New Zealand First has today urged Labour to maintain its course and deliver on its Superannuation undertaking.

“If Labour intends to create a new political environment where promises to the electorate are kept they must do everything they can to get the numbers to get their policies through. That is what MMP is all about.

“The development of a tax based, stand alone superannuation scheme is vitally important. It is time to stop the politicking and start saving,” said Leader Winston Peters.

“I will be seeking a meeting with Jim Anderton and urging the Alliance to support the development of Labour’s original plan. We cannot afford to undermine future certainty.

“That is why personalised accounts, like Prime Minister Kirk’s scheme, is important. A pool fund can easily be attacked by the National Party as Mr English threatens whereas even the National Party would not be so stupid as to attack over 3 million personalised accounts. In short, any entrenched clause protection is superficial whereas attacking personalised accounts would be political suicide for any group of politicians.

“We repeat our pledge to actively work for the establishment of a desperately needed savings base for this country and achieving adequate retirement incomes for the elderly,” said Mr Peters.

Mr Peters said that politics must be put aside so that New Zealand, in line with other Western democracies, can pursue the “personalised” dedicated tax funded option.

“Politics wrecked Prime Minister Kirk’s visionary plan and it wrecked the compulsory super scheme in 1997. It must not be allowed to wreck another good idea,” said Mr Peters.

ENDS

© Scoop Media