Bigger workforce needed to tackle economic woes
Increasing workforce participation rates among females and older workers is necessary to increase productivity and economic growth, according to Grattan Institute chief executive John Daley.
Speaking at an Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) luncheon, Daley highlighted lifting older workers' workforce participation rates as one of three policy levers the Government could employ to boost economic growth as the mining boom wound down.
Restricting access to age pension and superannuation to age 70 as part of a tax reform package was another appropriate policy, along with increasing the workforce participation rate of female workers.
Daley said governments would face increasing pressure from lobby groups as they struggled to boost economic growth.
Declining real incomes and the need to stimulate productivity growth required policy action that, by definition would leave someone worse off, according to Daley.
"In the last decade specific interest groups could stymie reform by saying 'well, there's a loser here and therefore it's bad'," he said. "It's no longer going to be good enough to say if the Government does x, y, z, some people have less money for their retirement.
"To be blunt that's kind of too bad."
AUTHOR
Staff Writer
Money Management staff writers are writers who contribute to the website from time to time. If you would like to discuss the content contained within this article please contact us.
Recommended for you
The central bank has announced the official cash rate decision for its November monetary policy meeting.
Australia’s maturing superannuation system delivers higher balances, fewer duplicate accounts and growing female asset share, but gaps and adequacy challenges remain.
Global volatility and offshore exposure have driven super funds to build US-dollar liquidity buffers, a new BNY paper has found.
Less than two in five Australians are confident they will have sufficient assets to retire and almost three-quarters admit they need to pay greater attention to their balance, according to ART research.
TOP PERFORMING FUNDS
ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
1
DomaCom DFS Mortgage
225.31 3 y p.a(%)
2
Loftus Peak Global Disruption Fund Hedged
120.73 3 y p.a(%)
3
Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF
72.47 3 y p.a(%)
4
Paradice Australian Mid Cap A
69.09 3 y p.a(%)
5
Global X Ultra Long Nasdaq 100 Complex ETF
61.94 3 y p.a(%)
