Question to the Treasurer, Joe Hockey MP - Intergenerational Report
Mr HAWKE (Mitchell) (14:12): My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline to the House the opportunity that the Intergenerational report represents for Australia's future? How does the government intend to respond to the report?
Mr HOCKEY (North Sydney—The Treasurer) (14:12): I thank the honourable member for Mitchell for his question and recognise that he, like all others on this side of the House and hopefully everyone on the other side of the House, is prepared to engage in a conversation with the Australian people about the destiny of the nation and the quality of life that we are going to bequeath to future generations of Australians. The Intergenerational report is a compact between the generations—between grandparents and grandchildren, between parents and children and between brothers and sisters. This is about determining our future and influencing our future.
One of the most stark figures in the Intergenerational report, which looks forward 40 years, is that the trajectory of longevity is going to continue. While life expectancy in the early 1900s was around 55, by the middle of this century life expectancy for newborns will be around 100. What that is going to do is change the way we live our lives. It is going to put different pressures on our lives that are in many ways quite different to those that we have had and the people that have gone before us had. Those days of the traditional life pattern of studying while you are young, working in middle ages and retiring when you are older are being turned on their heads with longevity, as we seek to go in and out of the workforce at various points and as we seek to better utilise technology to ensure that we can lift our output and lift our productivity.
Importantly we need to start planning now for the future. This is a conversation that the Australian people actually want to have. They want to talk about how we can have a more prosperous future and how we can work together to build the infrastructure, to strengthen prosperity and to ensure that we get the very best out of the many positive days we have ahead. Of course, that is going to take effort. The biggest driver of wealth creation is inevitably going to be what we can do to lift our output—
Ms Owens interjecting—
The SPEAKER: The member for Parramatta is warned!
Mr HOCKEY: to lift our output on an hourly basis. Each hour we work today has twice the output of someone working in 1970. If we can continue that trend of improving our output, more bang for our buck, that means that we can have a better quality of life and a more prosperous future. So, over the days, weeks and months ahead, every single member of the government, and I really hope every single member of the opposition and everyone involved in the community, is going to engage in the conversation about how we can have a more prosperous future, not just for ourselves but for the generations of Australians ahead.