Abstract
Australia’s retirement incomes system has been dominated for over 100 years by a flat-rate, means-tested, general revenue-financed age pension. This has been very effective in protecting the elderly from poverty and limiting the costs to government. The system has not, however, effectively addressed a second key objective of maintaining living standards in retirement because of its poorly regulated occupational superannuation arrangements and the absence of a social insurance scheme. Over recent decades, Australia has pioneered an alternative approach to address this second objective to other countries’ public, defined-benefit (social insurance) pension schemes that have proven to present significant financial burdens particularly with demographic change. This alternative approach draws on the World Bank’s ‘multi-pillar’ framework, supplementing the age pension ‘foundation pillar’, not with social insurance but with a set of private ‘pillars’: mandated private contributions, optional private contributions and additional private savings, particularly through home ownership.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Hybrid Public Policy Innovations: Contemporary Policy Beyond Ideology |
Editors | Mark Fabian and Robert Breunig |
Place of Publication | London |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 152-169 |
Edition | 1st edition |
ISBN (Print) | 9780815371809 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2018 |