Australia: justice refuses early retirement for aborigines

Aborigines dreamed of being able to retire at 64 but the Federal Court of Australia has just dashed their hopes.

The Aboriginal flag in Australia, June 13, 2020. AFP - TREVOR COLLENS

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With our correspondent in Sydney, Grégory Plesse

While the legal retirement age has just increased from 65 to 67 years on July 1 in Australia, a man from the Wakka Wakka people known as Uncle Dennis has gone to court to demand an early departure. He justifies his request by the shorter life expectancy of Aborigines compared to other Australians.

According to the most recent demographic statistics, Australians will indeed be able to enjoy their retirement for, on average, just over thirteen years. But the Aborigines are barely four.

The cause? The gap of eight and a half years of life expectancy between Aborigines and the rest of the population. A fact that, according to Uncle Dennis, would justify the early retirement of all indigenous peoples of Australia. In any case, this is what he tried to argue before the federal court, considering that the government, by imposing a retirement age that did not take into account his reduced life expectancy, discriminated against him racially.

An accusation swept aside by the court which rejected Uncle Dennis but which nevertheless acknowledged that the shorter life of the Aborigines was "a tragic consequence of two centuries of dispossession, marginalization and destruction of social structures". And beyond life expectancy, Aboriginal people are also much more exposed to poverty, malnutrition or the risk of imprisonment.

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• Australia
• Justice
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