Solutions and diversions: the debate on Australia's ageing population

The ageing of Australia's population has long been presented as one of the most serious challenges facing the nation in the coming decades. Whilst it is certainly a problem in need of attention, to label it a crisis is to overstate the case. Governments have a range of policy levers open to them to respond to the budgetary effects of ageing. Instead of the radical solutions proffered by some, this problem requires only moderate policy steps over a long period. Many such steps - incentives for saving and working past retirement age, increases in skilled migration, microeconomic reform (particularly in the health sector) and labour market deregulation - are worth pursuing in and of themselves.