A to the Senate of the Parliament of Australia is calling for the age of retirement for Indigenous Australians to be lowered by 10 years from the current 65 years of age.
“This petition asks that the retirement age of Indigenous Australians be set at an optional age of 55 years of age (with full superannuation benefits and old age pensions if entitled) until the year 2031,” it reads.
It has been pushing for this amendment since November 2014.
Organiser Brett Nutley says his proposal stems from the huge gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
The from the ABS (November 2013) shows that the average life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was 69.1 years for males - a figure almost 11 years lower than for non-Indigenous males.
The statistics were similar for Indigenous females with life expectancy at 73.7 years, almost 10 years lower than their non-Indigenous counterparts.
Mr Nutley adds that his proposal is in line with a target of the Australian Government’s Closing the Gap program, which aims to lessen the discrepancy in equality between blackfellas and other Australians.
The 2015 Closing the Gap report found that the target to close the gap in life expectancy within a generation was not yet on track.
