Labour’s surprise new policy of raising the age of super entitlement is putting into effect the arguments that Don Brash has been making for years – it’s straight out of Brash's Task Force recommendations.
Coupled with the move to compulsory superannuation policy this is being painted as ‘taking the tough decisions’ but it will make it much easier for a future government to replace superannuation with a means-tested benefit. To placate the huge number of KiwiSaver members (read voters) that their saving has not been in vain, those without savings (read the poor) will have to be punished by reducing the basic level of payment.
The policy will hit Maori and Pacific workers hard. After all, on Maori males (who only live to 70 on average) will lose 40% of their total superannuation under Labour's policy, while non-Maori males will only lose 15%. It will hit manual workers hard who struggle to keep employment to 65 as it is. It will force workers, who are already having to work more hours every week just to survive, to work another two years.
The dream used to be that technological and economic progress would reduce the burden of work. That the past few decades have seen the opposite for most workers is not news, especially to those currently occupying city streets and parks around the world at the moment. What is surprising in 2011 is that the New Zealand Labour Party would put that dream further out of reach for workers.
Even the Green Party has been almost enthusiastic about Labour’s new-found fiscal conservatism and willingness to reduce entitlements. This gives a good indication of where the Greens are also heading: to the right. Today I interviewed the Greens’ fast-rising election candidate Holly Walker – as a part of my Vote Chat filmed interviews – and she said Labour’s announcement was ‘commendable’ and that although the Greens have a policy of 65 years, they wanted a ‘conversation’ with the other parties about the age of entitlement, etc, and the Greens might well change their policy, too.
I also interviewed Mana’s John Minto, and although Mana seems to be fairly quiet about Labour’s change of policy, Minto was utterly condemning of it. He intelligently challenged the need to restrict retirement incomes.
The unions have also been extremely quiet. The CTU’s response has been quite incredible. Where you might have expected the union to denounce the policy as an attack on workers’ rights, it instead seemed to mumble that they’d have to look at the detail. But they did at least say this:
Many workers physically exhausted at 65 – CTU.
As the newspaper reports, not only did English express ‘empathy with some of the ideals of the Occupy Wall Street movement’, he said he’d be prepared to talk to ‘the Occupy Movement in Dunedin's Octagon’ -- ‘but the discussion would need to be around what would replace capitalism if it ended.' It seems we live in strange topsy-turvy times indeed.
Today’s content:
Labour’s retirement policies
National’s youth wage policy
National policy release: Free after-hours GP visits for under-6s
Election
Electoral reform referendum
Other
