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# Boomers Are Good for Something, After All
- URL: https://goodoil.news/boomers-are-good-for-something-after-all/
- Published: 2026-09-24T01:00:07.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-24T01:00:06.000Z
- Description: Believe it or not…
- Author: Lushington Brady
- Tags: AUS Politics, Economy

As *Good Oil* regulars will know, stirring up Boomers is an occasional pastime of mine. Mostly because it’s almost as easy as triggering a feminist and twice as much fun.

Today, though, I’m going to say something nice about them. Yes, it is actually possible. In this case, it’s that Boomers are actually good for something besides clogging up rural roads with their behemoth RVs.

The number-crunchers at UniSuper have done the sums, and the answer is $16.5 billion a year. That’s what retirees hand over in unpaid care, volunteering, community leadership and mentoring.

Roughly $10.6 billion of that comes from family caregiving, mostly grandparents minding the grandkids while their own children go to work. Another $3.8 billion is straight volunteering, $1.4 billion in community leadership, $700 million in mentoring and skills-sharing, which almost makes up for selfishly hoarding the housing market and Spending the Kids’ Inheritance.

On average, that’s 10 working weeks a year, per retiree. UniSuper reckons it all adds up to the equivalent of 321,000 full-time workers. That’s a bigger workforce than Tasmania’s, which isn’t exactly saying a lot, given the island, especially the coastal areas, has become God’s Waiting Room, flooded with well-heeled retirees chasing the *Sea Change* dream.

> [The ’invisible ways’](https://www.theaustralian.com.au/wealth/retirement/the-165bn-invisible-economic-boost-from-retiree-grandparents/news-story/1c94583df2fd33343ff6061208ce9216?ref=goodoil.news) in which current retirees contribute to society is the equivalent of 321,000 full-time workers – larger than Tasmania’s entire workforce.

Invisible is right. You won’t see it in the national accounts, you won’t hear it in a budget speech. National Seniors Australia found earlier this year that 52 per cent of grandparents provide regular care, and 14 per cent do it five days a week or more. Five days a week. That’s not a hobby. That’s a job, with none of the perks.

Professor **Nancy Pachana**, a clinical geropsychologist at the University of Queensland, isn’t surprised. She says the surge is a straightforward response to the cost of living – childcare fees through the roof, mortgages up the wall and young families running out of options.

> If all these people stopped caregiving, it’s my contention that Australia itself would stop.

On the other hand, there’d be a lot more houses for sale. And a lot fewer Grey Nomads.

There’s a sting in the tail, mind you. Dr Pachana warns that too much caring wears the oldies down.

> Too much is not good for cognition and health. If we’re talking five days a week, that’s like another job.

Fair enough. There’s a difference between helping out and being quietly conscripted into a second career at seventy-five.

The flip side is that a bit of it keeps them sharp. Volunteering, games, company: the professor notes some studies even suggest it’s protective against dementia. Meaningful work tends to do that, even when it isn’t paid.

UniSuper’s **Dani Murrie** says the grandparent economy is only going to grow, with caring for family a top-three retirement priority for nearly two-thirds of pre-retirees.

> With cost-of-living pressures we are experiencing, grandparent support has become essential in enabling young parents to stay in, or return to, the workforce.

There it is, in the fund’s own words. Essential. Not a nice extra.

Then there’s **Bill Barker**, 80 years old, who coordinates a veterans’ group, drives buses for the RSL and still finds time for his 13 grandchildren. He reckons the best bit is being asked to do a school pickup. No invoice, no resentment: just family.

So yes, I’ll say something nice about Boomers. They do 10 weeks of unpaid work a year, prop up the childcare system and keep a few hundred thousand young parents in their jobs. Mind you, younger Australians might reckon it’s only fair, given the wrecked Australian dream the Boomers voted for for 50 years.

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