Social infrastructure for a new world

Another deterrent to encouraging Seniors to go bush is the reality of drought conditions that regularly prevail and cause the economy of the Inland to shrink. This can be solved easily and economically as Dr Bradfield proved in 1930 - but there are not enough votes in the bush to encourage politicians to move on to the obvious fact that, without water, life is impossible. Sadly, the National (Country) Party has been operating for 80 years and has done little about it, to their eternal disgrace. The ALP could have won every seat in the bush if they had been willing to invest in it, but they had no foresight either, and must share the blame.

All of the above combine to highlight once again the scarcity of fast, efficient rail transport in the Inland, either for freight or passengers, and this kills the incentive to invest there. Many more would live in the country if there were fast trains that will get them to cities in a couple of hours when they need specialist medical treatment. But, country rail tracks lie rusting with neglect, and there are no serious plans to bring them, and their bush communities, to life again.

This means that if we create the right physical infrastructure and the essential social infrastructure that must be associated with it, we can encourage many people, especially Seniors, to live away from capitals. Likewise, with the correct physical and social infrastructure for inner city areas, many will depart from the suburban sprawl and have a great life in the centre of age-friendly cities.

It is time to change the face of Australia and marry social and physical infrastructure, a concept that will work splendidly once we acknowledge that every economic decision must contain a response to the social impact that it creates, and vice versa. Economics and social policy are now indivisible, and this means that the old political structures of right and left are outdated. We now need efficient managers of conscience, not hack politicians clinging to old political dogmas that are fast fading.

It is this belief that is the guiding force behind my work with Per Capita, an eminent Australian Think Tank, in preparing a Blueprint on Ageing which has the potential to change the threat of ageing into the basis of a new and positive lifestyle for a nation that leads the world.