‘Boomers’ description not helpful
WELLINGTON: Minister for seniors Ayesha Verrall does not think it is helpful to describe older people as ‘‘boomers’’.
Green MP Ricardo MenendezMarch was on Monday announced as the party’s spokesman for seniors, and was quickly criticised on social media for stating he was ready to ask seniors ‘‘are you OK, boomer?’’.
The comment was made in reference to Chloe Swarbrick’s infamous exchange with National MP Todd Muller in the House, in which she told him ‘‘OK boomer’’ after he interrupted her speech on the Zero Carbon Amendment Bill.
In the same post he pointed to the amount of welfare support seniors received.
‘‘Hardship grants for senior citizens have increased over the past few years, with growing inequities for our migrant, Pasifika and Maori senior citizens.
‘‘Everybody deserves to grow old with dignity,’’ his post said.
‘‘Boomer’’ is short for baby boomer, the term used for the generation born between 1946 and 1964. That generation is now aged between 56 and 74.
When asked about Mr MenendezMarch’s comment, Dr Verrall said MPs were responsible for their own statements.
She would not say if she would use the phrase, but added ‘‘the important thing is to be respectful for all the people in our community’’.
Mr MenendezMarch said the word ‘‘boomer’’ described an age group in the same way millennial did.
‘‘The conversation I am here to have is the reality that again while there is a generational wealth gap . . . there’s still inequities between people in the baby boomer generation and we need to confront that and work towards having policy that will fix that,’’ he said.
There needed to be a conversation about why people did not like the phrase ‘‘boomer’’, Mr MenendezMarch said.
‘‘If people feel uncomfortable about being denoted as part of an age group, I think that’s a conversation we need to have about why is it that the term baby boomer has suddenly become a slur for some people and not a term like millennial or generation X,’’ he said. — RNZ