The first and largest round, in July/August 1996, had meetings from Kaitaia to Invercargill. An issues booklet had earlier been distributed and we sought the views of people at public meetings and focus groups.

The issues paper referred to the now accepted fact that in common with other countries, our population is ageing - and our elderly population is also living longer. In 25 years from now the number of those over 65 will be more than the number of children under 15. This is the first time in history that the number of older people will be greater than the number of children.

A substantial issue for consideration is the fact that unless we make some fundamental changes, many more people will have many more years to occupy themselves after they stop work - however that word is defined.

The second round of consultation was held in May 1997 to consider the options which had arisen from the earlier sessions.

On the specific subject now before this conference we heard some important messages, particularly from older people. We heard:

• That arbitrary limits and social barriers worked against the continued participation of older people, particularly in work, learning and other organisations. A waste of human resources occurred because inaccurate stereotypes about older people created barriers to their participation/contribution. Many people felt discarded and marginalised by our society as being no longer relevant or able to participate in meaningful ways, and disliked the idea of having a use by date implied by the word retirement.

• That people did not like being categorised or treated as though they are the same as everyone else of similar age.

• Concerns about a lack of contact between older and younger members of families because of geographical separation, living arrangements and family break-up.

• That there was an over-emphasis on a youth culture and a lack of positive portrayals of ageing and older people, including in the media and consumer market. There was a constant call for the promotion of role models who debunked the stereotype of older people as ailing and passive recipients of social services.

• That ageing inevitably involved multiple loss, grief and ultimately death, and that the quality of support for older people, and quality of care for the dying and bereaved generally influenced societal attitudes towards ageing.

Research shows that:

• There are likely to be more differences within age groups than between them.

• Age does not necessarily lead to loss of competence. To take a simple example, the copy-typing speeds of individuals do not in practice reduce as they grow older and their accuracy actually increases.

• Any decline in mental and physical capacity will, in most cases, be offset by gains in experience and expertise, so that overall competence is generally not affected.

• Contrary to stereotyped thinking, labour turnover is actually lower among older workers than among their younger counterparts.

• The incidence of short-term sickness is no higher among older employees.

• Many older people are quite content to take leadership and direction from younger people, to take on different, more flexible and sometimes less responsible jobs as they approach retirement, and not necessarily to seek constant growth in seniority and remuneration.

Personnel decisions, such as performance evaluation and promotion, should be based on ability rather than age and reviews should be regular to ensure that employees continue to make an effective contribution.

The current national debate on population seems to revolve around factors such as desirable limits and ethnic mix. But given the certainty of the increased ageing of our population, the issues of adequate work opportunity may be more important - not just in ensuring revenue resources but in allowing more older people to gainfully work and use their talents longer. People seek that choice and option.

Given the current level and future projection of unemployment, how can we ensure adequate and appropriate jobs?

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts Manufactures and Commerce in Britain is undertaking a major project called Redefining Work. Its report will not be completed for another year, but already the articles, contributions and books on the subject are pretty gloomy.

It can no longer be assumed that people will have paid jobs throughout what used to be thought of as a working life. For a large number of people work is more than simply its utility and its end as a means of gaining a living. It is something through which people grow themselves and each other - it is a piece of individual identity.

So I suggest that as a nation we need to do at least three things.

1

We will need to think of work - and its necessary place in individual and societal terms - in wider ways. Personally I have no doubt that bearing and rearing children is the most important and valuable work of human beings. Yet the rearing of children is seen to be work only if it is done by people other than the parents. In other words, we seem to acknowledge that it is only work if you get money for it.

Manufacturing jobs are going to decrease, while employment in areas of health, education and caring will increase. It may be that employers and employer organisations may have to provide opportunities for their workforce to develop their own potential for further employment.

It is time to accept that employers and employees are not different in individual needs or sense of identity or self-fulfilment. Employees become employers - and sometimes vice versa. We are all in this problem together.

An economy is an example of inter-dependence - we need each other - and we need to encourage, help, sustain and nurture each other. Some can do more than others. We need to bring a change to the way we treat each other as citizens of our society. A decent society is not based on rights - it is based on duty, our duty to each other. To all should be given opportunity, from all responsibility demanded. The duty to show respect and tolerance to others.

The Task Force recommended that a Conference on Age and Work be run during the year 2000 to consider all these issues.

2

We need to be prepared to think outside the box on the issue of retirement income. Retirement income was, for very good reasons, outside the terms of reference for the Task Force.

Nevertheless, retirement income is such an integral part of ageing that we continually found ourselves rubbing up against it, particularly when we were looking at how to change attitudes to ageing and older people.

It is assumed that people will continue to retire much as they do now, perhaps with changes in the age and amount of entitlement. Yet, if you look at the trends, and listen to what people are saying, you are bound to conclude that the concept of retirement as a generally non-reversible state of being between 65 and death, cannot survive long into the next century.

Is it appropriate for health insurance to be increased arbitrarily at the age of 65 when costs increase at different rates between 65 and 85 (and probably above)?

As technology increasingly takes over the heavy manual tasks that used to wear us out physically, is it appropriate for us to insist that some of our best and most experienced people Arest@ for the remainder of their lives?

There is no doubt in my mind that all of these things will eventually change as a result of public pressure - the issue is, do our institutional income arrangements help or hinder this process?

3

Until we attain a more perfect state of society, we will continue to have a problem of unemployment at about 6.5%. Currently employment availability comes from the marketplace - including the public sector of the market. And if insufficient jobs arise we have two alternatives:

a)

Pay a Adole@ to the unemployed, or

b)

Use the same money to create additional jobs.

Most unemployed people want jobs - some desperately - and it is not the fault of most unemployed that they don't have a job.

Apart from actual expenditure on the dole and employment related activities, currently estimated at $1.9 billion, there is a huge social cost which can be translated into an economic cost. The unemployed and their families are grossly over represented in adverse statistics relating to health, education, crime, violence, domestic discord, dependency rates, and so on. We do not have adequate research to quantify that cost, but from my experience I would be sure that the annual cost is many hundreds of millions.

The Minister of Employment, Hon Peter McCardle, is currently preparing a basis to ensure the substantially greater involvement of job seekers in community work or training. The objective is to replace the unemployment benefit with an equivalent community wage or training allowance. No job seeker would be worse off, there would be no displacement, and the objective would be to have work or training appropriate to the job seeker.

The purist would argue that these created jobs are not real jobs. Maybe, but they are in total less costly and more beneficial than having an unacceptable percentage of our population doing nothing when they wish to work, and imposing a national cost and burden in health, education and justice terms.

In any event, I prefer Collins' definition of work to that of the purist, when Collins describes work as being A physical or mental effort directed towards doing or making something.

I do hope the Ministers initiative of creating work opportunities can be implemented urgently.

• Need a fully employed high salary work force.

• Intellectual skills may become redundant due to electronic and information revolutions.

• Education should give solid background for building on as circumstances change.

• Education more individual and less age-dependant.

• Importance of role of teachers, fewer, better paid.

• Inspirational leadership needed in schools.

• Crisis in Maori learning, need to invest in Maori education.

• Need marae based education, iwi agreements with milestones, outcomes and monitoring.

• Need a comprehensive national plan to cater for local needs in relation to Maori education.

• Intellectual capital as a resource with room to develop.

• Cultural differences provide creative spark toward international differences.

• Number of gainful jobs needs to be accurate and appropriate.

• Working in more flexible way.

• New thinking on retirement income.

• Attitude change about the concept of retirement.

• Employment availability helped by Government training schemes.

• Conference in 2000 about age and work.

Shona Buttefield, Chief Executive, The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand

• Survey of Chief Executives showed gap between present employees skills and what they thought would be needed in the future.

• Upskilling of current workers.

• Motivational factors catered for in learning environment.

• Cultivating industrial needs rather than a "one size fits all" concept.

• More reliance on communities rather than Government and collectivism.

• Multiple economic disadvantage means Government role needed.