Christopher Luxon has inherited the National Party policy of increasing the age of eligibility for superannuation, a correspondent writes. Photo / Angus Dreaver, RNZ
Super cuts
Christopher Luxon wants to raise the age of eligibility for superannuation from 65 to 67 but this is not National’s first attack on super. I remember when National relied on the vote of Alamein Kopu to cut the percentage of the average income used to calculate the superannuation payout. National lost the next election so Labour reversed National’s super cut before it came into effect. I remember when John Key stopped payments to the superannuation fund (Cullen Fund) for his entire nine-year term in office, costing the fund $17 billion. By comparison, all Treaty settlements put together total only $2.2 billion. I expect that should Luxon get to be PM, the first thing he will do is to again stop payments to the Cullen fund. National hates the idea of low and middle-income earners getting a comfortable retirement. Yes, people are living longer but increased longevity is a good thing. Living longer means that many people like me, are able to work past 65 and increase their retirement savings. National was forced to reverse its idea of cutting taxes for the rich so it is helping its wealthy donors by increasing the eligibility age for superannuation. John Caldwell, Howick.
Lunch money
Christopher Luxon, multi-millionaire owner of seven houses, rejects the Retirement Commissioner’s urging to keep the qualifying age for NZ Superannuation at 65, and says the National Party under his leadership will raise it to 67. Of course he does. A high proportion of the people who vote for his party have no need for Super: it’s merely a nice-to-have that pays for lunches at fancy Waiheke vineyard restaurants after a free SuperGold ferry ride. What is needed to keep NZ Superannuation both fiscally affordable, and adequate for those who need it, is to make it a tax-free basic income of half the net average wage, say $600 a week, but to put all who sign up for it on a special income-tax scale that will tax the first $20,000 of other income at 20 per cent, but all other income above that at 45 per cent or 50 per cent. That will discourage those who have no need of the state pension from applying for it. In short, make NZ Super better for those who need it, and worse for those who don’t. John Trezise, Birkenhead.
Depth of understanding
Christopher Luxon has touted his CEO skills and how he would use them to solve youth crimes and the like. Discontinuing poor-selling products and axing unproductive air routes is not the same as dealing with social problems and the circumstances that drive crime. Stronger penalties bring hope to victims but it is doubtful that criminals, the young in particular, give consequences a thought. The excitement and fun of a daring raid beat being in the grind of being without. Boot camp with mates, three meals a day and your own bed could well be a young miscreant’s own “Hawaiian holiday”. But returning to the same poverty, violence, and crime; would friend and family ties win? Social dysfunction needs social solutions. Can a man who legally rents his own office to himself, taxpayer-paid and benefitting him as much as the minimum wage, really understand what it is to be poor? Can a comfortably well-off businessman, who touts fining parents of truants, most without enough money to pay the rent and feed the family, recognise he is out of his depth? P. Belsham, Mt Albert.
Wet bus tickets
There is understandably considerable alarm presently concerning the number of ram-raids and blatant daylight robberies, apparently perpetrated by teenagers, which even if caught are “referred to Youth Aid”. As a result of this, there is the claim that this equates to “no penalty” and “the perpetrators are back on the street the next day committing the same offences”. Subsequently, the National Party quite understandably reacted with a policy that demanded some consequences for this lawless situation. However, we really haven’t had clarification on what “referral to Youth Aid” really means. Is it really a “slap with a wet bus ticket” as alleged, or is there a more constructive structure; or, as I suspect, a dysfunctional ineffective waste of our money? Barry Claridge, Whitford.
Police operations
Those who bleat about our Government being “soft on crime” obviously haven’t been following the numerous police operations involving the detection, seizure, and destruction of illegal drug imports and the dismantling of networks that carry out these activities. So far this year, there have been hundreds of kilos of both methamphetamine and cocaine stopped at the border, millions of dollars in property, vehicles, and cash impounded as being the proceeds of crime, and many arrests made of the people involved in this trade. I understand that people get frustrated by the ram raids, petty theft, etc, but these need to be put in perspective. I don’t mean to belittle or minimise the tragedies which do occur at times and are felt by all of us. I do however think about how many lives, families, and dreams are shattered every day by the distribution and use of lethal substances in our communities. The police are making a great contribution to our society as a whole and need our support when and wherever it is needed. I’m sure those whose next years will be spent behind bars don’t agree that the Government is taking crime very lightly. Jeremy Coleman, Hillpark.
Current concerns
Stan Jones (NZ Herald, November 30) may be interested to know that the Department of Internal Affairs’ analysis of submissions on the Water Services Entities Bill shows that commitment to public ownership actually ranked quite low among submitters’ concerns. Indeed, of the 88,400 written submissions received, the Department identified just 400 or so that included comments about privatisation of water assets, and of the 10 main areas of concern for which numbers of submissions were stated, privatisation came in at eighth place. Unscientific though it may be, the figure of one half of one per cent that can be derived from the Department’s numbers suggests that a great many of us might not be too worried about privatisation after all. It also calls into question Eugenie Sage and Minister Mahuta’s ongoing reference to public concern about future privatisation as a justification for entrenchment. James Braund, Remuera.
Sitting targets
Your editorial (NZ Herald, November 30) raised some lessons from the Russia-Ukraine War which might be pertinent to New Zealand. While it is highly unlikely that our nation would ever be invaded due to the major logistics that would be required, some thought needs to be given to other maritime threats. In this regard, it is useful to consider the naval threats we experienced during two world wars. These comprised enemy raiders, minelayers and submarines, which were responsible for the loss of eight ships in New Zealand waters during 1917-18 and 1940-41. Something similar is likely in any future conflict. While there never was a Japanese plan to invade New Zealand in World War II, if they had won the 1942 Battle of Midway then it is highly likely that New Zealand naval and air bases would have been attacked by bombers operating from Japanese aircraft carriers. Such attacks were successfully made against Pearl Harbour, Darwin, Ceylon, and Alaska. With this in mind, consideration needs to be given to countering less conventional threats such as cheap, long-range kamikaze drones launched from container ships targeting our electricity and water infrastructure. Murray Dear, Hamilton.
Bright side
What a great world we live in under the free market, neoliberal system. In New Zealand, we live 10 years longer than in 1980 due to the great advances in healthcare, nutrition, and living standards since then. GDP per capita, even after inflation, shows the average Kiwi is four times better off, and wealthier, than they were 40 years ago, indicative of the great advances in education, science, work practices, and innovation, plus the capital value of the houses that 66 per cent of Kiwis own has increased by 50 times, making the great majority of us wealthier still. And on the world stage, the UN and the World Bank tell us the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen from 1.92 billion to less than 200 million today, with worldwide per capita GDP growing by 500 per cent. Just a few examples, there are many more. What a wonderful life. John Denton, Eskdale.
Good intentions
Georgina Campbell’s sorry story (NZ Herald, November) about National’s three Wellington roads proves that the ideology of business building roads just as well as bureaucrats is hopelessly wrong. Bureaucrats built the New Zealand roading network and it has lasted well over 100 years without problems. Every PPP road is a disaster. Bring back the bureaucrats. Mark Nixon, Remuera.
Consult this
The article about the amount being paid to consultants by the Government for work on the RNZ/TVNZ merger (NZ Herald, November 30) reminded me of an old story I read in The Economist. A shepherd was tending his flock when a shiny silver BMW emerged. The driver, a young man in an Armani suit and the latest polarised sunglasses asked the shepherd, “If I can tell you how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?” The shepherd glanced at his peacefully grazing flock and answered, “Sure.” The driver plugged his microscopic phone into a laptop and surfed to a satellite-navigation system. While the computer was busy, he sent some emails via his iPhone and, after a few minutes, nodded solemnly at the responses. Finally, he downloaded a 150-page report and pronounced to the shepherd, “You have exactly 1586 sheep.” ”Impressive. One of my sheep is yours,” said the shepherd, and the young man selected an animal. Then the shepherd said, “If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my sheep?” The young man replied, “You’re on.” “You are a consultant.” said the shepherd without hesitation. ”That’s correct,” said the young man, impressed. “However did you guess?” “It wasn’t a guess.” Replied the shepherd. “You drive into my field uninvited. You ask me to pay for information I already know, answer questions I haven’t asked, and you know nothing about my business, Now give me back my dog.” Ian West, Mt Eden.
On riches
Once wealth and power are acquired, one can never have enough of it. Poverty, on the hand, tends to move in the other direction. Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.
On voting
The most interesting outtake from the recent poll into lowering the voting age is the strong opposition from the group most likely to be parents of 16- to 17-year-olds. Jo Malcolm, Parnell.
On memorial
Well done Auckland Council on restoring the original WWI memorial (NZH, Nov. 30). It looks great, thanks to those responsible. This is a worthwhile expenditure and project. Tony Lewis, Takapuna.
On Ukraine
With reference to your editorial (NZ, Nov. 30), it is best that New Zealand stays out of the Russian-Ukraine War. Let’s channel our resources and manpower to solve the problems in our backyard. Tiong Ang, Mt Roskill.
On stage
Will the musical Hamilton coming to Auckland in May next year be renamed “Kirikiriroa” for its New Zealand season? Duncan Simpson, Hobsonville Pt.
On TV
Unbelievably, in this day and age of high technology, we still lose reception on Sky when there’s a bit of rain and wind. Janet Boyle, Ōrewa.
Reserve Bank not keen to make banks help cover cost of money printing
No surprise that the state-owned bank is constantly the worst-performing. Those who call for central government control of any commercial entity only have to look at the chart above. It’s invariably a disaster. Phiphi P.
Maybe it is the least greedy? Colin B.
Yes, trying to compete with the big banks so not profiteering as much. If it dropped their mortgage rates a little below the main four this should encourage Kiwis to sign up, but most can’t be bothered to change. Louise C.
If they were that good then they would have customers queueing up to have their mortgage or term deposits with them. Clearly, they aren’t. Greed has nothing to do with it. However, they could alter the market by setting benchmark mortgage and term deposit rates. But they don’t. Kerry H.
Why should the banks bail out the RBNZ and the Government? Labour and the Reserve Bank caused the economic mess that NZ is in, However, I know they will never accept responsibility. Next year, Labour will receive its comeuppance. Kenneth S.
National wouldn’t have done any different from Labour - printing that money during the lockdown. Even if they had, or even if they hadn’t locked down, we’d all be complaining that National caused the deaths of thousands of people. It’s a bad situation, and the fact is the banks have profited from it - as they should have. Now it’s fair to ask for a bit of easing on their part, for the purpose of a bit of social cohesion. The banks are a part of society too. ie Don’t be a egg, Mr Bank. James L.
The 36-year-old died on December 19.