Opposition political parties back off from bagging fund

Political reaction to the Government's superannuation plans are muted, suggesting the possibility of a consensus developing.

Wednesday, October 11th 2000, 12:00AM

Reaction from other political parties to the Government's superannuation policy have been muted, suggesting that they may be prepared to buy into the proposal.

Such a move would be a huge milestone for superannuation policy in New Zealand.

"Our history on this issue does no-one any credit," Finance Minister Michael Cullen says. "It's time we put the backbiting and politicking behind us for the good of the country."

National's finance spokesman Bill English says the party will look at the proposal before making a decision to either support or oppose it.

He says National doesn't have an alternative solution to offer the public.

"We are not going to bag this scheme just because it is the Government's scheme," he says.

The two parties most likely to give the Government the necessary Parliamentary majority to pass enabling legislation are New Zealand First and the Greens.

NZ First leader Winston Peters appears to give qualified support to the prefunding idea.

"A dedicated and personalised fund is our preferred position but we will support measures that ensure that an independently managed fund operated in accordance with sound commercial practice is available to meet the superannuation needs of present and future retirees” Peters says.

The catch in his comments are that the level of NZ Super needs to be raised from 65% of the annual average weekly wage to 70%.

The Greens, who have been briefed on the proposal, are asking for some say over how the fund is invested.

Co-leader Rod Donald says that if the Greens decide to support the Government's proposal in principal they would want to ensure the fund was invested not only prudently, but also ethically and with New Zealand's sovereignty in mind."

"We certainly would not want a super fund invested in weapons of war, cigarette factories or government regimes like Burma," he says.

Meanwhile, ACT has supported the National party line that an independent expert panel needs to review the proposals.

Cullen is heartened that no political parties have said no point blank to the pre-funding scheme.

His view is that if the scheme gets up and running next year, and the Government serves another term in office it will be very hard for a Government to unwind the fund in four and a half year's time.

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