The reality of ageism in Australia seems at odds with the reality of age for two major front-runners for perhaps the world’s most powerful and prestigious job-the US presidency (“In the modern workplace, age 50 is considered old”, Comment, 2/3) Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are in their late 60s and Bernie Sanders is 74 years old. The apparent nonchalance in the US about their age highlights the irrationality of extant ageism in Australia.

If 50 can now be a cut-off point for employment, and mental health issues are a reality for the older unemployed in increasing numbers, we must confront and challenge this covert norm. Ageism needs to be highlighted in a far more intense and analytical manner that recognises it is as fallacious and fraudulent, based on assumptions that at least Mrs Clinton and Messrs Trump and Sanders have exposed as immaterial and irrelevant.