The Issues

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Ageing

• The average age of the Australian population is gradually increasing, however, it still has a healthy dependency ratio (the ratio of workers to dependents).
• Ageing is caused by the transition from an expanding to a stable population and also from increased life expectancy as health care improves.
• Immigration will not alleviate ageing, except at very high and socially unacceptable levels¹⁸.
• Several reputable studies have shown that the prospect of an ageing population is not a major problem for Australia, and potential labour shortages can be off-set by allowing those who wish to remain in the workforce longer to do so, or by absorbing the million or more unemployed or underemployed into the workforce^{19,19a,19b,19c19d}. Furthermore, technology may reduce the need for labour.
• Fertility is likely to be at least 1.8 births per woman for the next decade, acceptable from a purely demographic perspective"^20a.

^References

^{18. DIMIA. 2002-03 Migration and Humanitarian Programs - discussion paper (rev.ed.Jan 02) pp8,9.}

^{19. Kinnear, Pamela. “Population Crisis: Crisis or Transition?” 2001. Australia Institute, Canberra.}

^{19a. Jackson, Natalie. "The policy-maker's guide to ageing: key concepts and issues" FACS 2001.}

^{19b. Access Economics. "Population Ageing and the Economy. Comm.of Aust. 2001.}

^{19c. Young, Christobal. "Australia's Ageing Population - Policy Options". Comm. of Australia 1990.}

^{19d. Burgess, J and Connell, J. “Sustainable Work – the issues for Australia”. In Search of Sustainability.p.138. CSIRO Publishing 2005.}

^{20. McDonald, P. personal statement, APA conference, Melbourne Dec 2000.}

^{20a. http://theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16745746%255E2702,00.html}