Prime Minister Bill English, right, and Finance Minister Steven Joyce, announcing the government is to raise the age for national superannuation to 67 by 2040.
2040 is looking to be a heck of a year. By 2040 almost all waterways will be swimmable, almost all pests will be eradicated and the last of the baby boomer generation will have access to superannuation at age 65.
Reality does differ slightly though. For the waterways, the 90%
swimmable figure neglects to mention that just 10% of mapped rivers and streams in New Zealand are covered by the new policy.
On increasing the retirement age, no government coalition party supports the policy, meaning National cannot easily implement these changes. Taking a cynical view, all this announcement has done is create an ideal bargaining chip for National to gain Winston Peters' support on election night. Retirement entitlements is Peters' magnum opus. National will be betting that Peters will disregard all his other "bottom lines" in order to get on the treasury benches while hoisting a flag saying "I saved superannuation!"
Ironically in 2014 Finance Minister Steven Joyce said that a "fiscally responsible government could afford to keep the eligibility age for NZ Super where it was". This was around the same time National decided it was "fiscally responsible" is stop saving for our retirement by carving out a $20 billion hole in the NZ Super fund. So it's hardly a surprise that the so-called "fiscally responsible" National Party can now no longer afford to keep the eligibility age where it is, leaving those saddled with student debt and an unaffordable housing market working longer just to get what the older generation took for granted.
[ABRIDGED]
RYAN GRAY
Rotorua
