Thank you Adrian, and good afternoon Rotarians and Guests,
Today we recognise an outstanding person aged 60 years or over who has made a positive difference to the lives of older people with the presentation of our Annual Senior’s Award.
Senior citizens are variably described as elderly or retired persons in the age range of 65 – 75 years. Our Club is of course well represented in this regard and on reflection, we have many active members well beyond these years who make a wonderful contribution to the Club and community.
We are of course actively pursuing younger members with some success ensuring a good cross-section and succession pipeline.
With the aging population, many people are deferring their retirement from the workforce adopting for a portfolio career, including part-time work and volunteering.
To that end, we should not lose sight of encouraging people of more mature years to be part of Rotary, enjoying fun and fellowship and the opportunity to participate in a range of Club projects.
Acknowledging the huge labour shortages being faced around Australia, it is going to be critical that our senior people remain active in the workforce.
For example, I have an ASX listed client that employs in excess of 50,000 people nationally and they are facing potential labour shortages of 30% over the next 2-3 years and they are making every effort to retain employees transitioning to retirement for as long as possible.
Without being political and knowing our guest speaker today is a leading journalist, I am supportive of the lobbying by National Seniors Australia who have 130,000 Members. Their recent survey indicated 20% of pensioners who have retired would keep working if their earnings were not impacted by the current tax legislation.
I reiterate that you should give serious consideration to friends, family and former colleagues who could benefit greatly from joining Rotary.
Thank you to Peter Dakin for providing this reflection on 18 May 2022.
