Past event: Affording Our Future Conference 2012

Papers and presentations from the conference are now available.

When: 10-11 December 2012

Where: Victoria University of Wellington, Lecture Theatre 1, Rutherford House, Wellington

Population ageing represents one of the most profound social and economic challenges affecting societies worldwide.

Speaking in October 2012, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that demographic change “will affect every community, family and person. They demand that we rethink how individuals live, work, plan and learn throughout their lifetimes, and that we re-invent how societies manage themselves.” It is within a context of rising international interest in the implications of population ageing for societies and governments, including our own, that the Chair of Public Finance at Victoria Business School, Professor Norman Gemmell, and the New Zealand Treasury, co-hosted the Affording Our Future Conference.

The purpose of the conference was to:

* Promote an evidence-based public debate on key policy choices for managing the Crown’s long-term fiscal position;

* Identify the potential range of options available for managing the long-term fiscal challenges, including the types of policy choices and trade-offs that will likely be required in the future;

* Assist the Treasury to produce a robust Statement on the Long-term Fiscal Position, to be presented to Parliament and published in 2013.

The conference, which brought together specialists and commentators to share their expertise, was a critical part of the Treasury’s efforts to raise the quality and utility of the next Long-Term Fiscal Statement. The conference summarised months of intensive work conducted by an independent External Panel of academic specialists from various fields, commentators and former ministers, who met monthly between August and late November to scrutinize the initial assumptions, analysis and modeling work being produced for the next Long-Term Fiscal Statement.