Rejecting Billions In Gov. Goodies, Elderly Australians Voting Against Howard On Environment, Water

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THE BILLIONS of dollars in pledges showered on older Australians have failed to sway their vote and left them feeling embarrassed, says the leader of Australia's biggest seniors group. "Their kids and grandkids say to them, 'Oh you oldies have got another handout'," says Everald Compton, chairman of the National Seniors Association.

Today Mr Compton, 76, is due to launch a broadside against the big political parties, accusing them of "reckless carpet-bagging" and of failing to deliver long-term measures on the environment and health.

Many older voters were now so disillusioned with the main parties' failure to take decisive action on environmental and water issues that they had become "dramatically unconservative" and were now feeling "they have got to vote Green". On the $4 billion plan for $500 utility grants to seniors pledged by the Coalition and matched by Labor, Mr Compton said: "If I wanted to be nasty I could say it was a vote-buying thing." Mr Compton accused the Coalition and Labor of failing to take the hard decisions on important issues such as climate change and imposing accommodation bonds on nursing home residents.

The 300,000-member association had not sought the utility grants, he said, and would have preferred a better deal on pensions, particularly for struggling single pensioners. "We don't want to be tagged a generation that is a burden on young people. We have members with children who are struggling to pay their mortgage on their house, pay the school fees … grandkids struggling to pay the loan they have got for their university degree and what have you."

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http://www.smh.com.au/news/federal-election-2007-news/grey-vote-turns-green-as-the-elderly-shun-handouts/2007/11/20/1195321782683.html