Our goal: A decent standard of living for all older Australians TO THE HONOURABLE THE SPEAKER AND MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES This petition of certain citizens of Australia draws the attention of the House to the inadequacy of the Age Pension to provide a decent standard of living for older Australians. Older Australians need sufficient income to enable them to live healthy lives as active members of their communities. We therefore ask the House to 1. Establish a Cost of Living in Retirement (COLR) benchmark as a decent standard of living and keep it aligned with the actual cost of living a healthy life as an active member of the community. 2. Guarantee, as a minimum for each person, that their combination of income from private sources (savings, superannuation, etc.) and government sources (pension, supplements, etc.) meets the COLR benchmark for a decent standard of living. 3. Until the new Cost of Living in Retirement (COLR) benchmark is established, set the age pension at 35% of Male Total Average Weekly Earnings. The rate for singles would be $375.30 per week, and for couples $562.95 per week, thereby maintaining the two-thirds parity between singles and couples.

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