for the retiree who feels cheated and less valued: If you wish to work after retirement, don’t make that sea-change to the country and expect to be swooped up in the local workforce…It won’t happen! Unless you import a skill to the local area which you can exploit for your own profit, don’t expect others to support your unrealistic expectations of working after retirement!

Lets all us oldies keep working with our macular degeneration, arthritis, skin that has lost it's elacticity and droops,heart problems, diabetes, we are all ready to join the cement truck or don high heals and make up so thick to hide the wrinkles on that gorgeous eighteen years old face which your brain is telling you that is the age you are, c'mon folks the downhill started long before sixty five years and your work ethics have decreased likewise, a sleep in the afternoon is more to the liking, of course we are a drain on the young taxpayer, but voluntary euthanasia isn't our choice unfortunately at present.

I worked in an Aged Care facility for fourteen years, the average age of employees being 45-50. A few ladies in their sixties and believe me their 'work ethics ' had not decreased. They certainly were not less capable or fit than the younger employees. They worked their butts off and made many of the younger ones look like complete bums.
Sure many of them had bad knees or backs (from so many years of hard work) but unlike the young ones, didnt take sickies on a weekly basis.
Again there can be no generalization. A lot of narrow mindedness here.