Ageing Population in Australia

Running Head: AGEING POPULATION IN AUSTRALIA
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Foundation of Social Innovation

AGEING POPULATION IN AUSTRALIA 1
Wicked problem of Australia: increasing number of aged people in the country
It is true that ageing people in the country in the wicked problem of Australia. It also
puts huge impact on the overall economy of Australia. It is found that the population of
Australia will grow and become older. This tends to make the baby boomers to move to the
old age. In addition to this, ageing workforce also puts significant impact on the economic
productivity, government expenditure, labour supply, as well as requirement in the
infrastructure. The estimated figures by 2060 are that it will rise by around 38 million. As
compare to this, people who are having the age of 75 or more than that is also expected to
increase by 4 million from the year 2012 to 2060 (Laidlaw and Pachana, 2009). As per the
report of intergenerational, it is seen that it leads to decrease in the birth rates as people are
living for long time as well as expectancy rate is also increasing between the ages from 78 to
83.
Projections are made regarding the demographic change regarding the ageing
population of Australia. The ratio of the ageing population over the 65 years can increase by
the 12 to 18% by the year 2021. It means by the year 2051, it will reach to 26 per cent. This
ageing workforce of Australia led in the “Second World War baby boom” due to the decline
in birth rate. In this way, it is clear that people of Australia will have the longest expectancy
rate of life. For instance- if a girl will born between the year 1995 and 1999 has an average
age of living around 83 years (Gong & Kendig, 2016).
Older Australian people who belong to linguistic and cultural background have
increased due to the proportion of older population. In the coming future, total number of
ageing people also expected to rise with long-term disability. Considering the positive
aspects, rise in the expectancy of longer life also shows the improvement in the living
standard of people (Asquith, 2009). The ageing population of Australia is also occurring at
the time when technological, economic, and social changes are taking place at rapid rate. All
the modification in the structure of family is the part of social changes that can also affect the
retirement income and lifestyle issues. In the previous few years, Australia have also shown
the better capacity in responding to all the changes by reforming the policies and plan in
order to meet the several needs by taking action.

AGEING POPULATION IN AUSTRALIA 2
The increasing ageing workforce is also putting significant effect on the several areas
such as government, economy and the organization. From the perspective of organization, it
will face the shortage of skilled and capable workers (Power, 2017). It will also not able to
diversify or increase their business properly. From the perspective of economy and
government, the ageing workforce will affect the fiscal policies and budget directly.
Government expenditure will increase on the hospitality and on the facilities of aged care. In
this way, total budget for the development of economy will definitely decrease. All these
factors will also lead to slowing the economic growth (Pakulski, 2016).
It is true that the ageing population will increase the demand for nursing homes,
hospitals, and for the pension payment. When the demand for other services and goods
increases, it is normally seen as the opportunity rather than seeing it as problem (Atalay &
Barrett, 2015). Many older persons are relatively poor and cannot afford to afford the better
standard of living. The ageing Australian workforce also bringing the changes in taxation
policy of government as it is directly connected with the people who are paying tax. In this
way, it is clear that the money given to retired person will be increased and this will make the
government to raise the tax that requires the approval of Australian people. Expenditure of
government will also affect from the other side as they are required to spend on the health
care service and more facilities will be required to provide to the ageing workforce such as
effective transportation policy, facilities for aged so that they can get the easy access to all
type of service easily.
Government of Australia is also coming up various solutions of immigration policy.
This will help in keeping the balance between ageing population. It will not prove to be the
long-term solution as ageing population is affected by many factors such as mortality,
fertility, interstate migration, overseas migration. However, there is a requirement to expand
the difference between the level of fertility and mortality. “Australian National Policy” is
such a shift for the skilled migration programme. It can also prove to be the effective way to
slow down the rate of ageing population in Australia (McDonald, 2016).
An ageing workforce of Australia also put the market consequences such as the characteristic
of recent generation workers will be different or vary against the younger worker and middle
age worker. Then presence of experience is also higher than the less educated. IN turn, they
are getting the less training and less productivity. In addition to this, aged people also have
the high level of ownership at home. It is true that youth of the Australia mainly lives on the