Here is an introduction to an interview on the ABCs PM program with demographer Bernard Salt
MARK COLVIN:
The baby boomer generation will start retiring next year and the demographer Bernard Salt is warning the aged care industry that they’ll be demanding clients.In his keynote speech at a national aged care conference in Hobart today, Mr Salt said the baby boomers would want to be cared for at home rather than in nursing homes.
But finding people to care for the baby boomers will be a problem because up to half the aged care workforce are themselves approaching retirement.
The aged care industry says the Federal Government needs to fix the problem with more funds and deregulation.
Felicity Ogilvie reports from Hobart.
FELICITY OGILVIE: In the next decade four-and-a-half million baby boomers are due for retirement… if you can call it that.
BERNARD SALT: Never use the “R” word to a baby boomer. They will never retire. Retirement is for old people.
FELICITY OGILVIE: Demographer Bernard Salt says the baby boomers are about to redefine retirement.
BERNARD SALT: They will do a bit of a sea change or a tree change. They will engage in a portfolio lifestyle, working two days a week, playing golf one day of the week, doing some volunteering. They are very demanding, very consumeristic generation and if they don’t get what they want or if they don’t think a service is up to scratch, they will let you know about it.Stand by for the grumpy generation in retirement.
FELICITY OGILVIE: The retirees Mr Salt describes as grumpy and demanding are chasing sunshine and lifestyle in south east Queensland. It’s Australia’s retirement hot spot and the Gold Coast tops the list. Eventually the baby boomers will need aged care but there’s a big problem. About a third of Australia’s nurses and half the nation’s aged care workers are getting ready to retire too.
BERNARD SALT: This is where we need a very targeted, very successful and quite substantial targeted migration program to bring those nurses in. But the problem is that there’s simply not enough Gen-Ys to go around. That’s why we need to import as many as we can from overseas.
For the full interview, go to http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2010/s3016926.htm