By VERNON SMALL
Prime Minister Helen Clark has rebuffed Opposition calls for multiparty talks on superannuation and challenged other parties to sign up to current entitlements for future retirees.
National leader Jenny Shipley on Saturday offered to join multiparty talks with no preconceived ideas, at the same time guaranteeing the present entitlement for those already retired.
She said her party accepted that it had lost the confidence of the retired when it cut the floor for the state pension from 65 per cent to 60 per cent of the average wage in 1998, a move the Coalition reversed in April.
But Helen Clark dismissed Mrs Shipley's overture.
"I've heard nothing from Mrs Shipley which would convince me that there has been any genuine change of heart in the National Party," she told a post-cabinet press conference.
National had only made a commitment to those already retired, said Helen Clark. Its agenda was to erode universal superannuation by means-testing, raising the qualification age, lowering the amount paid, or all three.
"That is not a good basis for talking to us when we are endeavouring to lock in the present level of payment for generations to come.
"The Labour Party bailed National out of superannuation in 1993. I'm not about to do it again."
Labour, National and the Alliance signed a short-lived superannuation accord in 1993.
National sources said the party accepted that those near retirement also deserved a guarantee of the present entitlement, but it was reluctant to be drawn into a debate about the qualifying age.
The Coalition has agreed on a scheme it hopes will lock in the current pension entitlement, paid at age 65 and set for a married couple at no less than 65 per cent of the average wage.
It plans to set aside a portion of Budget surpluses to partly prefund the rising cost of pensions over the next 50 years.
It will seek other parties' support once the cabinet has signed the scheme off.
Finance Minister Michael Cullen, who is steering the Coalition's pension plan, said Mrs Shipley's promise meant nothing. The present cost of pensions were not the issue because everyone knew it was affordable.
"The issue is how to handle the costs of supporting the large baby-boom generation in their retirement."
The Council of Trade Unions and Grey Power, meanwhile, have urged the Government to push on, if necessary without National's immediate backing.
Union president Ross Wilson said decisions should not be deferred just because of overtures from Opposition parties.
Former Grey Power national president Don Robertson said Mrs Shipley's statement was "delayed political nous."
Clark wary of Shipley overtures on super
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