Living in a marginal seat, I get polled a lot and I only expect that to increase during this methuselean campaign which has already kicked off before the starter’s gun has been fired.
Tonight’s poll at about 7:15pm on a landline:
Hello, I am from Q&A Market Research and we are conducting a survey in your electorate.
Who commissioned it?
I don’t know…we are Q&A. Does that help?
Not really.
Would you be prepared to answer a few questions…it won’t take long.
Ok
How many voters live in your house?
Four
How many of them are aged between 18 and 34?
Two
Are any of them male?
Yes
Could I speak to him…or if not a female will do.
They aren’t here
Is there a time that would be better to ring back?
I doubt they would want to talk to you
Is there anyone else who would be willing to do the survey?
I will
What is your age group?
55+
Thank you for your time. We have enough in your age group.
A great deal has been written about the burden of the retiring baby boomers and the problems of dealing with an aging population. Should we increase the pension age? Should we freeze superannuation contributions? Should we send price signals about going to the doctor? Should we change indexation of pensions?
I have not yet retired but I certainly hope to soon and be buggered if I will be considered a burden or a supplicant!
If I need assistance in my retirement it’s because society said women should stay at home, it’s because you didn’t pay maternity leave, it’s because I had to work part time to see to my family, it’s because banks wouldn’t give me a loan, it’s because I am a single parent, it’s because employers didn’t pay superannuation….these are not excuses, they are the reality of a woman my age’s life even if not for all.
You can manipulate your polls however you want. You can try to sell your lies. You can ignore we oldies, dismissing us as a problem that you will deal with by cutting services.
But you cannot keep us quiet.
You cannot fool us as easily – we have more time to check up on what you are telling us. We have opinions. We have long memories and lots of experience, some of it bitter, which makes us look for truth. We have children and grandchildren and that makes us protective. We are the volunteers. We are the carers of elderly parents, disabled spouses, and our children’s children. We are the guardians of a legacy.
And we have learned to use computers.
