Labour starts election-year Congress by taking aim at National and Act’s policies to raise Super age, cap KiwiSaver subsidies

Labour leader Chris Hipkins and Carmel Sepuloni. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Labour will launch its election year Congress by taking aim National’s policy to raise the super age to 67, saying people will miss out on more than $50,000 – and that figure will be much higher if Act’s policy to cap KiwiSaver subsidies was added.

The calculations will be used by social development spokeswoman Carmel Sepuloni in her speech today, in which she will also announce the first of Labour’s new election policies.

The congress in Wellington this weekend will be Chris Hipkins’ first as the party’s leader and will give an idea of what Labour’s campaign will look like as he tries to win them a third term.

There will be two small policy announcements, but targeting National and Act is expected to be a big feature as the two parties slog it out to get ahead in the polls.

The figures Labour will use today are intended to highlight Labour’s claim that a National-Act Government would be a “coalition of cuts” - Labour’s counter to National’s description of a Labour-Green-Te Pāti Māori grouping as a coalition of chaos.

The figures do not take into account the benefit from National’s tax cuts. However, Labour says the figures are conservative, because they are based on the current rates of superannuation rather than future increases.

Labour’s figures show a 30-year-old average wage earner would miss out on about $52,000 in Super and $46,500 in government contributions to KiwiSaver under Act’s policy – adding up to nearly $100,000. An 18-year would miss out on two years of Super and $85,000 in KiwiSaver contributions – a total of $137,000.

National leader Christopher Luxon said last year he was committed to sticking with National’s 2017 policy to lift Super to 67 in stages, starting from July 1, 2037, because it was “the right thing to do”. Act supports lifting it to 67 much sooner - and indexing the age to life expectancy.

While Labour has previously had a policy to increase the Super age, it scrapped that before 2017 and has not looked at it again.

Hipkins will speak tomorrow, his first address to the Labour faithful since becoming Prime Minister in January.

That will be aimed at setting out what his leadership means, rallying the volunteers for the campaign – and hosing down expectations of big-ticket policies.

He said it was too soon after the Budget for big policies at Congress, but his speech would include a smaller announcement - “something that is important to me”.

That is expected to be on education.

The bigger policies – including tax – would come later. However, he also sounded a caution.

“I don’t think this is going to be a big-spending election campaign. I don’t think that’s where the heads of the voters are at. I don’t think they’re looking for big-spending election promises, so I don’t think that’s going to be the flavour of the campaign.”

He said it would not be the same as Ardern’s big-stage speeches: “We are very different personality types. I’ve taken a back-to-basics approach and you’ll see that in the speech. It won’t be bells and whistles, it will just be me. We are different.”

It was a chance to set out to the Labour members why he got into politics, what drove him and what he hoped to achieve, “so what I hope will be the defining features of my leadership of the party”.

Labour is hoping the close race in the polls will motivate the volunteers.

Party president Jill Day said the weekend was a chance to complete campaign training and ensure members were “all on the same page”.

She said the Thursday poll result was another reminder for members about the unpredictable nature of this year’s election.

“That’s something I think really does sharpen people’s focus and I guess in light of the cost of living and post-Covid times, it’s quite clear the challenges we’re facing.

“There’s a benefit you can see, which is that nobody will think that we can take anything for granted.”

She believed Hipkins’ approach since taking over from Ardern had impressed members.

“He’s hit the ground running and done some really great things to, I guess, bring us into a space that reflects the current climate.”

Elements of this year’s conference would be different, but it would not be a significant departure from prior conferences.

“People want to feel confident that the Labour Party is organised and it’s professional and I think we’re really seeing that, so it’s really important that we don’t lose sight of that.”