Jones Dail: New Zealand Superannuation Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Jones Dail: New Zealand Superannuation Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:625;Page:20085] 
DAIL JONES (NZ First) 
: 
 I thought I would take just a short call to correct one or two inaccuracies that have come from some members in regard to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and New Zealand First’s attitude towards it. Deborah Coddington quite correctly made the point that we have to be very careful as to how much we spend in this area and that we do not get to the stage whereby as when I was in the House last time national superannuation was 80 percent of the gross average wage which is a lot more than it is currently. It can be between 65 percent and 72.5 percent of the net average wage. 
What we are talking about today in relation to retirement income is quite different from the situation that existed in the race we had in the 1975 election when both parties Labour and National tried to outdo the other in that area. New Zealand First has said that we would increase it to 68 percent of the net average wage in the adjustment period in April next year. I think Deborah Coddington has been talking about the 72.5 percent figure which is the figure Dr Cullen mentioned when he gave his inaccurate assessment of New Zealand First’s policy. 
Of course when we say 68 percent we are taking the figure that Dr Cullen confirmed in the House in answer to questions from the Rt Hon Winston Peters as being the figure that Labour had in either 2000 or 2001 when retirement income was 68 percent. It has been 68 percent in the last few years. Labour has let it run down to 65 percent. We are suggesting that it be put back up to 68 percent again. We are talking about the 2000-01 figure when Dr Cullen made the point in the House that that is what Labour had it at when it readjusted everything. Of course under Labour the figure has dropped below 65 percent because that is what can happen when we look at things retrospectively rather than prospectively and we understand that that is how that has happened. 
All that New Zealand First is saying is that we want to put it back to the stage it was at in about 2001 when it worked. Of course the rate is anywhere between 65 and 72.5 percent. We do not have to change the law to do it. It is a question of the will of the Government. Clearly the will is there from New Zealand First to do it but nobody else in the House has the will to achieve that end. The amount involved would increase the married couple’s rate by $20 a week and the single rate by $10 a week. 
I touched briefly also on the point raised by someone in this debate on the question of what New Zealand First intends to do for rates. A figure of $500 was mentioned by one of the speakers. Our policy—and I refer to the gold card that New Zealand First will introduce—as far as rates is concerned is that for those whose sole source of income is superannuation they would pay only 65 percent of their rates bill. That is our policy. So $500 might be an extravagant figure it just depends on what the rates are in any particular area. 
Of course people can ask how that will be paid for. First we say that it has been done already and paid for out of funds when the surplus was less in the years 2000 and 2001. We now have a massive surplus but we do not intend to touch the surplus to do this because we recognise as has been indicated in the House that our bureaucracy has exploded since Labour came to office. We have had so much political claptrap forced upon us and so many politically correct claptrap agencies forced upon us as we hear from time to time in the House. Eliminating that claptrap and looking more closely at the bureaucracy will enable us to trim Labour’s fat and redirect some of that spending to our elderly people who deserve a better life in their retirement. Of course as far as we are concerned with regard to the surplus that Labour has we want to see it spent on the police force and on separating traffic officers from the police force but that is another issue. 
I thought I would take a moment to clarify those points in so far as New Zealand First’s superannuation and retirement policy is concerned. We have other things to do with our gold card which will be a smart card. It will cover health areas transport concessions and fire gas and telephone concessions which are all built into our budgeting of $700 million which I have indicated how we will fund. 
Bill read a second time.