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About half a million New Zealanders will be entitled to the Supergold concession card unveiled at the weekend, but they will have to wait to see what benefits it will bring them.
The card, an initiative won by New Zealand First during the negotiation of its confidence and supply agreement with Labour, was unveiled in Auckland on Saturday by party leader and Associate Senior Citizens Minister Winston Peters.
It will operate as a discount card, offering seniors lower rates on a range of goods and services.
Quite what those will be will depend on which businesses tender to be part of the Supergold Card scheme.
A similar card is available in Australia, and the metropolitan Victorian version comes with a 146-page booklet setting out the discounts on offer.
"Already several large companies - who we can't name yet because the tender process has only just begun - have expressed a strong desire to be involved," Mr Peters said.
"Based on the experience ... in Australia the number of businesses across New Zealand offering discounts to cardholders is likely to continue to grow year by year."
Electricity, petrol and insurance discounts were likely benefits for cardholders, Mr Peters predicted.
Senior Citizens Minister Ruth Dyson said the announcement recognised the contribution senior citizens had made to New Zealand.
The National Party's senior citizens spokeswoman, Sandra Goudie, said anything that offered real discounts to senior citizens would be welcome, but it was still unclear what the card would actually offer.
"The detail remains to be seen as to what he can achieve in terms of him being able to get those discounts, and them being worthwhile discounts."
Grey Power board member Violet McCowatt said a year was a long time for seniors to wait for much wanted discounts on expenses such as telephones, rates, transport and medical costs.
"We won't know for a while what sort of discounts they're going to give. Nothing is set in concrete yet."
Local Grey Power branches had already negotiated discounts for their members, and the national organisation had liaised with the Ministry of Social Development on what sort of benefits seniors already received and hoped to get.
