Bennett Paula: Social Assistance (Payment of New Zealand Superannuation and Veterans Pension Overseas) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Bennett Paula: Social Assistance (Payment of New Zealand Superannuation and Veterans Pension Overseas) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:653;Page:2237] 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 I move  
That the Social Assistance (Payment of New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension Overseas) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be referred to the Social Services Committee for its consideration. 
The purpose of this bill is to make amendments to the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act 2001 and the War Pensions Act 1954 to make it easier for older New Zealanders to travel or live overseas. Personally I find it quite hard to imagine why anyone would want to live anywhere but in New Zealand; I cannot quite figure out why those superannuitants would want to go and retire overseas. New Zealand may be facing some tough times but this is still the best place in the world to live. However National is the party of choice. We have a commitment to encouraging New Zealanders to make their own choices. So if people currently wish to move to places such as Pitcairn Island Guam or Samoa we agree that they should be freely able to transfer their New Zealand pension entitlement. 
There are a variety of ways that older people can be paid overseas depending on where they intend to go and for how long. Those living overseas temporarily can receive full payment for up to 26 weeks and are not affected by the amendments of the bill. There are three methods of paying older people who wish to leave New Zealand to live in an overseas country. First there is a network of social security agreements that allow pensioners to receive up to the full rate of payment depending on how long they have lived in New Zealand. Second there are special provisions for persons who go to live in certain Pacific countries. I admit that some of these Pacific countries have a fantastic climate and I can see why some people would want to go there particularly when they are battling against Wellington’s wind some days. Finally there are provisions for people who move to all other countries and those are known as the general portability provisions. Older people who leave New Zealand to reside in one of these countries are paid a flat rate of 50 percent of the gross rate of their pension. 
The amendments in the bill relate solely to the general portability provisions and will not affect New Zealand’s social security agreements or the special provisions for certain Pacific countries. This bill is necessary because the rules prevent many of our older New Zealanders from retiring to a country of their choice or travelling overseas long term. Three main issues will be addressed by this bill. The flat rate of 50 percent provides insufficient income to allow a reasonable standard of living in many countries. The current rules restrict the ability of older people to move to more than one country because payment is linked to residence in one particular country. And because payment overseas is linked to residents in a particular country retirees who wish to undertake long-term travel or to travel between countries have been unable to continue to be paid their superannuation. In these days of global villages eftpos and email these rules are long out of date. Consequently the bill will make three changes. 
The key change is a new more generous maximum payment. Instead of the current flat rate of payment older New Zealanders will be able to receive up to 100 percent of their pension depending on the number of years they have resided in New Zealand. The bill will also free up the rules that restrict the ability of superannuitants and veterans pensioners to move around once they get overseas. It will allow payment to be made to those people who wish to reside in any country with which New Zealand has no social security agreement whether they remain in such a country or begin travelling. For example if an elderly couple were to head to London buy an old combivan and decide to travel around Europe they would be entitled to continue to receive their pensions with comparative ease. The bill will also allow payment of superannuation and veterans pensions for those pensioners who wish to travel to a country or between countries. 
The amendments contained in the bill address the three main issues with the current general portability provisions. I am confident that the amendments will ensure fairer and more equitable treatment for superannuitants and veterans pensioners who wish to travel or reside overseas. The new provisions will represent a modernisation of the payment overseas policy that has been in place since 1990. The rate was originally set at 50 percent partly because the superannuation surcharge was not applied to payments overseas. Now the surcharge has gone and therefore has no relevance to the amount of pension we pay overseas. Forcing older people to remain in one country or preventing their ability to travel to a variety of countries serves no particular purpose and is not in tune with the desires and aspirations of today’s retirees or with the philosophy quite frankly of this National Government. Some older people wish to go out on a boat and travel for a couple of years. Some people who reach the great age of 65 think they would like to sail around the world and actually take the time to do that. They will be able to take their superannuation with them. That is a great thing. 
The National-led Government is committed— 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: This is a Labour bill. 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: Actually Labour had 9 years to bring in this bill and did not bring it in. 
Simon Bridges 
: 9 long years. 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: Labour had 9 very long years and did not bring in this bill and now it is trying to claim it as its own. Labour had 9 long years to actually do something about it but chose not to. Labour chose not to give New Zealanders that choice. It is fantastic that we are stepping up now and actually making this measure happen. There can be a lot of talk and a lot of chit-chat but this Government is one of action. That is where it is at. 
We should not prevent any elderly person from having his or her “grey OE”—I quite like that. Our silver surfers can head off overseas and do what they want to do and this bill gives them that ability. They may choose to be near their family and whanau and as much as we might like them to stay this party believes they should have those sorts of choices. We are committed to ensuring that our older people are able to live in dignity and to participate fully in their community whether that community is really local here in New Zealand or whether for them it is in another country. 
For those countries that we currently have social security agreements with—which include Australia Canada Denmark Greece Ireland Jersey the Netherlands and the United Kingdom—those agreements are already in place and this bill will not affect them. I know that one of the other MPs in this House will raise issues about Australia—he has certainly raised them with me and he is quite correct—and say that if a New Zealander moves to Australia then he or she goes on the Australian superannuation scheme. The Australian scheme is income and asset tested. That currently means there is a difference between the Australian and the New Zealand schemes. This bill will not touch that. It will not change those arrangements but one could move to another country where superannuation is not income and asset tested and as this bill will allow receive 100 percent of New Zealand superannuation. If one moves to Australia and has assets then those assets could be tested under the Australian scheme. However we did not want that to hold up this scheme from going ahead. 
I want to give members a bit of an understanding as well of how many people are currently paid New Zealand pensions or benefits overseas. Currently a total of 19542 people who live overseas are receiving New Zealand superannuation or a New Zealand benefit. Of this number 18715 are covered by agreements 575 are covered by the special portability arrangement and 252 are covered by the general portability rules. This bill will open up those categories to a whole lot of other people. I know that when members sit with people in their electorates—and my electorate is a classic; I have a lot of Croatian people in it and we have certainly been talking about social security agreements with them—we find that many of them want to go back and spend some of their retirement years in their home countries. If those people have been in New Zealand for 10 years or more while they were under the age of 65 then they will be entitled to take 100 percent of their superannuation with them and I think that that is a fantastic thing. Many of them have approached me and said they would like to do that. As I said earlier—and I cannot quite stress it enough—there are people who want to take the time to go sailing and to leave New Zealand to sail around the world. I just cannot see why they cannot take their superannuation with them. 
We estimate the cost of this measure to be around $6.4 million but the reality is that that is for those who would have lost their pension because they had left. It does not really cost us more because people are entitled to that pension and they should be able to take that superannuation with them. 
We are committed to our older people. So it is with pleasure that I stand and move the first reading of this bill which supports them in having that choice of where they want to live and of how they want to live and in being able to take their superannuation with them. As I have said Labour had 9 long years to do this but did not. Yet again we have stepped up and we have done this for those people. It is with pleasure that I commend this bill to the House.