Founded in 1976 in Brisbane, NSA began with a clear mission: supporting self-funded retirees at a time when no similar organization existed in Australia to provide practical benefits, trusted guidance, and a collective voice. Nearly 50 years later, that mission has broadened significantly. NSA now represents a “broad church” of older Australians—supporting self-funded retirees, pensioners and part-pensioners, carers, and veterans—and has evolved into a nationally recognized peak advocacy organization and registered charity. Under CEO Chris Grice, NSA’s positioning is grounded in two defining characteristics: its scale and its independence. With a connected community of more than 280,000 people and a branch network of 60+ locations across the country, NSA is not only an advocacy body—it is a lived community where members connect, share information, volunteer locally, and support one another. Just as importantly, it is independently funded, allowing the organization to advocate without the soft constraints that can come when operational budgets depend on government renewal. In a policy environment where aged care, retirement income, banking access, cost of living, and digital safety are all in flux, independence matters. ADVOCACY THAT THINKS BEYOND TODAY’S SENIORS While NSA’s core constituency is older Australians, Grice is explicit that the organization’s work is not confined to today’s retirees. The inevitability is simple: everyone ages. That means policy choices made now will determine whether a 20-year-old today can retire with security decades from now. This longer-range lens is why NSA’s advocacy portfolio includes issues that may not look like “seniors’ issues” at first glance. Grice points to HECS/HELP debt as one example—an issue typically associated with younger Australians.Yet NSA views it as inseparable from the future of retirement security because of how debt affects a person’s ability to buy a home, and how home ownership affects the ability to age in place rather than entering residential care. In that framing, advocacy for older Australians 67 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 08, ISSUE 02 NATIONAL SENIORS AUSTRALIA
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