Who’s Going to Pay the Bill?
Who’s Going to Pay the Bill?
Australia has a slow-burning crisis on its hands and most people are either asleep at the wheel or too polite to say it out loud.
With declining birth rates, a rapidly ageing population, and a National Disability Insurance Scheme that’s become a runaway freight train, politicians are quietly panicking about the same question:
How the hell do we keep paying for it all?
So far, the answer has been to throw the immigration lever as hard and fast as possible.
Let more people in.
Get them working.
Get them paying tax.
Problem solved, right?
Wrong.
When you drop over a million people into two capital cities, without building the homes, hospitals or highways to match, something breaks.
Actually, everything breaks, housing, traffic, emergency rooms, school waitlists, social cohesion, you name it.
We’ve turned immigration into a blunt force tax tool. And now we’re shocked when it starts swinging back.
When The Easy Money Runs Out
As the pressure mounts, Canberra’s eyes are turning elsewhere. Where can they grab more revenue without the backlash?
You start with the path of least resistance:
Tax the rich — or at least, anyone perceived to be rich.
Cue the $3 million cap on super, and the taxing of unrealised gains.
Cue the whispers about winding back negative gearing.
Cue the idea of bumping up the GST from 10% to 12% (because if you're going to sting people, best to sting everyone).
These aren’t policies. These are political tactics.
A way to make complex tax reform sound like a Robin Hood move.
But here’s the problem:
If you keep hacking away at the foundations of trust — in super, in property, in planning for your own retirement — eventually people stop playing the game. They don’t invest. They don’t build. They don’t bother.
And when the wealthy check out of the system, the burden shifts to everyone else.
Superannuation’s Dirty Little Secret
Here’s a question no one wants to ask:
Should someone with a $5 million home and their partner (whom is under Age Pension age) with $2 million in super be eligible for the Age Pension?
Because right now, the answer is: yep.
And it’s not just a technical loophole — it’s a massive flaw in the system that undermines the whole purpose of means-tested welfare.
Let’s be clear:
The Age Pension is not an entitlement. It’s welfare.
It was designed as a safety net — not a retirement plan for people with multi-million-dollar estates.
But the family home is exempt from the asset test.
So we’re seeing cases where retirees can claim welfare payments for 20+ years, live in luxury suburbs, and still leave the house to their kids, tax-free.
Is that fair?
Is it sustainable?
And more importantly — who’s going to pay for it when the next generation retires?
Time for a Hard Reset
We need real policy, not more band-aids.
Here’s one idea:
Legislate a phase-in of housing asset inclusion in the Age Pension test:
2030: Houses worth over $2 million are assessed.
2038: Threshold drops to $1 million.
2048: No exemption — all housing included.
Why this timeline? 2048 coincides with the retirement of the first generation that received compulsory superannuation.
In addition, this timeline provides Austrralian’s time to plan. It sends a clear signal: if you want the Age Pension, you need to structure your affairs accordingly. If not — fund your own retirement. That’s the deal.
This single move would do more to modernise retirement planning in Australia than any super cap or GST hike ever could.
Rethink Retirement.
We also need to flip the conversation from “how do we fund handouts?” to “how do we help people build real financial independence?”
The tools are there — reverse mortgages, downsizing incentives, annuities, smart super strategies. But there’s no leadership stitching it together into a system that works without relying on government welfare.
Banks are happy to lend. Advisors are ready to guide.
But the message from Canberra is muddled at best, and cowardly at worst.
And maybe, just maybe, it’s time to stop calling it a “pension” altogether.
Because pension sounds like you’ve earned it.
Welfare reminds people it’s a safety net — not a reward.
Where To From Here?
The Age Pension already costs us over $64 billion a year — and that number is climbing fast.
What’s the end game here? Are we willing to keep pushing the tax burden onto fewer and fewer shoulders? Or is it time to make some hard — but fair — calls?
Scrap the home exemption from the Age Pension test (over time).
Rebuild confidence in the superannuation system.
Encourage independence over dependency.
And stop pretending this can all be fixed with more migrants or another tax grab.
Australia needs a retirement reboot.
And we need leaders who are willing to speak the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable.
Want to talk about a future-proof retirement plan that doesn’t rely on government handouts?
Let’s have the real conversation.