Dog's breakfast of Corporate Champions

The 2010 Intergenerational Report suggested that if we can get the mature age participation rate to 67 per cent by 2049-50, this would help address challenges associated with population ageing. It currently stands at about 63 per cent. Over the past decade, more Australians in there 60s have kept on working. In the year to July 2012, employment among people aged 55 and over surged 3.9 per cent. We will probably reach the 67 per cent mark but only if we create more flexible workforces.

Labor wants working parents with carer responsibilities, mature aged workers, and others, to have the right to discuss flexible working arrangements with their employers. Older workers may have the right to ask their employers for flexible hours but employers are under no obligation to comply. What's the point? There needs to be legislative muscle to back it up but the Government knows the Business Council of Australia (BCA) and the Australian Industry Group (AIG) would hit the roof. I'm not convinced the ACTU is on side either.

The Australian Industry Group (AIG) is responsible for the national roll out of the Corporate Champions. It's curious that AIG should come out so stridently against some elements of workplace flexibility as this was a key plank of the Corporate Champions initiative.

Late last year I sourced seven Corporate Champions in South Australia. The state previously had none. Two were accepted and the other five were ignored. South Australia has the second oldest population in Australia. The five ignored clients were major hospitals and transport providers with about 25,000 staff - 60 per cent of who were over 45. It became clear that administrative processes were more important than getting businesses on board.

The seeds of these failures lay in the initial stages of the policy design. The challenge for the Australian Public Service is to turn the Government's plans and promises in to action. The life of a Government may depend on the public service's ability to implement the legislative agenda.

It's better for a Government not to have a policy at all, than to announce a policy – often with some fanfare – and then six to 12 months later, the media finds out the implementation has been a fiasco.

As Dr Peter Shergold, the former secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and an implementation specialist said on ABC radio, "Poor delivery – such as inadequate service levels, lack of timeliness or burdensome regulatory processes – risks public dissatisfaction. It can reduce trust not only in public service but in the government it serves."

Public trust in the Gillard Government is at low tide, in part, due to implementation failures such as Experience+ and the Corporate Champions. Taking on more migrants isn't going to help and raising the pension age is a stick, not a carrot. We need less talk and more action to get older Australians in to work and help those who want to work longer.

Market forces will recognise the Boomers have much to offer and it will be the threat of wage inflation that makes employers snuggle up to the Boomers once again.