NZ can afford the future cost of superannuation - English

Budget 2015 Breakdown – Full interview with Bill English and Corin Dann

Hon Bill English told TV One’s Q+A programme that anti-poverty campaigners like Jonathan Boston and the Children’s Commissioner use “a set of measures which you’ll never be able to satisfy.”

“I mean, the measures that those groups use – if everyone’s income was doubled overnight, we’d still have the same poverty today as we did yesterday, because they’re using relative measures,” he says.

The Finance Minister also admitted that not all of these families would get an extra 25 dollars on top of their benefit.

“I think there’s analysis that shows that for some families, depending on what other assistance they’re getting, they may get this— the $25 may be abated back a bit or their other assistance may be abated back a bit, more correctly. And so that has to be looked at family by family, so we’re not asserting that every family will get exactly $25, but the benefit rate will go up by $25 after tax, and then for each individual family, circumstances will be taken into account.”

Mr English said NZ can afford the future cost of superannuation and voters have made it clear they don’t want changes to the scheme.

“In the forecasts we’re running, New Zealand can afford to pay the bill for super. The future governments are free to have any discussion they like with the New Zealand public, but I think we’ve learnt, as the Labour Party learnt in the last election, that what a few people— what some people regard as a pretty straightforward proposal, that is to raise the age by a couple of years, actually is not welcomed by many New Zealanders,” he says.

Here’s the link to our full interview:

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/retirement-age-stay-same-despite-ballooning-cost-superannuation-6319174

Q+A, 9-10am Sundays on TV ONE and one hour later on TV ONE plus 1. Repeated Sunday evening after “A place called home”. Streamed live atwww.tvnz.co.nz

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