Chris Hipkins says he is "open" to talking about means testing of the pension. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Chris Hipkins says he is "open" to talking about means testing of the pension. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Labour leader Chris Hipkins says he is open to discussing whether New Zealand’s superannuation should be means-tested.
Hipkins told Newstalk ZB’s Kerre Woodham he would not want full means-testing of the country’s pension but added “there are questions”.
“I don’t want to do this on aunilateral basis, I think these need to be conversations across the Parliament about whether somebody who is still working fulltime, earning a six-figure salary should be claiming superannuation.
“I am open to a conversation about that, but I think it has to be done in a constructive, bipartisan way.”
Asked how long such discussions between parties could last before something happened, Hipkins said: “I guess it depends whether there is an appetite across the Parliament to even have that conversation.”
“We have seen what happens when parties chop and change on superannuation, it is how we got into this mess in the 1970s.
Opposition Leader Chris Hipkins in Newstalk ZB's studio with Kerre Woodham. Photo / Jason Dorday
“What we have got now originated from parties not being able to agree in the 1970s. The way we get out of this mess is ... we have to try and get some consensus around it.”
Hipkins made the comments as part of a wider conversation on his party’s potential policies and ideas in the lead up to the election in November.
Hipkins said he was not keen on raising the age of retirement but there needed to be “long-term consensus” around what improvements to retirement could be.
“The reason I don’t think raising the age for everybody is the answer is because you do end up with people who are physically knackered by the time they get to 65.
“It tends to be people who have been in lower income jobs, have less ability to support themselves and those are exactly the people superannuation should be all about.”
