Affording our Future Conference
How will population ageing and rising incomes impact on the cost of public health care, superannuation, and government finances? This was one question addressed at the 'Affording our Future' Conference.
- How will population ageing and rising incomes impact on the cost of public health care, superannuation, and government finances?
- Will future governments be able to afford to provide the same public services in the future or without excessive increases in public debt and taxes?
- What are the policy options for addressing the future costs of population ageing?
- Will reforms to retirement income policy, health policy or other areas of fiscal policy be necessary?
These questions were the focus of the Affording our Future Conference jointly hosted by Victoria Business School, the Chair in Public Finance and The Treasury on 10-11 December.
Around 200 people from various parts of the country attended, including 25 young people taking part in the Long Term New Zealand Workshop organised by the McGuinness Institute.
Speakers at the conference included the former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, the Hon. Sir Michael Cullen, the Rt. Hon. Simon Upton, commentator and journalist Colin James, and overseas academics including Professor Nick Mays from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Dr Patrick Nolan from Reform (a London think tank), and Professor Ross Guest from Griffith University.
Victoria Business School staff speaking at the conference included Professors Norman Gemmell, John Creedy, and Bob Buckle, and the conference was part of the Long Term Fiscal External Panel process developed by Treasury in partnership with Victoria University.
"The purpose of this conference was to involve members of the public in a wider discussion of the fiscal consequences of population ageing, rising incomes and public expectations of the role of the state, and to discuss and debate policy options to address these challenge," said Professor Buckle.
"The level of engagement and the quality of the questions and discussion at the conference illustrated the depth of interest in these and the concern that many people have that Government should be taking these issues seriously."
In his speech to the conference, Simon Upton observed that New Zealand has an opportunity to act pre-emptively to address the consequences of population ageing in a considered way before the full impact impinges on the Government’s finances, and before the political challenges of introducing policy change make this task more difficult.
Papers and presentations are available from the Chair in Public Finance website.