Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey says there should be a debate about increasing the retirement age to 70.

A report by the Grattan Institute think tank has called for the retirement age to be lifted to 70 in order to increase the numbers of older people in the workforce.

It also wants the GST to be expanded to cover food, education and healthcare.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has ruled out lifting the retirement age and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he does not think it is worth talking about.

"I'm not saying it's wrong but I don't think there should be any further lifting of the retirement age without full community debate, and I'm certainly not proposing that," Mr Abbott said.

But Mr Hockey says the change should be on the table.

"I think life expectancy is into the 80s and the pension age has only just changed in the last few years, so it's something we should have a proper debate about as part of an ageing population," he said.

"It's something that we do need to have a community debate about because we are getting older [and] hopefully going to live longer.

"When you look at France, which has a new Socialist president who's saying he's going to reduce the retirement age from 62 to 60, this is why Europe's in trouble and Australia progresses down the path of being able to sustain in a decent quality of life [for] an ageing population."

Earlier this year, Mr Hockey used an address to policymakers in London to declare the "age of entitlement" was over, calling for a revision of a number of social policies and payments.

Ms Gillard says while the Government has already raised the retirement age, she does not support lifting the GST and will not be seeking to revisit the issues.