An Aboriginal man has lost his legal bid to access the government pension earlier than other Australians, in a case that’s been closely watched by the country’s pensions industry.
Wakka Wakka man Dennis — who prefers to use his first name only - argued Indigenous Australians should be granted earlier access because they die on average about eight years before the rest of the population. The case against the government argued that Australia’s current pension age of 67 years failed to account for the wide disparities in life expectancy and health outcomes.
The ruling Wednesday coincides with a report that found that a government target to close the gap in life expectancy between First Nations and non-Indigenous peoples isn’t on track.
“Things will never get better unless the government closes the gaps it created,” 66 year-old Dennis said in a statement after the judgment. “I’ve seen too many of my people dying at a very early age.”
The judgment comes at a pivotal time for Indigenous relations in Australia. The nation will face a referendum later this year on the government’s plans for a so-called Voice to Parliament, a proposal for a body of elected First Nations people to advise the seat of power on policies impacting their community. Such a system would have the potential to address inequity in the retirement system, including early access to pensions.
While Australia has a compulsory retirement savings system, known as superannuation, the government pension acts as a safety net for people with inadequate savings. About two-thirds of the country’s Indigenous people have retirement incomes below a modest standard of living, a 2020 survey found. A single person on the government pension is entitled to just over A$1000 ($672) a fortnight.
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In its judgment, the Federal Court found against the central argument: that Dennis and the people he represented did not enjoy the right to apply for and receive the age pension “to a more limited extent” than other Australians. The average life expectancy for non-Indigenous men is around 80 years.
“The relevant connection is with the duration of their lives after becoming entitled to receive the pension, not with their race,” the judgment said.
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The Productivity Commission’s Closing the Gap report on Wednesday found that only four of the 19 targets to address inequality for the nation’s Indigenous population are on track to be met.
The report “shows exactly why measures like this are necessary,” said lawyer Josephine Langbien from the Human Rights Law Centre, which ran Dennis’s case with the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service.
The idea of a different pension age wasn’t a world first. In 2019, Mexico announced a lower age for its Indigenous population, shortly before the retirement age for the entire population was brought down. That’s in contrast to many other countries, which are raising the age.
