Firstly, congratulations on retirement.

I sincerely hope you enjoy the best time of your life!!

Don’t ever let fear hold you back!!!

I’m several years away from being able to retire at 60.

It fears me.

WTF will I do?

Obviously there are volunteer organisations that I can work for?

It’s actually really difficult for myself to get my head around getting this old.

I’ll end up medically unfit and politely told it’s time. Ive done all the sums and life will continue financially basically fine.

It’s a struggle mentally to get my head around being retired.

It seems like only yesterday I didn’t believe I had a chance in hell to be 19.

And that, paradoxically didn’t worry me as much 


Only the good die young, I suspect yadda you and I will live to 200

whiteknight wrote on Jun 6^th, 2026 at 10:59am:



You had a whole lifetime to  prepare for your retirement. Whydinya?

The governments have had a lifetime preparing for peoples retirement.  Yet they keep putting the pension age up.  Why is that so?.         

whiteknight wrote on Jun 6^th, 2026 at 12:50pm:


People live longer, I know many people in their seventies still working.

Greens announce plan to lower retirement age and lift pension above poverty line
2025-04-26
greens.org.au
The Greens have today announced a plan to lower the retirement age and lift the age pension above the poverty line, allowing Australians to retire earlier on a liveable income.   

Greens leader Adam Bandt announced the plan in the party’s target seat of Richmond in northern NSW, along with Social Services spokesperson Senator Penny Allman-Payne and Greens candidate for Richmond Mandy Nolan.

By lowering the pension age from 67 to 65, recipients who benefit would on average receive $18,000 more a year. This includes those moving from JobSeeker to the Age Pension.

There are currently 54,295 JobSeeker recipients who are aged over 65. Since 2017 the proportion of people older than 65 receiving JobSeeker, DSP or the Carer Payment has doubled.

The commitment will largely benefit older women who are more likely than men to face the prospect of poverty in old age. The majority of JobSeeker recipients aged over 65 are women.

The pension rate was raised from 65 to 67 by the Rudd Labor government in 2009, with the Greens opposing the decision at the time.

Comments attributable to Leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt MP:

“In a wealthy country like ours, no one should retire into poverty. The Greens will fight for the right to retire earlier at 65, with an income that will actually pay the bills and support older Australians to enjoy the retirement they deserve.   

“There is a poverty crisis among older Australians and it's worse for older women, who are one of the fastest growing groups facing homelessness.

"One in three big corporations pay no tax, while thousands of older Australians are struggling to get by. By making billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share of tax, older Australians can retire earlier with a liveable income.   

"In a minority Parliament, the Greens will keep Dutton out and restore respect and dignity in ageing by getting Labor to return the pension age to 65, and raise the pension rate above the poverty line.”

Comments attributable to Greens spokesperson on Social Services and Government Services, Senator Penny Allman-Payne:

“Thousands of older people are in physically demanding, minimum wage jobs or accessing the much lower JobSeeker rate because successive Labor and Liberal governments have failed to give them the support they need.

“Older people deserve better from their government. The Greens will return the pension age to 65 and lift the pension above the poverty line, providing a well-deserved earlier retirement with liveable income support.”

whiteknight wrote on Jun 6^th, 2026 at 1:42pm:

Drew Hutton, the co-founder of the Greens, says this about the Greens:



“My politics are still exactly the same as they were back in the 1980s when I first started setting up green political organisations,” he says. “I believe in the four pillars of green politics: ecological sustainability, social justice, democracy, and nonviolence. They’re my guiding principles, but they are no longer the guiding principles of the Greens.

“Their idea of social justice is justice for small preferred minorities. Their idea of democracy excludes free speech, and they support truly repulsive organisations – or at least they don’t criticise them – like Hamas in the Middle East. Hamas is a violent, terrorist organisation but you never hear them utter a word of criticism of them.”

The old boy’s message is that the Greens are talking themselves into irrelevancy with most voters. It’s an existential problem for the progressive left of politics that reaches to the ALP. He calls it the “Brahmin bubble”, appropriating the term for the top-ranking class in the traditional Hindu caste system. “The issue for the Greens is they have no ability to talk to people outside that particular constituency,” he explains.

“These people have contempt for ordinary Australians. They’re university educated and predominantly from the inner city. They’re into identity politics. They’re professional, managerial elites and they don’t relate to … working-class Australians.”
...


“Unless somebody wakes up Labor and the Greens to the fact that they are not representing the people they purport to, the progressive side of politics is going to disintegrate in this country,” Hutton warns. “The Greens are going to stay at a sub-primary (vote) level, Labor is going to become increasingly unpopular out there and One Nation is going to cannibalise their vote. The left is going to have to take a very good look at ­itself if it wants to stay relevant in Australian politics.”

whiteknight wrote on Jun 6^th, 2026 at 2:23pm:



Yeah - what does the co-founder of the Greens know about the Greens, eh?

Hmmm, given the way the Australian economy is going.

Perhaps I could use old skills to feed local birds up.

Fattening them, gain their trust.

Catch and dispatch and local bush turkeys  for dinner?

I have a limited skill set 🤣