Supporting Older Australians In The Workplace

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9 July 2008

Federal Minister for Ageing, Mrs Justine Elliot, today gave in-principle support to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's launch of a new community education campaign to combat discrimination against mature age workers.

"Mature men and women offer a wealth of experience to the workplace and give employers an opportunity to harness their knowledge and expertise, especially in the present climate of skills shortages in many industries,” Mrs Elliot said.

"Australians are living longer and healthier lives and if they chose to remain in the workforce, have a number of years of productive worklife beyond the traditional retirement age.

"In fact Australians have the world’s second longest life expectancy after the Japanese. About 13 per cent of our population (some 2.8 million people) is aged 65 years or older right now.

“The knowledge, experience and wisdom of these older Australians will help improve our nation’s productivity.”

Mrs Elliot said the Rudd Labor Government was playing its part in promoting positive ageing through the appointment of Ms Noeline Brown as Australia's first Ambassador for Ageing.

"The work being undertaken by the Ambassador complements this new campaign and I commend it to employers.

“The Rudd Government has also committed $1.9 billion over the next five years to provide 630,000 new training places including 238,000 places for job seekers,” Mrs Elliot said.

More information about the campaign can be found at www.humanrights.gov.au/matureworkers/ and information to assist employers in understanding their obligations under the Age Discrimination Act can be found at: www.humanrights.gov.au/info_for_employers/