Grey Power Rising
By Stephen Lunn
May 20, 2008
IT took Wayne Swan just 24 words in last Tuesday's budget speech to utter the catchphrase Labor has relied on so heavily to wrest power from John Howard and in policy-making since.
And the first dozen words were little more than scene-setting rhetoric. "This budget is designed to meet the big challenges of the future," Swan began. "It is a budget that strengthens Australia's economic foundations, and delivers for working families under pressure."
Six months into the Rudd Government's first term and the "working families under pressure" mantra is already wearing thin for some voters who feel they are being left on the fringes by Kevin Rudd's heavy focus on assisting low and middle-income two-wage families with kids.
One of these groups is a stirring political giant, the 1,952,686 Australians who receive the age pension.
Josephine Simsa, 72, is a Melbourne widow living on the single pension of $273.40 a week and about $50 a fortnight in rent assistance for her supported accommodation run by the Catholic church. Her husband of 47 years died five years ago.
She is one of about 570,000 people, 70 per cent of whom are women, who receive the full single age pension. She doesn't accept the Prime Minister's and Treasurer's assurances that they care about her and other pensioners, believing politicians "think they can get away with it".
Pensioners are making their voices heard more effectively than in the past. A vocal and passionate demonstration in Melbourne last Friday was led by a couple of angry female pensioners who stripped down to their bras and men to their undies to make the point that they weren't prepared to be overlooked.
Today, the civil action will continue with a rally in Brisbane. One person attending today's rally, Val French, president of Older People Speak Out, says it was "very, very disappointing" that the Treasurer ignored her organisation's two-year campaign for a hike to the base single pension.
Anecdotally, baby boomers are worried Government inaction will shift the burden to them to take care of their ageing parents' welfare.
Abridged
SOURCE: TheAustralian
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