1. Australia – export ageing services to the world. Pull the other one. We can’t manage our own aged services. Woefully under prepared and resourced.

2. Seniors as entrepreneurs – total fantasy. Older people are considered a drag on society – look up aged prejudice.

3. Establish a Seniors Entrepreneurs Institute. WTF?

4. Aged prejudice – actually the private sector is good; the public sector is a shocker.

5. Philanthropy? Good grief. There has never been a culture of philanthropy in Australia and as for ‘Golden Givers’ – shockingly condescending.

Stopped reading. Who is advising you, Everard?

Whoops - point four - private sector is a shocker, public sector relatively good.

These problems call for understanding, common-sense and a commitment to fairness, so we can forget any change, those things aren't even IN the Abbott Government Handbook.

How can you grow older faster?
The usual and only rate is one year per year.

How many old people are you employing, G'day Bruce?

Everald; Sorry mate but, the problem with thinking inside a very small circle of limited and repetitive ideas, is the questions are limited!
And given the questions are limited, so also are the answers.
What we really need to address the destiny of demography, is something a little more practical than your wish list.
I read Hemingway's, The old man and the sea.
The old man caught the biggest fish he'd ever seen, and hung on grimly, through sheer stubbornness, even thought the effort nearly killed him.
And you somehow remind me of that stubborn and incredibly obtuse old man.
Now you just need to let go of the extremely dated ideas mate.
Your MUST DO list is just too big for small thinkers, like today's.
Who are just working at being small targets/blame shifting, not vision.
And sadly, future vision is what we need, and the only way we can deal effectively with the destiny of demography.
If it's broke, fix it, or failing that, throw it out!
And that's what's needed for the totally trashed tax system, and replace it with a single stand alone broad based tax; that taxes all expenditure, rather than some of it.
And that has to include all international remittances and transfers, if only to shrink the black market/oblige tax avoiding transnationals pay in fair measure, with the level of business done/profit extracted here!
These folks pay little or none, yet expect all the same tax funded facilities, when doing business or commerce here!
There's no free lunch, let alone free limos and Lear jets!
And that multinational mischief is costing the budget bottom line up to 100 billion per?
What's the size of the deficit/debt? Well?
We simply cannot continue to carry/service a foreign debt burden nearly as large as China's foreign reserve.
If we could but eliminate the profit demanding middle man/broker, we could all but halve the cost of living and indeed, put huge downward pressure on the wages/cost spiral!
Tassie's single malts are BEST!
Rhrosty.

Talking about old men.
An old man was wandering down the road one day, on his way to the corner store for some "tea and biscuits" (single malt). When he happened upon a small boy sitting on a bench, crying his eyes out!
The old bloke found the soul/seat shaking sobbing very distressful; so he sidled up to the youngster, and in the most sympathetic tone he could muster, inquired, What's the problem son? Surely it can't be that bad?
Whereupon, the youngster looked up, and choked out, that he was, choke, gasp waw, crying be he because, choke, gasp, blah, he couldn't do what the big boys did!
The old bloke thought about that for a minute, then sat beside the youngster, and cried his eyes out too!
Rhrosty.

That's a very patronizing assertion, Rhosty.

>>Your MUST DO list is just too big for small thinkers, like today's<<

My instinct is that it is the product of a very limited imagination, and an even more unrealistic view of what is happening in the real world.

The first suggestion, for example, is to create more public servants:

"There must be a Minister for Ageing within his office who has cabinet status and implements the PM's ageing policies"

Made up, no doubt, of old people, in line with many of the other suggestions.

"Another huge opportunity is to create a business environment in which Seniors can become entrepreneurs"

There is absolutely nothing currently preventing "Seniors" from starting a business today. In fact, they are probably better placed, in terms of starting capital, than any other group. If only they would tear themselves away from the bowling green, and do something.

"Discrimination against Older Workers who want to remain in, or re-enter, the workforce is rampant"

The answer, however, cannot be to discriminate against younger people. In fact, we would actually be better off as a nation addressing the problem of youth unemployment, using the money (what money?) Mr Compton wants to apply to "programs of skills training to enable older workers to keep up to date in a rapidly and constantly changing world."

Talking of money...

"age-friendly housing, of which there is an enormous shortage"

There is an even greater shortage in the first-home buyer market. One reason being the number of "Seniors" who have a vested interest in maintaining the value of their existing property. Or properties.

"All we ask is that we are given the opportunity to compete with younger Aussies on a level playing field and be given a fair go"

That is precisely what you are NOT doing. You are asking that the playing field be tilted in your direction, without a single thought as to the effect it will have on the young. Who, I'm afraid, are the real future of this country.

How many old people are you employing, G'day Bruce?
Jardine K Jardine,
Not totally related to this but highly interesting neverthess.
Found on the Net.

THOUSANDS of dole bludgers are exploiting the welfare system, failing to turn up to appointments and even refusing to take jobs in favour of remaining on benefits.

More than 1700 people refused jobs offered to them last year and 1200 of them went straight back on unemployment benefits.

And 28,200 persistently failed to turn up to appointments, though nearly 75 per cent of them continued to bank their Newstart allowance.

A loophole also allows huge numbers who do the wrong thing to obtain a waiver of a penalty of an eight-week payment freeze.

A rule introduced by the previous Labor government allowed people to avoid the penalty if they promised to “re-engage” with their job-hunting requirements, or if doing so would bring financial hardship.

The Federal Government this week failed in an effort to introduce new laws that would have ended this.

Employment Department figures show that since the introduction of the waivers, the rates of people rejecting job offers and not turning up to appointments has trebled.

In fact, we would actually be better off as a nation addressing the problem of youth unemployment, using the money (what money?)
Pericles,
What Money ? The money that's being wasted everywhere would be more than enough.
Re-training I hear you say ? Our outfit which is run by Labor cronies is spending up rather big to train people for jobs they're already lining up to be cut to make room for blame-taking contractors. Expensive trouble shooters to cover for incompetent Labor bureau rats.
Young people don't need training for skills, they need training for responsibility & for a healthier mentality but people like you wouldn't want the poor darlings to have to get their little hands dirty & get out of bed before 10am. That's why people like you are so vehemmently against a National service.

That sounds very Grumpy Old Man, individual.

>>...people like you wouldn't want the poor darlings to have to get their little hands dirty & get out of bed before 10am. That's why people like you are so vehemmently against a National service<<

Quick note to the accountant: compulsory National Service doesn't come free either. While the idea of National Service appeals to the ageing control freak in all of us, there are some real problems in setting it up, and making it work. Seemingly simple questions like who to draft, how long to keep them, what to do with them when you've got them and what happens to them when they are released, never quite get answered. They just elicit another massive harrumph, and a few choice phrases about "how it would do the lazy bastards good".

It's a lucky break for all of us that such a cavalier approach to business principles is not applied across industry in general, but merely confined to the political classes and the sheltered workshops of the public service.

what to do with them when you've got them and what happens to them when they are released,
Pericles,
If you consider that a problem then we do have a problem, a really big one if others think the same way. If thats the case then we've already lost.

Not so, individual.

>>what to do with them when you've got them and what happens to them when they are released, Pericles, If you consider that a problem then we do have a problem, a really big one if others think the same way.<<

I don't consider it a "problem". I was just pointing out that nobody I have come across who huffs and puffs about compulsory National Service, has the faintest clue when it comes to contemplating the reality of it. Having never had to organize or manage anything in their lives, they think that just repeating the same thing over and over suddenly makes it possible.

So, why don't you answer those four simple questions for us, to show that you are not just some old guy, mouthing off about how the youth of today is just a bunch of degenerate louts.

Then, when you have answered those simple questions, we can start to work out whether your idea has any merit.

From where I sit, I see that young people today have little enough prospect of starting a career in the way we were able to back in the (say) sixties, that to actively promote the idea that we should give old people priority access, financial help, training classes and so on, to give them a helping hand into the already-scarce-enough jobs, is iniquitous in the extreme.

Pericles,
You just don't get it so it's best you just forget about it. There has to someone out there who sees the merit in it all.

I'd be more than happy to do exactly that, individual.

>>You just don't get it so it's best you just forget about it.<<

Except that every so often, someone with an axe to grind will inevitably bring the subject up again, together with the whole "what today's youth needs is a kick up the arse" rubbish. At which time, I will once again ask "so, how exactly do you propose that will work?" And as ever, the answer will be a resounding silence.

Until we become a military dictatorship, National Service will remain the anachronism that it most assuredly is.

"what today's youth needs is a kick up the arse" rubbish.
Pericles,
As I said you just don't get it ! Just concentrate on the fashion problems of some frivolous pop music idol, it's more your mentality.

I was simply paraphrasing, individual.

>>"what today's youth needs is a kick up the arse" rubbish. Pericles, As I said you just don't get it !<<

Here's your original:

>>...people like you wouldn't want the poor darlings to have to get their little hands dirty & get out of bed before 10am. That's why people like you are so vehemmently against a National service.<<

Not much difference there, eh.

>>There has to someone out there who sees the merit in it all.<<

I'm sure that you meet them every day. Birds of a feather and all that.

Not much difference there, eh.
Pericles,
Are you alright ? Not much difference ? I think you need to seek help. This is about our society losing all focus & descending into unrecoverable chaos & you don't want to act ?
Are you a masochist ? Or are you just another Leftie who thinks doing nothing will prevent it all from going bad ? Crickey mate, you scare me especially if there are many more like you.
Did the Arabs or Chinese offer you good money for your mother by any chance ? It certainly looks that way. You don't really give the impression of doing your bit to keep Australia from sliding into the same mayhem as all the other countries whose populace had the same mentality as you.

That's hilarious, individual. It's definitely the funniest post this year

>>This is about our society losing all focus & descending into unrecoverable chaos & you don't want to act ? Are you a masochist ? Or are you just another Leftie who thinks doing nothing will prevent it all from going bad ? Crickey mate, you scare me especially if there are many more like you. Did the Arabs or Chinese offer you good money for your mother by any chance ? It certainly looks that way. You don't really give the impression of doing your bit to keep Australia from sliding into the same mayhem as all the other countries whose populace had the same mentality as you.<<

I particularly liked the bit about my mother - priceless.

A surefire cut-out-and-keep.

And all that, just because I questioned your idea of compulsory National Service to solve the ills of mankind.

It would be fascinating to see what you could come up with if we ever discussed anything serious.

That's hilarious, individual. It's definitely the funniest post this year.
pericles,
Your mentality is unique, have you considered offering it to some University study ? You could provide sufficient material for a whole conference on mentality.