The Government is asked many questions on pre-funding NZ Super

Questions of the Day in Parliament - October 11, 2000.

Wednesday, October 11th 2000, 12:00AM

1. Hon RICHARD PREBBLE to the MINISTER OF FINANCE: Is the Government looking for multi-party support on superannuation; if so, is the proposal released yesterday negotiable?

ANSWER: Yes and yes but with qualifications. I have already indicated we are prepared to discuss details of the scheme. Discussions would have to be based on acceptance of a universal, publicly funded pension paid at age 65, and with a 65 percent wage floor for a married couple. It would also have to be based on acceptance of a pre-funding approach and would have to be fiscally sustainable over the long term.

3. Hon BILL ENGLISH to the MINISTER OF FINANCE: Does he stand by his statement that "If there's no surplus, you're in the poo anyway"; if so, in which years has a Labour Government achieved a fiscal surplus?

ANSWER: Yes. This government posted a surplus in the financial year just finished and intends to run surpluses in each of its years in office. And while the member amuses himself let me point out to him that the financial surplus was something like twice what he forecast as the outgoing Treasurer.

4. MARK PECK to the MINISTER OF FINANCE: What response has been shown towards the Government's proposed superannuation scheme?

ANSWER: In general terms the response has been very encouraging. AXA, one of top three super companies in New Zealand, indeed the largest in the world, said the proposal "should usher in a brave new era of certainty for New Zealand." Its chief executive welcomed it as a bold move which has been a long time coming. And we had a range of other support expressed by a range of independent experts in the super area.

5. Hon BILL ENGLISH to the MINISTER OF FINANCE: What other policies was he referring to when he said, in making the contribution to retirement income policy more certain, other policies would bear a greater proportion of the risk of variability in tax revenue and fiscal demands due to economic shocks?

ANSWER: What the statement is referring to, is if we have certainty over superannuation, in other words if people know they are going to be receiving a pension of, for a married couple, 65 percent of the average wage, and the government maintains that position of promise even under some conditions of economic shocks, that it does mean for example that the government can't cut the pension as the previous government did in response to the Asian crisis, nor would it be sensible to cut the pension and then promise tax cuts as the previous government did last year.

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