Bennett Paula: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
Bennett Paula: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:3798] 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 Let me stand to take a call on the Retirement Commissioner. I make the point first of all to the few poor people who may be listening that National proudly says there will be no cuts whatsoever to superannuation. It is locked in securely; we said we would lock it in. It is slightly above 66 percent of the average wage at the moment; it is a little bit more than that. It is with quite some pleasure that I can say that as of 9 April there were 539000 superannuitants and people receiving the veterans pension. I am proud to stand here right now and tell superannuitants that superannuation is locked in and is there as a surety for them. We know that these are tough times for those on a fixed income like superannuation and they need an assurance that that money is there for them. 
Let us talk a little about the work that the Office of the Retirement Commissioner has been doing which is pretty impressive in many respects. There is no doubt that when it comes to the need for people to fund their retirement we should be talking to people earlier rather than later. The office has done work on that such as the www.sorted.org.nz website. It does it in a part-time capacity. I think that given the work that it covers it does an outstanding job in the time that it has got. 
The office has been working in conjunction with the Ministry of Education to teach financial matters in the classroom. That has been very impressive. It was brought in by the previous Government. It is something that the office has been running with and something that we have taken close notice of. We have seen it work for those young people who work out how they can get themselves better sorted financially so that they can accomplish the things they want in life such as buying a home going down to one income in order to raise a family and managing themselves through the most difficult times. 
Superannuation is locked in under this Government. That was a promise that John Key made and it is a promise that he is quite happy to stand up and make absolute. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: It’s unfunded! 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: If the Labour shadow spokesperson on finance had any idea on how finance worked he would know that what happens with superannuation funding and with benefits funding is that it is there and there is no question about it. 
Listening to him I recognised some of the things he was saying; did he not capture for members that Labour members are still living in 2008? They are still living in the year 2008. They do not comprehend that it is a new year that there are new pressures on families and that there is less money in the bucket. They keep asking us why we are not paying for this why we are not funding that and why this is not happening. I can tell those members that the reality was that as new Ministers we looked round for the buckets of money and we found that we did not have the hundreds of millions of dollars that Dr Cullen had had. If we look for the buckets of money we cannot find even the bucket! That is the reality; that is the tough times we are in. With that reality come tough decisions. We have to make decisions on what we actually want and what sort of country we want to live in. 
This area is one that we are dealing with transparently. We tell the public what is locked in what is there. We guarantee the core benefits which we see as very important. Vulnerable families need surety now that they can walk through the doors of Work and Income and know that their superannuation is there for them. They know that their benefit is there and will be paid quickly. They know that they can turn up there to get those sorts of funds as well. 
Hon Annette King 
: Super is not a benefit. 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: If the member was listening she would have heard that we are talking about core benefits as well. If she was listening to the speeches she would have heard that we have moved on and are talking about core benefits as well. We are talking about core benefits. We are talking about— 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: You’re being defensive. 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: There is selective hearing going on—just what suits Labour members. That is another indication of what has been going on. But we are in 2009 people are losing their jobs things are getting tougher and we need to front up and make sure we give that certainty to New Zealanders. We need to recognise that there are tougher decisions to be made and to recognise that there are things that need to be done but we also need to stand by those people who are on superannuation and those people who need our assistance. They need to know that there is regular money there for them and that they can rely on it week after week. There is an absolute guarantee of that. 
I would like to talk a little bit more about the www.sorted.org.nz website and some of the work that has been done with it because after all this debate is about the Retirement Commissioner— 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Distract from the real issues! 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: I think the website is really impressive. The www.sorted.org.nz website is getting 500000 calculations each month so it looks as though it is really working. I was one of the original ones who locked in some numbers to try out the calculations.