Bennett David: Government Superannuation Fund Amendment Bill — Second Reading Third Reading 
Bennett David: Government Superannuation Fund Amendment Bill — Second Reading Third Reading 
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DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 I thank Mr Foss for that very enlightening speech. It is also time I think to thank the previous Minister of Finance Dr Cullen for a very illustrious speech about some of the financial implications of this legislation of the Government Superannuation Fund and of any amendments that are required through this bill. 
Government superannuation is always a bit of a flogged horse for the public in some regards in the sense that politicians are seen as getting superannuation schemes of some note that are too generous. That is often something that comes up in the public eye. The advent of MMP removed that kind of issue from the reality of the lifestyle but it is something that is still in the public eye and public perception. 
The previous Minister made a very good point about the public sector. He was talking about public sector executives who are on substantial salaries at this time but who will also get substantial annuities over the time of their retirement. That may seem like a very substantial payback for those public servants but it is also somewhat of a reward I guess for public service. To get to the stage of actually being at that level of the Public Service executives would probably have had to have gone through a lifetime within that service of taking lower wages than they would have earned in the private sector. It is also a measure of their contribution to their country through those years of service that there is some reward at that time. 
Let us look at the issue of salaries which is very topical in the current world environment where we see that top executives around the world are earning million-dollar salaries. When we look at salaries we see that public servants run businesses that are the size of some corporates yet those public servants working in the Public Service do not get those kinds of corporate salaries. So the kind of return they are getting from their annuities is actually a reflection of the income they have lost out on through their income-earning life. 
It is important that as a Government we reward and recognise the contribution that the Public Service makes to our country. It is not on if a Government passes legislation that technically tries to reward those services but does not provide a fair return because of drafting mistakes made some 19 years ago—and we have been made very much aware of that by the great contribution of Mr Foss. 
So with that said I think we need to look at the policy behind this legislation and at why it is important that we have a sense of the contribution the public sector makes. You know I think we often look at public sector work as not being as sexy as some of the private sector jobs. When we come to the situation we have now where people are looking at job security as their big issue we know that the Public Service is becoming more and more relevant. Professions such as teaching nursing and policing those professions in the Public Service that provide front-end service levels are the jobs that will stay in the community whereas some of the private sector jobs which have been a bit more flashy and more highly paid over the last couple of years may not be still there in a year’s time as we go through these tougher economic times. 
Another aspect of the Public Service and the payment of public servants is job security in some of those front-end services. It is very important and it is part of the nature of those careers. Those careers often entail a lot of training and a lot of contribution but they do not give a lot of options for changing one’s career halfway through. In modern times people change their careers every 7 or 8 years and move on to something else but a teacher or a nurse—people in those kinds of fields—typically spends 30 or 40 years working in his or her community. Those people make an investment in that career and in that public service for our community. So it is quite right that we as the Government of the day carry out that fair treatment and make sure that the legislation matches what public servants expect. This legislation does do that. 
Essentially this bill is to cover off a few drafting errors and a few mistakes that were made in previous times. It is somewhat complicated I guess for the naked eye to look at it because it is the result of mistakes made in 1990. But the reality is that just quite a simple amendment is required here today to bring us to a situation where we have the fairness and equity that we would expect for public servants in this situation. 
I want to draw attention to another issue that the previous Minister raised and that is that the effect of this bill will mainly be felt by former public servants who are not earning huge annuities. Former public servants on fixed incomes who are struggling or will struggle in an environment that is very difficult are the ones for whom the Government is trying to provide the best environment to get through these tough times. 
We want a situation where they can have a top-up of their normal superannuation payment to reflect their services. They will have given many years of long service in jobs that did not pay very much and they deserve to get the full amount that the Government is intending to pay and this legislation does that through the CPI adjustment. 
We also have to look at the nature of what is happening to those superannuitants. A lot of those superannuitants are finding it very difficult to live because their savings which have been invested in banks for example are at very low interest rates at the moment. They are finding that it is a real struggle to achieve the standard of living they would expect. They are looking at every dollar that comes their way and when superannuitants are in that position they want to make sure that they get their full contributions. They do not have that discretion in their disposable income. Senior citizens and especially those who have given to our community through the Public Service require and demand that they get that fairness that the National Government is now giving to them in this legislation. 
The National Party is based on fairness and that is one of the things the Government is pushing and wants to see happen. This bill has cross-party support in terms of fairness in the sense that the Labour Government set up this legislation and we have carried it on and are passing it. We look forward to the progression of this bill 
Bill read a second and a third time.