Phresh off the Sunday, Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey appeared on Melbourne’s 3AW radio this morning to gift unto listeners his first interview of the new year, during which time he raised the hypothetical prospect that humans will soon be living to the ripe old age of 150 in order to justify why Australians should accept cuts to healthcare today.
Spake Joe:
“The fact we are living longer is great news. It’s kind of remarkable that somewhere in the world today, it’s highly probable that a child has been born that’s going to live to be 150. That’s a long time [lol],” he observed, not *entirely* wrongfully.
Granted, one hundred and fifty years is a long time, and the fact that we are living longer is great, natch. But to try and sell cuts to government benefits for every Australian on the basis that one baby who ~might~ live to 150 already exists somewhere in the world is also entirely ridiculous and I for one would like to hear from our Minister for Science.
“They would have said 100 years ago that living to 80 or 90 was a long time,” continued Hockey. “But the question is how we live with dignity and how do we ensure we have a good quality of life the whole way through.This is the conversation we [the government] are going to have with Australia over the next few months.”
Entire Bill ‘Sick Burn’ Shorten, who this afternoon has attributed Hockey’s comments to a post vaycay “brain snap”, and who has likened Hockey’s comments to a moment not dissimilar from Sarah Palin’s personal brand of “I can see Russia from my house” fuckery.
Paging Mad as Hell.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the average Australian life expectancy is 80.1 for men and 84.3 for women, a figure which would almost have to double in the very near future for Hockey’s prophecy to ring true, during which time it’s also “highly probable” that we’ll all be dead.
For a little perspective, the oldest recorded human – a Frenchwoman named Jeanne Calment – died in 1997 at 122, so suffice to say that, as a species, a triple figure life expectancy is the exception and not the rule and perhaps isn’t a sound evidence in favour of anything other than the lifestyle of French women.
