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In 1900, New South Wales (NSW) became the first Australian jurisdiction tointroduce an age pension, which took the form of a non-contributory flat ratepayment funded out of general revenue. A compulsory contributory insurancescheme of the type introduced by Bismarck in Germany (and subsequently inmost other continental European nations) was rejected on the grounds that itwas not suited to NSW’ relatively underdeveloped social infrastructure andsmall population (Kewley, 1973, p 33) and would leave the unskilled, casualworkers, the sick, unemployed and non-working (ie married) women withoutcoverage (Dixon, 1977, p 11).The New South Wales pension was set at a level which the community couldafford (￡26 per year for a single person) and was means tested against propertyand income to minimise costs and ensure that assistance was directed towardsthose genuinely in need (Dixon, 1977, p 12). Nonetheless, the pension wassufficient to keep an individual in modest comfort.Of the other States, only Victoria and Queensland introduced age pensionsprior to the introduction of the age pension by the CommonwealthGovernment. Both were more basic than the New South Wales scheme. TheVictorian age pension, for example, was introduced at the same time as theNew South Wales age pension but provided significantly less support than theNSW pension and was subject to a tighter means test (Kewley, 1980, p 9).The Commonwealth age pensionFederation in 1901 gave the Commonwealth explicit power through theConstitution to legislate for the provision of age pensions. As a concurrentpower, at the point at which a Commonwealth age pension was introduced,any age pension legislation introduced previously by the States would beoverridden. However, the introduction of the Commonwealth age pension wasdelayed at first by the operation of section 93 of the Constitution, whichrequired the Commonwealth to hand over any surplus revenue to the States ona monthly basis.The passage of the Surplus Revenue Act 1908 reversed this situation bypermitting the Commonwealth to retain all surplus revenue. Age pensionsbecame the first item to be funded through revenue appropriated under thisAct (Kewley, 1973, p 72), and subsequently, with the passage of The Invalid andOld Age Pensions Act 1908 (henceforth the 1908 Act), the rate of the age pensionand the basic principles for its provision were established. The age pensionrate was set at ￡26 per year, or 10 shillings per week – the same rate as the NewSouth Wales pension. The basic principles for the provision of the age pension,while having undergone some changes in operation since that time, remain thecornerstone of the age pension today.1Pension eligibilityThe 1908 Act limited eligibility for the age pension according to character andrace, age, residency and means.The character and race provisions of the 1908 Act, which denied the agepension to people who were not of ‘good character’ as well as Aliens (that is,non-residents), non-Australian born Asians, Australian aborigines, Africans,Pacific Islanders and New Zealand Maoris, were progressively removed overthe next 60 years.Under the 1908 Act, age pensions were payable to both men and women atage 65. In 1910, the pension age for women was reduced to 60 on the groundsthat women generally became ‘incapacitated for本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。