Political parties stay split on retirement age

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from Northern Outlook

By David Hill, Local Democracy Reporter

A cross-party agreement on a seniors policy is unlikely to happen after this year’s general election.

Grey Power North Canterbury president Jan Pentecost challenged candidates, at an election meeting at the Rangiora RSA Club on Tuesday, September 5, whether they would be willing to enter into a cross-party agreement after the election so seniors did not "become a political football".

But the candidates from National, Labour, Act, New Zealand First and Democracy NZ indicated this was unlikely to happen.

National Party candidate Matt Doocey said he had experience with multi party agreements through the cross party working party on mental health he established with Labour, Green, Act and Te Pāti Māori MPs.

But he had his doubts about finding common ground on seniors policy.

"We would be open to these guys coming to us and supporting raising the retirement age to 67."

National remained committed to pegging the pension to 67 percent of the average wage.

Doocey said it was "paramount on any government to reduce the cost of living", while health care was also in his sights.

"It is heartbreaking to hear the stories of seniors and young parents will have health issues in the middle of the night and they have to drive past the Rangiora Health Hub and head into the city for emergency care."

Labour Party candidate Dan Rosewarne said MPs ignored the over-65s at their peril.

"In the future it will be one-in-three people over age 65 and you all tend to vote, so it would be silly for anyone to run counter to that."

But he said Labour did not support National’s policy to raise the retirement age.

Rosewarne said the winter energy payment, removal of $5 prescription charges and half price public transport were all saving money for pensioners.

Removing GST on fruit and vegetables would also leave more money in their back pockets, he said.

ACT Party candidate Ross Campbell said the government needed to be "prudent" about its spending.

"When I look around the room, I can see that people are living longer, so I don’t want to look people in the eye and tell them something I can’t promise."

He said ACT supported raising the retirement age.

New Zealand First candidate Mark Arneil said his party remained committed to keeping the retirement age at 65 years.

"We are the only party looking after you and we have consistently done that, so when I look at the other parties I can see that a cross-party agreement isn’t going to happen."

Democracy NZ candidate Gordon Malcolm said his party was willing to work any party on a seniors policy.

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