Media Release 23/10/08

Good News, Bad News And Worse News!

The bad news is that New Zealand's CPI increase to the end of the September 2008 quarter is 5.1 percent, the highest increase since the June 1990 quarter. The main drivers are the cost of petrol up 29.3%, grocery food up 12.0% and electricity up 6.9%.

The good news is that these dramatic increases are expected to have corrected by the end of the year. For most New Zealanders that is good news.

For Superannuitants that might not be such good news. Why?

The worse news is that Superannuation is adjusted by the CPI increase at the end of the December quarter. If there is a dramatic correction in the December quarter, say to 3.1%, then that is the amount of increase Superannuitants could expect in April 2009. (Assuming no change in the Average Wage factor)

The problem is that older New Zealanders will have struggled to exist throughout the year and then get to "enjoy" only a minor increase in Superannuation next April!

This is why Grey Power is calling for a review of the way the CPI is used to determine the superannuation entitlement and to have superannuation set by an independent commission.

Ian S Anderson

Grey Power NZ Federation Inc

Chair, Superannuation & Taxation Committee

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On The Skewed Media Coverage Of Gaza

Now that he’s back as Foreign Minister, maybe Winston Peters should start reading the MFAT website which is currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of how Kiwis alerted the rest of the world to the genocide in Rwanda. How times have changed ...

In 2023, the government is clutching its pearls because senior Labour MP Damien O’Connor has dared suggest that Gaza’s civilian population - already living under apartheid and subjected to sixteen years of an illegal embargo, and now being herded together and slaughtered indiscriminately amid the destruction of their homes, schools, mosques, and hospitals - are also victims of what amounts to genocide. More