Let
Pensioners
Work!

A plan that could remove our right to be casual workers if we have a “regular pattern of work” will only make it harder for Australians trying to enter the workforce, writes Saxon Davidson.

“Job number one for Premier Cook is to fix Western Australia’s worst-in-the-nation worker shortage levels, which is stifling business performance and punishing customers,” Mr Davidson said. “We are calling on Premier Cook to lead the charge in National Cabinet to have discriminatory tax and red tape barriers that are preventing our pensioners, veterans, and students removed to alleviate this crisis and he deserves bipartisan support,” said Mr Davidson. “Removing unfair barriers on pensioners, veterans, and students is a no-regrets policy which will get more Australians who want to into work, more money into local economies, while increasing tax revenue, and providing a critical source of dignity and self-esteem to our most experienced Australians,” said Mr Davidson.

We’re going to keep pushing the government to bring in this policy that we’ve been fighting for the last couple of years, which is let the pensioners work and simply pay income tax. In other words, just a fair rate of taxation, which is what they have in New Zealand, where they have many, more people in the workforce than we’ve got here. And we really should be following the same example as New Zealand. And I think we can do it and I know that there’d be plenty of listeners out there who say, Look, I’ve worked all my life, I want to retire. That’s fine, for you. But if you’ve got someone there who doesn’t have a lot of superannuation or gets enjoyment from work, why should you punish them?

“Our Let Pensioners Work campaign calls for a reduction in the in- come test taper rates so you can keep more of your pension if you choose to continue working. This is fairer than raising the pension age because it rewards people who want to work. Pensioners who chose to work would benefit from extra income and their participation would also help the economy. If you are on a pension, and you want to keep working it’ll be a win for the economy, it’ll be a win for the pensioners, and it will be a win for the government.”

Nationals Seniors Chief Advocate Ian Henschke says Labor “should have done more” in the federal budget to address the needs of seniors in Australia. “They should have done more with the call to let people work without such a penalty on their benefits,” Mr Henschke told Sky News Australia. “Because the pensioner, as you know at the moment, loses 50 cents in a dollar for about the second day’s work – that system has to change.”

Reporter Brooke Young interviews Ian Henschke of National Seniors Australia.

Currently, only 3 per cent of pensioners work in Australia, compared to 25 per cent in New Zealand. This is not because pensioners in Australia do not want to work. Research has shown that around one in five want to work, but do not, because of unfair tax and red tape barriers.The solution is to follow New Zealand’s approach by removing all red tape on pensioners, students, and veterans. This would mean that these Australians could earn as much income as they would want, without losing their pension payments or welfare benefits. Of course, they would still pay income tax like every other Australian worker. Removing all red-tape and barriers for Australian pensioners, veterans, and students to get back into the workforce, without suffering significant financial penalties, is a simple and effective policy measure that is good for them and good for our nation. More Australians working means higher government revenue through income tax, GST, and payroll tax, which can be reinvested into infrastructure and used to pay down our debt.

Mr Campbell says all of his family’s expenses have increased significantly, including food, fuel and power. But he emphasised that he loves keeping active through rewarding work and said his business, which has recently grown to eight employees, is now booked out several months in advance. National Seniors Australia CEO Ian Henschke told SBS News the number of older Australians “severely” impacted by rising living costs is expected to rise over the next 12 months. “We have a very complicated social security system in Australia, which means that if you do work, you actually get penalised for working if you’re on a pension, beyond a certain amount.”

Retired Australians are returning to the workforce as the cost of living crisis makes it harder for older people to live off the pension. Over 3700 retired teachers returned to New South Wales classrooms in the last 12 months, and thousands more are looking for jobs, with one in five pensioners wanting to work more. However, older people risk losing their pension if they make over $11,800 of income a year, an amount advocacy groups say isn’t enough to live off of.”The vast majority of people who go back to work do so because they need the money,” the Chief Advocate at National Seniors Australia, Ian Henschke, said. “We should take a leaf out of New Zealand’s book and simply let people on a pension work and pay income tax.”

The results showed 90 per cent of respondents were concerned about keeping up with rise of living costs, while 25 per cent were “extremely concerned”. “If you’re an older person renting or on a low income, you’re more likely to be hit hard by rising living costs,” National Seniors Australia chief advocate Ian Henschke said “The age pension is adjusted twice a year in March and September. Rather than have pensioners wait six months, government should increase payments quarterly when inflation is high,” Henschke said. “Another key measure would be to exempt work income from the income test for all government payments, so recipients can work more without penalty.”

National Seniors Australia is calling on the Federal Government to address rising living costs in the Federal Budget, by indexing the pension more often and letting pensioners work without penalty. Chief Advocate, Ian Henschke said the budget was an opportunity for the government to index the Age Pension more frequently during times of high inflation. With more than 400,000 job vacancies it should also let pensioners and other government payment recipients work more without penalty, he said. “Older Australians are an integral part of the economy, but with high inflation, uncertain markets and cost of living pressures, government would do well to boost seniors’ confidence,” Mr Henschke said.

National Seniors Australia chief advocate Ian Henschke said Australia could learn from New Zealand’s approach, with about 24.7 per cent of people over 65 still working in that country. “We’ve heard of people [in Australia] where they work up until a certain hour and then they tell their employer, look, if I work beyond this, I start to lose too much from my pension,” Mr Henschke said. He said Australia needed a fairer system that did not reduce pension benefits when a retired person worked. Instead, they would be taxed in an income bracket that included their new income and their pension payments.

Ian Henschke from National Seniors Australia. I think we need to recognise that we’ve got a jobs crisis in Australia, 450,000 plus jobs going begging and we’ve got 4.5 million Australians over 65. Ian says the work bonus should just be the beginning of major reforms in the system. He’d like to see Australia follow in the footsteps of New Zealand, where pensioners can work as much as they like without losing benefits. New Zealand has a workforce participation rate of 71%, we’ve got 66%, they’ve got 5% more of their population working and most of it is older workers. That’s where they’re getting their workforce from. Let’s take the handbrake off the economy and let those pensioners work and let those retirees work.

AUSTRALIA is facing a workforce crisis it’s never seen before. Job vacancies are approaching half a million, dragging business and economic growth down and fuelling a cost-of-living crisis. The hardest hit sectors include agriculture, hospitality, mining, tourism, and the caring industries. The Federal Government has raised the yearly permanent migration quota by 35,000 – but workforce shortages are not going to be solved by immigration alone. We need to boost participation and support people with limited income and savings to earn more. We also need to boost tax revenue to pay for health, aged care, and other social services. To fix these economic and socioeconomic challenges we must “let people work”.

According to the Bureau of Statistics, an army of Australian workers over the age of 65 are marching back to work, pushing the number of pensioners employed beyond pre-pandemic levels. Breaking the record with 689,000 pensioners employed around Australia, the pandemic, labor shortages and an increase in the amount a pensioner can earn are all contributing factors. Ian Henschke, Chief Advocate for National Seniors Australia, told 6PR Afternoons host Jo McManus that Australia should stop looking to overseas workers to fill the labor shortage.

A variety of changes will come into effect as of this week which will affect Australia’s elderly. There are calls to allow older Australians to work without losing their pension. Chief Advocate of the National Seniors Association Ian Henschke told James Willis it could become a reality this year.

Earning enough to lead a comfortable lifestyle is one of the reasons why Rick Cullen continues to run a law firm at the age of 75. “That’s part of it,” Cullen says. “But it’s probably more because I find work as interesting as it’s ever been. National Seniors Australia chief advocate Ian Henschke reckons ageism is the biggest barrier to employment for older Australians. He says the second-biggest is how Centrelink penalises pensioners for earning over a certain threshold – although Treasury’s Retirement Income Review suggests these types of financial incentives do little to encourage people to stay in the workforce.

Australians on aged and veteran pensions from today can work more hours without taking a hit to their Centrelink payments. National Seniors Australia chief advocate Ian Henschke told Gary Adshead on 6PR Mornings that, although the initiative was positive, there was a time limit to it. “But it’s only a temporary measure that runs until December 31 next year,” he told Adshead.

Older Australians are the answer for many employers grappling with the ongoing impacts of labour shortages. Companies are tapping into the mature-age workforce to help plug the gaps across many industries including retail, health, hospitality and administration sectors. Many of those jobs could be filled by older Australians, said Ian Henschke, National Seniors Australia chief advocate. “The government must act quickly, clearly, and decisively to send a signal to pensioners and veterans they’re needed, valued and free to keep working, re-enter the workforce or work more,” he said.

Yet another report has highlighted the worrying extent of job vacancies within Australia’s aged care and disability care sector, with the newly released National Skills Commission 2022 Skills Priority List revealing a 12% annual increase in jobs shortages.National Seniors Australia Chief Advocate, Ian Henschke described the findings as alarming.

5 October, 2022.

5 October 2022.

1 October 2022.

Millions of pensioners are feeling the pinch of inflation and say the increase in payments doesn’t match up to the rising cost of living. National Seniors have been campaigning to let pensioners work longer hours without losing any of their benefits. The government has now agreed to let pensioners earn an extra $4000 this financial year from December.
But Gibson said the change will barely “scratch the surface” because it’s “only lasting for about six months”. Many seniors have been keeping a keen eye on what’s being offered by Canberra.

Brekky has been binned, lunches let go and dinners dropped at several renowned restaurants along Noosa’s world-famous Hastings St strip as staff shortages mount. The changes to menu offerings have been forced by a depletion of the workforce affecting many hospitality operators in the popular tourist hotspot. Aromas Restaurant & Bar Noosa manager Sabina Franz said her restaurant had shrunk its dinner hours from seven to two days a week because it was unable to find employees. “It’s crippling,” she said.

23 September 2022.

22 September 2022.

“It’s certainly not adequate enough if you live alone and you rent,” National Seniors Australia chief advocate Ian Henschke told 7NEWS. He suggested allowing the elderly to work more – without it affecting their pension – would solve several problems. “They’ve made a small adjustment to the work bonus, but you really have to take the hand break off the system and say go for it, go out and work and pay income tax,” Henschke said.

With the aged care industry facing an estimated shortfall of 35,000 workers this year, attracting and retraining experienced staff like Adelaide-based Ms Hurrell is critical for employers. Ms Hurrell is a case in point. She works 30 hours a fortnight but would “certainly” take on more shifts if work rules for pensioners were relaxed further. She said she needed the extra money because the cost of living was surging and she and her husband had been responsible for supporting their grandson since their daughter died 12 years ago. “It seems to me that the government is telling us what we can do and what we can’t do, which doesn’t make sense,” she said of the pension rules.

Rinehart adds her voice to groups including National Seniors Australia and the National Farmers Federation which have called for pensioners’ pay from labour to be subject only to regular income tax, rather than reducing their pension. “We are an ageing nation that has a participation rate of mature age workers less than the OECD average,” she said, urging the government to encourage pensioners and veterans to continue working during “an acute worker shortage”. “Work income should be exempt from assessment with pensioners simply paying income tax like everyone else.

Mr Henschke is calling for a dramatic change to the retirement system. ‘‘If you want to help older people reduce the 500,000 job vacancies, then you need to get Centrelink off their backs,’’ he said. National Seniors supports the idea of allowing age pensioners to work with their income taxed as normal wages. That would mean pensioners would pay tax once the tax-free threshold had been breached. ‘It would all get reconciled at the end of the year with your tax return,” Mr Henschke said. ‘‘If we get the response that pensioners are telling us we would – in other words, if 20 per cent of those aged between 66.5 and 75 wanting to work – that would be 200,000 people. The result would be a net benefit to the budget,’’ Mr Henschke said.

“We have jobs coming out our ears because every business is crying out for staff and we know locals want to help out and relieve the pressure,” he said. “Some might work one shift a week but haven’t been able to do more because it affects their pension. “Often these people are local former employees who have critical skills such as coach drivers, or chefs, and want to help out, but it’s just not worth putting their retirement incomes at risk for a few extra shifts.

Senior Fellow of the Institute of Public Affairs, John Roskam, argues that heavy penalties on pensioners working must be scrapped to help alleviate Australia’s crippling nation-wide worker shortage.

The federal government will change the pension work test and increase the amount age pensioners and veterans can earn before being financially penalised. The measure is only temporary and is set to end 30 June 2023. National Seniors described it as a “good start” but criticised the government for not changing the income reporting requirements. National Seniors chief advocate Ian Henschke said one of the biggest disincentives for age pensioners and veterans to get back into the workforce was the onerous reporting of any income earned to Centrelink, and the fear of losing payments if they got it wrong. “We are very happy to see the Jobs and Skills Summit take seriously our campaign to let pensioners work as a means of addressing the jobs and skills shortage,” he said.

5 September 2022.

As the rising cost of living forces more Australians to seek extra income by taking on a second or even third job, we meet some of those finding creative ways to make ends meet. Pensioner Jack Moon is applying a second coat of paint to the ceiling of an apartment in Liverpool, in Sydney’s west. As he does most mornings, Jack was up at dawn to start work at 7 am. “I’ll have to work until I drop or my knees give out,” he says. Paying bills on a fixed income is his main challenge. “People are also cutting back on fresh food. “It‘s pathetic the way the situation is,” he says.

Chief Advocate for National Seniors Ian Henschke says allowing pensioners to work increased hours without losing their benefit payments is the “best policy for the future of the country”. Measures to allow working seniors to earn extra income without losing their pension was a key outcome from this week’s Jobs and Skill Summit. Under a new scheme, pensioners will receive a one-off income credit and are able to earn up to $4000 extra a year. However, many advocacy groups for older Australians believe the changes don’t go far enough. “The $4000 announced last Friday was a nice step,” Mr Henschke said. “You do not stop being an asset to your society when you are 66.5 and you are put on a pension.”

Seniors shouldn’t get too excited about the $4000 increase in the amount they can earn without losing some of the age pension. The arrangement is temporary and a use-it-or-lose-it deal that needs to be taken advantage of by the end of this financial year. The announcement came during the concluding remarks made by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the Job and Skills Summit on Friday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrapped up the two-day event in Canberra by announcing the anticipated change to the pension — a policy WA billionaire Gina Rinehart campaigned for ahead of the Federal election. Ms Rinehart said the new measure could have gone further, and the paperwork pensioners need to undertake, along with other restrictions would just deter pensioners from working.

Business wants more workers, unions want more money for workers, but can the jobs summit at Parliament House deliver both? Today Alan Kohler on whether the ‘talkfest’ can actually bring about the change the economy needs. Featured: Alan Kohler, ABC News finance analyst

Andrew Bolt interviews Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell.

Paul Murray interviews Stephen Ferguson, Chief Executive,  Australian Hotels Association. 

Peter Dutton has welcomed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese leaving the door open for pensioners to join the workforce but says action should have been taken in June. Mr Dutton said in June it was known there was an “acute problem” within the economy and more workers were needed. “There would be hundreds of thousands, potentially, of workers, in the workforce now,” he said during a media conference on Wednesday. “Hundreds and thousands of days of work being completed that would add to our country’s productivity.”

In healthcare, hospitality and education, workers are in seriously short supply. The jobs summit is looking for solutions to Australia’s workforce shortage, so could retirees be a quick fix?

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has thrown his weight behind NSW Treasurer Matt Kean’s call to mobilise the country’s “grey army of workers” to solve the labour crisis. Seniors and pensioners can fill vacancies in home care, hospitality and agriculture if the federal government removes financial penalties that occur as a result of work, Mr Kean says. And Mr Andrews agrees. “The notion that we’re penalising people, or keeping them out of the workforce, while every industry is begging for staff, it just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

We’ve talked about the ability of pensioners to earn a few extra dollars without being punished by the withdrawal of their pension as a way to try and plug some of the skills gaps that are right across the economy. It was Gina Rinehart who’s been talking about this. In a moment, I’m going to talk to Paul Zahra. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Retailers Association.

Seniors and pensioners can fill vacancies in home care, hospitality and agriculture if the federal government removes financial penalties for them to work, NSW Treasurer Matt Kean says. The outspoken state treasurer has thrown his weight behind a push to lift the income level at which pensioners get taxed, arguing that many older citizens would work if they did not face the threat of losing their benefits. “We have a grey army of workers who want to get out there and work but there is no incentive to do so,” Mr Kean told The Australian Financial Review.

Economists and experts say Australia’s workforce shortage could be filled by attracting workers with higher wages and recruiting from the underemployed, those with mild disabilities and pensioners. Ahead of the Jobs and Skills Summit this week, the federal government faces calls to use the tightened labour market to fix low wage growth and access the 1.3 million who remain unemployed or underemployed, including 200,000 people with mild disabilities, and up to 400,000 people on the age pension who want to work more. National Seniors Australia is running a Let Pensioners Work! Campaign, pointing out that pensioners are discouraged from paid work because they lose 50c in the dollar once they earn more than the threshold, which recently increased to $190 a fortnight for singles and $336 a fortnight for couples.

Reducing ageism is one of Australia’s most often missed opportunities. The rewards for older people, the economy and society as a whole would be great, while the effort needed to unlock those rewards is comparatively small.Every day we hear about worker shortages. Yet, there are hundreds of thousands of older workers – many highly skilled and experienced – who would love to work but aren’t. The benefits to the economy are clear. The benefits for older workers should be just as clear.

Ellen Fanning joins Adam Carrel, Olga Oleinikova, Topaz McAuliffe and Ian Henshchke to discuss the war in Ukraine six months on, solutions to fill job vacancies and skills shortages, plus how accurate are ‘best before’ dates.

Interview of Ian Henschke, chief advocate, National Seniors Australia & Cassandra Winzar, Senior Economist at CEDA and author of Duty of Care: Meeting the Aged Care Workforce Challenge. As the aged care worker shortage worsens, one suggestion is to make it easier for pensioners to work more hours, in the hope that they’ll consider jobs in aged care.

Allowing pensioners and veterans to work is exactly the kind of common-sense reform businesses, industry groups, and ordinary Australians are expecting from the Jobs and Skills Summit. It would be an easy and early win for the Albanese government.

Interview courtesy of Richelle Hunt, Presenter, Bronwen O’Shea, Presenter and ABC Radio Melbourne.

Unemployment is at a near 50-year low of 3.5 per cent. Yet only three per cent of Australia’s pensioners work, compared with 25 per cent in New Zealand, where they are not charged with penalties beyond income tax. Rebekah Sharkie, the Federal Independent MP for Mayo near Adelaide since 2016, and Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart, believe over-65s should be able to work more without losing their benefits. She wants an opt-in scheme that would either increase or remove the income-test threshold for pensioners with limited savings, and will now have the issue discussed at next month’s Skills Summit in Canberra ahead of the next the Federal Budget in October.

“We need to pursue every solution,” she said. “That means supporting older Australians who are willing to pitch in at a seriously challenging time.” Hancock Prospecting executive chairwoman Gina Rinehart said the policy would be a “win-win-win-win” for pensioners and veterans who “deserve the right” to work without onerous paperwork. She said it could help ease acute staffing shortages in aged care, hospitals and other sectors.

Thousands of pensioners and “grey nomads” could hold the key to unlocking the nation’s workforce crisis, according to a plan backed by mining magnate Gina Rinehart. “This policy would be … good for pensioners and veterans who deserve the right at least as much as all of us to work if we chose without onerous paperwork,” she said.

Senior Australians would be able to work more hours before getting their pensions docked under new proposed legislation being introduced by independent MP Rebekha Sharkie on Monday. The private members bill – designed to alleviate critical workforce shortages – will attempt to increase the income test threshold for pensioners and has the backing of major stakeholders including the National Farmers Federation, Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, National Seniors Australia and Gina Rinehart.

Article by John McCallum.

A local pensioner has been informed she can’t be hired due to her age. Lee is 78 years old and offered to work at her local club due to the current staff shortages. Due to her age, the club said they couldn’t afford to insure her to work there. “It’s one of the many issues pensioners are facing when they try to rejoin the workforce,” Ben said.

“Currently as soon as a pensioner earns more than $300 a fortnight they lose 50c on the dollar of their pension.

“Instead there needs to be a simple system where they are able to work more and then pay income tax.“

It’s a good idea. Do it.

Australia has half a million jobs up for grabs but is finding it near impossible to fill most of them. The Prime Minister’s $5.4b plan to make child care cheaper for families also forms a central part of his strategy to address the skills shortage. But Mr Albanese is also facing calls to encourage pensioners to return to the workforce. New Liberal leader Peter Dutton has pressed the Albanese Government to allow pensioners to earn more money without seeing their pensions being cut back — borrowing an idea championed by WA mining magnate Gina Rinehart and rejected by the Coalition. Currently pensioners can earn $300 a fortnight before their pension payments are reduced, but Mr Dutton wants the income threshold to be increased to $600.

Estimates from Deloitte Access Economics quantify a 5 per cent bump in the number of 55s in the workforce as a $48 billion boost to national gross domestic product. Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA chief economist Aaron Morey says the tight labour market means tapping into the full potential of the workforce was “critical” to getting the economy back on track.

Time to let pensioners like George work more Pensioner George Gibson wants to work more to keep the country growing, but he also doesn’t think he should be penalised for doing so. At a time when Australia is desperate for workers, industry groups agree it’s absurd a “grey army” of employees like the 71-year-old are being held back by outdated rules that mean they can only earn $300 a fortnight before their government payments are reduced. It comes as Opposition Leader Peter Dutton pushes for the threshold to be raised to $600 – an idea championed by mining billionaire Gina Rinehart. National Seniors Australia says 19 per cent of pensioners want to return to work.

Estimates from Deloitte Access Economics have a 5 per cent rise in the number of over-55 s in the workforce as boosting national gross domestic product by $48 billion. The idea has long been championed by WA mining billionaire Gina Rinehart, pictured right. Mr Dutton confirmed conversations with Mrs Rinehart had helped inform his stance.
Mrs Rinehart said she applauded Mr Dutton “for the leadership he has shown on this issue”. “I would encourage the Government to not only consider the benefits to the department of eliminating pensioners’ paperwork but the revenue generated from additional income tax … and businesses then able to generate more taxable profits,” she said. Mrs Rinehart wants the Government to go further than Mr Dutton’s policy however, by eliminating any upward limit to what pensioners can earn, “and just let them contribute like other Australians by paying income tax” .

The Australian Retailers Association, the peak body for the nation’s $360bn retail sector, has lent its considerable political weight to supporting calls to make employment income exempt from the age pension income test, allowing pensioners to supplement their income while also alleviating severe labour shortages across the country. “Retail has always been a powerfully diverse employment sector and we need to think more creatively about how we can mobilise new segments of our Australian workforce such as mature age workers and pensioners,” Mr Zahra said “We would like to see this as a priority for the Federal government immediately following the election. Should the new government enact this considered change, a new workforce of pensioners can be unlocked and able to choose work that suits them in an economy that desperately needs their efforts.”

How can the government pay for aged care reform without higher taxes? There is a way, explains National Seniors Chief Advocate Ian Henschke. | Join the campaign.

Age pensioners are well suited to working in aged care, and many do, but pension income rules mean they must limit the amount they work to avoid being taxed at the highest marginal tax rate. With the benefits of working for longer well established, and the aged care sector in the midst of an intense worker shortage, there is a growing chorus calling for pensioners to be able to earn a higher income before a punitive tax rate kicks in. New Zealand’s pensioners are not penalised for earning additional income. The participation rate of over 65s working in New Zealand is 25% compared with Australia’s 14%.

10 February 2022.

7th February 2022.

Interview hosted by Adam Stephen, courtesy of ABC Far North.

Chief Advocate Ian Henschke says it’s a “no brainer”. “One of the big problems we’ve got at the moment is we need tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of workers,” he said on 6PR Breakfast. “And what happens if you are a pensioner and you work more than one day a week, and that’s only $240 … you lose 50 cents in your pension, and then you pay 19 cents in the dollar tax. “And that’s why Gina Rinehart, who’s the richest woman in Australia, has come out and said ‘fix it!’ Because it doesn’t make sense.”

So if you add all that up, party, this is a no-brainer. I mean, decent jobs, and that pensioners would want to be doing, age pensioners would want to be doing. If you look at aged care, for example, the greatest proportion of people working in aged care,. Are over the age of 50, right? So as they head towards their pension date. At the moment, they know that if the Aged care home or the home care provider says to them, would you like to work every weekend for us? Because we do need people on the weekends, they’ll discover very rapidly, but once I’ve worked on that Saturday, the Sunday, they’ll start losing 50 cents in the dollar, and they’ll say, look, it’s not working.

“If the government exempted work income from the income test for those with limited savings it would boost their income and savings in retirement, and boost the productivity of the nation,” Mr Henschke said. “We will nudge millions of Australians into, not out of, work.” The idea has support from business groups and figures. Mining magnate Gina Rinehart said the change would help ease the nation’s skills crisis. “We are a supporter of the government changing its policy where pension arrangements are concerned, so that pensioners can work should they so choose, without onerous tax resulting from their decision to work,” Ms Rinehart said.

Older Australians should be able to work longer hours without it affecting their eligibility for the age pension, a seniors group says.If just 5 per cent more chose to work, that would be an army of 130,000 additional workers.” Mr Henschke’s comments come after mining billionaire Gina Rinehart, pictured, in November said her company Hancock Prospecting supported similar changes to help ease the nation’s skill crisis. “Hancock recognises the shortage of staff Australia-wide disrupts many projects and delays supplies,” Mrs Rinehart said. “We are a supporter of the Government changing its policy where pension arrangements are concerned, so that pensioners can work should they so choose, without onerous tax resulting from their decision to work. Hancock is a very patriotic company that supports investment in Australia, primary industries and jobs in WA and Australia. When mining does well, Australia does well.”