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SYDNEY - Australia has the fourth highest relative income poverty rate for people aged 65 and over in western economies, following a 4.6 per cent increase since the mid-1990s, a new OECD report shows.
For singles aged over 65, the income poverty rate in Australia is 50 per cent - the highest in the Organisation for Economic Development (OECD).
In contrast, poverty rates for seniors in most OECD countries have declined significantly since the mid-1990s.
Federal Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin said that as a prosperous nation, Australia could do better.
"An ageing population means we need to build a sustainable retirement income framework," Ms Macklin told a Sydney Institute function last night.
She said the Rudd government made a significant move towards assisting pensioners last week, when it announced they would receive $4.8 billion ($5.40 billion) of its $10.4 billion economic security strategy.
"Pensioners understand that the delivery of payments through the government's economic security strategy is part of our commitment to long-term reform of the system," she said.
"The payments last week are just the first step."
She did not believe the $10.4 billion, which will also benefit families and first home buyers, would be better spent on infrastructure and tax cuts.
"We've had very strong advice from the treasury to go early, to go hard and to go to households," she said.
"The reasons why we've wanted to give it to households in a lump sum rather than a fortnightly tax cut or a payment is because we want to stimulate the economy now."
During the Sydney Institute address Ms Macklin, also the Indigenous Affairs minister, said a major new agreement with the states and territories was focused on indigenous families.
"In this new program, we are putting a lot of effort into teenage parenting.
"Indigenous Australians have the highest level of teenage pregnancy in the developed world. So we have a big task in front of us to encourage those girls and the boys to stay on at school and do the things that teenagers do rather than starting a family."
Before and during Ms Macklin's talk on Level 32 of Governor Phillip Tower, about 30 members of the Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney protested against the government's intervention in the Northern Territory on the ground level foyer of the building.
Police were called to move them on.
- AAP
