Mortality Symposium Program out now!

Mortality in Australia: Marking the 150th Anniversary of the First Australian Life Table

13 November 2017, Town Hall, University of Melbourne

In 1867, M. B. Pell, then Professor of Mathematics at the University of Sydney, published a life table for the Colony of New South Wales based on mortality in the years, 1856-66. This was the first published life table relating to Australia. He calculated that the expectation of life in New South Wales was 45.6 years and, in his paper, showed that this was well in excess of the levels then prevailing in England, Sweden and Belgium.

In commemoration of Pell’s significant publication, the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health in association with the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research is organising a symposium on past, present and future mortality in Australia.

SESSION 1 – Historical Perspectives on Australian Mortality

9.30-10.00
Long-term changes in mortality by age and sex
Peter McDonald (Melbourne School of Population and Global Health)

10.00-10.30
Long-term trends in cause-specific mortality
Tim Adair (Melbourne School of Population and Global Health)

10.30-11.00 Morning Tea

SESSION 2 – Differential Australian Mortality

11.00-11.30
Indigenous life expectancy
Fadwa Al Yaman (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare)

11.30-12.00
Mortality and life expectancy in the Australian aged care system
Jeromey Temple and Marijan Jukic  (Melbourne School of Population and Global Health)

12.00-12.30
Inequality in Australian mortality
Philip Clarke (Melbourne School of Population and Global Health)

Lunch 12.30-1.30

SESSION 3 – Future Pathways for Mortality

1.30-2.00
Life tables and insurance applications
Michael Sherris (Actuarial Studies, University of New South Wales)

2.00-2.30
Projecting life expectancy: a global history
Rebecca Kippen (School of Rural Health, Monash University)

2.30-3.00 Afternoon Tea

3.00-3.30
Longevity and old-age mortality in Australia: future prospects and implications
Heather Booth (ANU School of Demography)

3.30-4.00
Alternative mortality forecasting methods
Vladimir Canudas-Romo (ANU School of Demography)

4.15-5.15
Panel Discussion: The Future of Health Systems in Australia
Helen Jordan: Future disease patterns: impacts on expenditure
Philip Clarke: PBS
Peter Brooks: Digital solutions

5.30-6.30 EVENING KEYNOTE (Free Public Lecture)*
How individual behaviour and government policy will affect mortality in the future
Alan Lopez (Melbourne School of Population and Global Health)