Article item posted on Wednesday, June 24th 2009 at 3:41 pm

We all know the miserly income trickled out to old age pensioners by the Australian Government is an outrage.

Now, the OECD – the rich countries’ club – has joined the chorus, finding Australia has one of the highest rates of poverty for people aged over 65. (See http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/0/33/43008716.pdf)

And this is even though we have fewer pensioners per employed person than virtually every other OECD country.

The Howard Government so relaxed the superannuation rules that anyone over 55 could slip a million dollars into their personal fund tax-free. But they kept the OAP rates down, the scum.

Did you have a lazy million dollars to deploy into super? Hmmm.

The tax revenue forgone in those superannuation concessions could have made a large difference to the quality of life of many elderly people.

They are your grandparents, or parents, and one day, this will be you.

The old age pension is the ultimate act of kindness to the frail and worn. Miserable selfishness in this area diminishes us all.