Episode Details

Well, it looks like a matter of when, not if, given that Barbara Edmonds and Nicola Willis, Finance Minister and Finance spokesperson respectively, were appearing on Jack Tame's Q&A yesterday, and they've agreed they'll work together on the future of superannuation in this country.

This is Nicola Willis:

"We can afford superannuation right now, but in the future the settings are going to have to change in order to ensure that it's sustainable and that every Kiwi knows that they can rely on the government to support them in their retirement. If we don't make changes, we are going to end up in a situation where we can't foot that bill. So what National has said for a couple of elections now, is let's come together and agree on a date in the future when we will start progressively, modestly increasing the age of eligibility in a way that is predictable and fair on New Zealanders, so that younger generations coming through don't miss out on the entitlement that people today are getting. And we have called on Labour to work with us on that, to do this in a way that's open, honest, transparent and fair."

And Barbara Edmonds, Labour's finance spokesperson, said absolutely, they're more than happy to have an accord, but they want to look at the wider issues around superannuation:

"Well, ultimately it comes down to the full retirement system. The conversation with New Zealanders needs to be what is KiwiSaver, when you have these large sums of money, what does that decumulation framework look like as people start to spend that money? What does universal super look like when contributions are being stopped by Governments? How do we stop that flip flop? How does housing, what does housing look like for our aged care? Is that part of that wider aged care system? Is it retirement homes? Are we building sufficient social housing to meet that need? So that conversation around universal super needs to happen within the wider conversation around the retirement system as a whole. What do Kiwis expect when they go to retire, young and old right now, and how do we get there?"

So big questions, but the agreement was around an accord to sit down together and work out, thrash out when and how the age of universal super will be raised. And ACT has always said they want to raise the superannuation age by three months every year, put contributions to the New Zealand Super Fund on hold, and they would include compassionate access for those who'd spent a substantial portion of their career in physically demanding jobs.

David Seymour spoke to Tim Beverage on Newstalk ZB yesterday:

"People are living much longer and having far fewer children. That means that the number of taxpayers per retiree is going down. Every other country is raising its age of entitlement to superannuation. And I know there's people who will try and get a few votes by saying, oh that guy's wrong, vote for me, we'll keep it all the same. I don't think that that is putting New Zealand's long term interests first. I think it's important that we make the adjustment, but we do it slowly so people can plan for it. It goes from 65 to 67 it affects no one that's already retired, and we do a few other things."

So National, Labour, ACT, all in agreement that the age of entitlement needs to go up, and it's just ironing out the finer points. I still don't understand why we would be giving superannuation to people who do not need it.

On the 1st of November 1898 New Zealand was the first in the world to give an old age pension, which we call the Super these days. There was stringent criteria, including open court hearings to attest that you were of good moral character before you could receive it. How many of the old rockers would pass that now, I wonder to myself? Myself included. 

Through the Social Security Act in 1938 a two tier public pension system was introduced, and that lasted up until the 1