With more than half of Indigenous people dying before they can access the age pension, researchers have found simple changes to the system may reduce the disadvantage they face.
University of Queensland associate professor Levon Blue said everyone deserved to retire with dignity but the system was not set up with First Nations people in mind.
“The retirement income system in Australia was designed initially to meet the needs of male, white full-time public servants, and it’s essentially a one-size-fits-all model,” she told AAP.
“It doesn’t take into consideration difference, especially differences in life expectancies.”
It’s not only the discrepancy in life expectancy impacting Indigenous people’s superannuation and age pension.
University of New England Indigenous pro vice-chancellor and study co-author Peter Anderson said Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people earn up to 30 per cent less than non-Indigenous counterparts.
Higher rates of insecure work and a history of economic injustice, including the practice of stolen wages, where Indigenous people were paid little or not at all for their labour, also contribute to this situation, the Warlpiri and Murinpatha man said.
“Economic justice for our old people and Elders is actually having access to their superannuation or access to funds,” Prof Anderson said.
“We have high earning potentials, yet we can’t access the money of the system.”
Some employment schemes, such as the community development program (CDP), which is being phased out after more than 20 years of operation under various names, have not required compulsory superannuation payments, leaving those in the program short on retirement funds.
“I’m genuinely shocked to my core,” Prof Anderson said.
“Being from a remote community myself and lots of family from there who have been on CDP, and (superannuation) wasn’t even factored into the conversation.”
Alongside voluntary and compulsory contributions to superannuation and the age pension, the researchers have proposed adding another ‘pillar’ to Australia’s three-pronged retirement system which would allow for early accumulation of, and access to, superannuation.
This was something which could be beneficial to First Nations people as well as those with chronic illnesses or disability who faced a shorter life expectancy, they said.
Dr Blue said there had been recent changes, including payment of superannuation during maternity leave and early access to superannuation during the COVID-19 pandemic, which showed the system could be changed.
“This isn’t a new issue,” she said.
“It’s been talked about and advocated for for decades by unions and rights groups to lower the age for pension and super for Indigenous people and it still hasn’t occurred.”
The research has been published in the Australian Journal of Social Issues.
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