ACT party scathing of Govt's super policy

David Seymour claims ACT are "the only party saying that millenials should be taken seriously" (file)
David Seymour claims ACT are "the only party saying that millenials should be taken seriously" (file)

National's support partners The Māori Party, ACT, and United Future have distanced themselves from its superannuation policy.

Prime Minister Bill English announced the Government's plan yesterday to increase the retirement age from 65 to 67 by 2040.

ACT leader Davis Seymour is scathing of the plan and says it's a "kick the can down the road" move.

"It's actually difficult to tell whether it's a pisstake or whether it's political naiveté".

"You've got to give people some warning, I accept that, just not twenty years".

"I think by addressing one of the most urgent and important issues the country faces with a plan that doesn't start until 37…

I mean I feel sorry for the political satirists who have to come up with something more ridiculous than that".

Mr Seymour says the Government should raise the age of entitlement by two months every year from 2020 through to 2032.

"That would give us a retirement age of 67 by 2032. People who were planning to retire by 2030 would end up retiring in 2032 instead of that.

That's not an unreasonable adjustment to make, but it would spread the adjustment much more fairly across generations instead of lumping it all on millenials".

"It's positive that we're having this debate but delaying the change until 2037 is farcical, it means all the costs will be borne by people under 45, and the irony is that the cut-off rate for being affected by this change means the exact same people who were the first to pay for university in 1990 will be the first to face the new retirement age of 67".

"We're now the only party saying that the millennial generation should be taken seriously".

"The fact of the matter is that Māori and Pasifika don't make retirement age - a good proportion of them," Māori party co-leader Marama Fox told Newshub.

"We live on average between five and seven years less than everybody else, and so why would we want to put the retirement age up if we don't actually make it to retirement age?"

United Future leader Peter Dunne is not supporting the policy either, and says he won't change his mind.

Newshub.