GREEK parliament on June 18 passed the country's long-awaited bilateral social security agreement with Australia, bringing the deal one step closer to completion more than half a century after negotiations between the two countries began. The next step is for the Australian parliament to ratify the bilateral pension pact. But Australia will reportedly delay it until October or early January 2009, at the latest.
"The agreement was a longtime demand from diaspora Greeks in Australia in order to secure their right to a pension," said deputy government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros.
"Now it is certain their rights will be secured," he added. "It is very important for the hundreds of thousands of our compatriots who chose to live in Australia and who returned to Greece... This new measure will solve, once and for all, this issue."
According to Amalia Travasarou, who is the president of the Panhellenic Greek-Australian Association, the agreement will allow thousands of Greeks to apply for an Australian pension from here.
"They no longer have to make the long trip back to Australia, nor do they have to live there for two years prior to applying for a pension," she said. "This isn't easy to do, especially if they are 60 or 65 years old, and that is why few have drawn their Australian pension. Another good thing about the deal is that they will be able to combine their years in Australia with the years they have worked in Greece in order to draw a pension."
But news that Australia may postpone ratification until next year has come as a major blow for as many as 60,000 Greeks who have lived and worked in Australia and are expected to benefit from the new measures.
Members of the Greek-Australian Society in Athens are accusing the Australian government of unjustifiably delaying the implementation of the bilateral pension agreement. They feel the pension pact is not a top priority for the Australian government since the majority of those who stand to benefit currently reside in Greece.
"We have already waited long enough," said Travasarou. "Imagine, the negotiations began back in 1954. Most [pensioners] have died. But we are still hopeful... We are pressuring Australia to ratify the pension agreement before the end of this year."
Travasarou said she will raise the issue with Kenneth Comninos Michael, the governor of Western Australia who will visit Athens next week. Michael is of Greek descent (the son of migrants from the Greek island of Castellorizo).
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis had sealed the deal during an official visit to Sydneyin May 2007. Based on the agreement, people who have lived and worked in either country may claim their entitlement to pensions from both. The agreement only covers Greek and Australian old-age pensions.
"This is a very important agreement, which we managed to complete after many years," Karamanlis told a packed stadium of Greeks residing in Sydney during his visit in May 2007.
"Thousands of Greeks will benefit from the new measures that recognize their full pension rights."
Greek migration to Australia dates back to 1827. The majority, however, made the long journey after World War II. Some 240,000 Greek-born immigrants were registered by Australian authorities between 1945 and 1982.
Since the 1950s, the Greek population in Australia has been and continues to be the second largest, after Italians. Some 67,000 Greeks went to Australia to live and work during the period of 1965-1969, making up 9.3 percent of the immigrants there. Between 1975 and 1979, an additional 10,500 Greeks embarked on the long journey. Over the past 40 years, the size of the Greek community in Australia has steadily risen, with the number of second- and third-generation Greeks adding another 30 percent.
Σημείωση: Η πιο κάτω λεζάντα συνόδευε τη φωτογραφία που δημοσιεύουμε στη σελίδα "ΦΩΤΟΓΡΑΦΙΕΣ"
"How much longer will Greek-Australians have to wait for the bilateral pension deal?"
