Pension change for Islanders

By Warren Gamble

Pacific Islanders who have paid taxes in New Zealand for most of their working lives can now retire in their homelands with full superannuation.

For some, like the Rev Leuatea Sio, a 74-year-old Samoan minister who has worked in New Zealand for 47 years, yesterday's announcement by the Government was long overdue.

Without superannuation, he said he and his wife could not return to their homeland, where he is a senior member of his village.

"Now I can go," he said from his Auckland home last night. "I have nothing else to do here, and a lot to do over there."

Under the change, announced by Prime Minister Jenny Shipley in Parliament, superannuation portability has been extended to cover all Pacific Islands, including Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga.

Pacific Islanders at retirement age will now be able to return home with 50 per cent of New Zealand superannuation if they have lived here for 10 years, including five after the age of 50.

For each additional year living here they will be eligible for an extra 5 per cent of the pension (previously 2.5 per cent), meaning a total of 20 years' residency will qualify for the full amount.

The Government said 135 Pacific Islanders will receive increased superannuation payments when the changes take effect in October, and more will be eligible when they reach retirement age.

The estimated cost is $519,000 a year.

The policy has been promoted by Labour and National since 1987. It was dropped from the Government agenda last year amid spending cuts in the wake of the Asian economic crisis.

Labour's Pacific Island Affairs spokesman, Taito Phillip Field, welcomed the change, but accused the Prime Minister of a blatant election-year vote grab. He said the announcement had also been timed to avoid embarrassment over his private member's bill promoting the changes.

That had been due back in Parliament next week, and Mr Field said he was getting the numbers from the minority Government partners to push it though.

But Mrs Shipley said it simply fulfilled her promise that the change would be introduced when the economy recovered.

Auckland-based Samoan teacher Pulotu Arthur Solomon said the change would be a big tonic to Samoan families and the whole economy. A weekly New Zealand superannuation payment was "what a king gets" at home, he said.