Blueprint for an Ageing Australia

Longer lives are the most positive development in the last century of human history. They represent the product of greater prosperity, better diet, disease eradication and healthier lifestyles. They offer each of us, on average, 25 extra years of high quality living with new opportunities for productive work, unprecedented leisure, teaching and learning, and fulfilling relationships with family and friends. Too often, though, this is not how longer lives are represented in the media or treated by policy-makers. The orthodox perception of ageing is one of decline and decay. We regularly debate the ‘challenges’ presented by an ageing population as though ageing was something to be feared and shunned. We talk about the costs and the burdens of ageing. This perception is misguided: ageing only represents a challenge if we choose to see it so. Instead, we could choose to see longer lives as a social and economic good. This document—Blueprint for an Ageing Australia—is built around that idea that living longer is a good thing, that the rising average age of our population is a vindication of advances in science and health policy, and that the best way to approach it is to look for ways that older Australians can participate more effectively in our society and our economy to the best of their abilities. The Blueprint is, ultimately, based on the reality that ageing isn’t something that happens to other, older people, it happens to all of us and it is in all our interests to make it a more positive experience for everyone.