Beware the wounded senior

Chris Bowen hasn’t done Labor any favours with older Australians by telling them they are “perfectly entitled to vote against us” if they don’t like the policies.

It’s a cameo I wouldn’t be surprised to see repeated ad nauseam during the election, just like Paul Keating’s throwaway line in 1996 “Get a job”, and it will draw attention to opposition arrogance and back to retirement and savings, just as Keating brought it back to jobs and the state of the economy.

Most people make bad investors because they pay too much for certainty and are too risk averse – that’s what compulsory super is supposed to adjust for by giving ­investment to experts.

The same dynamic plays in politics. We favour the certainty of the status quo over the risk of change. This election, beware the risk-averse senior.