Positive ageing panel re-forms

The Advisory Panel on Positive Ageing, which the Federal Government scrapped last year, has been re-established and plans to complete its ‘Blueprint for Ageing’ by the original deadline of 30 June.

A campaign to raise $20,000 from public donations to fund the panel’s community consultations, a key component of the blueprint’s development, has been launched.

The think tank Per Capita today announced it had entered into an arrangement with the panel in November, following the government’s decision to axe it.

At the time, the chair of the panel, Everald Compton, told Australian Ageing Agenda that he was hopeful interested organisations might support the panel so it could finish its work. The panel had prepared a draft of its blueprint and was about to undertake community consultations.

Per Capita reached out to Mr Compton to discuss how the panel could see its blueprint through to completion, according to Emily Millane, the think tank’s principal research fellow working on the Longevity and Positive Ageing project.

“At the time that the panel was scrapped there was about eight months of work they had left, so we formed a partnership with four of the five panel members – Everald Compton, Neville Roach, Professor Brian Howe and Professor Gill Lewin,” Ms Millane told AAA.

The fifth member, Susan Ryan, was not involved in the re-formed panel on account of her role at the Human Rights Commission.

National Seniors last week agreed to provide research assistance and promote the panel’s work to its 250,000 members, Ms Millane said.

The panel will hold its first meeting in Sydney in February. In March and April it will conduct public consultations in all the major cities to hear feedback on the blueprint. It plans to publish the final blueprint in June.

Ms Millane said the central premise of the blueprint was to turn the ageing tsunami into a social and economic opportunity for Australia.

Described as “a critical piece of work” the blueprint aims to develop policies that will prepare Australia for the dramatic implications of an ageing society.

However, while the former panel was not to include aged care or superannuation in its remit, Ms Millane confirmed that the re-established panel will look at both these areas.

A crowd funding campaign has been launched and aims to raise $20,000 to fund the panel’s work. Ms Millane said that Per Capita had also had discussions with several companies and expected there would be institutional and corporate sponsors.