“This is absolute bullshit... there is no way you can keep up that level of hard physical work until you are that age,” Mr Hort said.

After starting his apprenticeship in the welding industry at the age of 16, Mr Hort says after six years of working long hours in the industry he is already feeling the strain on his body.

“You come home from work every night absolutely exhausted,” he said.

Mr Hort said the government’s suggestion people can be retrained if they can’t sustain their level of physical activity is unrealistic.

“How can that possibly work?” he said.

Mr Hort said he and many of his young mates who work long hours as contractors have had to make major changes to their lifestyle.

“You have to pull out of sport and other leisure things because you’re just too tired,” he said.

“You come home at the end of the day and just want to sit down.”

Mr Hort believes a more realistic retirement age for anyone working in a physically-focused trade or industry should be pulled back from 70.

“I think for people in a trade like ours 60 should be the retirement age and I wouldn’t have a problem with that,” he said.

In Tuesday night’s budget treasurer Joe Hockey announced the retirement age would be raised to 67 by 2023 then to age 70 by 2035.

janice.harris@

fairfaxmedia.com.au