The Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer, the Hon Wayne Swan MP, and the Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, the Hon Mark Butler MP, established the Advisory Panel on the Economic Potential of Senior Australians on 30 March 2011 to examine how Australia can best harness the opportunities that much larger, and more active, communities of older Australians bring.

The members of the panel were:

• Mr Everald Compton AM (Chair), retired Chair of National Seniors Australia and Chair of the Consultative Forum on Mature Age Participation.
• Professor Brian Howe AO, former Deputy Prime Minister with ministerial experience in the fields of social security, health, housing and community services, and Professorial Fellow at the Centre for Public Policy, University of Melbourne.
• Professor Gill Lewin, Professor at the Centre for Research on Ageing at Curtin University of Technology, Immediate Past President of the Australian Association of Gerontology and Research Director at Silver Chain, a provider of community and health services in Western Australia.