NZ Politics Daily - 28 October (liberation)

What a topsy-turvy election campaign it’s becoming. With Labour promising to reduce entitlements to national superannuation – raising the age of eligibility to 67 – the party has effectively moved to the right of National on the issue. And National is pushing the more ‘left’ line of retaining the right to receive the retirement income at 65. And added to that, National is now promising to extend kids' free GP visits – which is being heralded by unions and welfare agencies. So perhaps this election isn’t going to deliver the definitive left-right choice that many commentators thought.

Labour’s surprise new policy of raising the age of super entitlement is putting into effect the arguments that Don Brash has been making for years – it’s straight out of Brash's Task Force recommendations. Coupled with the move to compulsory superannuation policy this is being painted as ‘taking the tough decisions’ but it will make it much easier for a future government to replace superannuation with a means-tested benefit. To placate the huge number of KiwiSaver members (read voters) that their saving has not been in vain, those without savings (read the poor) will have to be punished by reducing the basic level of payment.

The policy will hit Maori and Pacific workers hard. After all, Maori males (who only live to 70 on average) will lose 40% of their total superannuation under Labour's policy, while non-Maori males will only lose 15%. It will hit manual workers hard who struggle to keep employment to 65 as it is. It will force workers, who are already having to work more hours every week just to survive, to work another two years.

The dream used to be that technological and economic progress would reduce the burden of work. That the last few decades have seen the opposite for most workers is not news, especially to those currently occupying city streets and parks around the world at the moment. What is surprising in 2011 is that the New Zealand Labour Party would put that dream further out of reach for workers.

What is also interesting is that in the whole debate today there are hardly any voices condemning Labour’s jump to the right. Everyone seems to think that introducing such a policy is ‘bold’ and ‘courageous’. See for example, John Armstrong’s Party's courage setting agenda, Tracy Watkins’ Labour's gamble may force debate, the Dom Post’s Editorial: Top marks for political courage, and the Herald’s Editorial: Labour takes a bold step on retirement.

Even the Green Party has been almost enthusiastic about Labour’s new-found fiscal conservatism and willingness to reduce entitlements. This gives a good indication of where the Greens are also heading: to the right. Today I interviewed the Greens’ fast-rising election candidate Holly Walker – as a part of my Vote Chat filmed interviews – and she said Labour’s announcement was ‘commendable’ and that although the Greens have a policy of 65 years, they wanted a ‘conversation’ with the other parties about the age of entitlement etc, and the Greens might well change their policy too. I also interviewed Mana’s John Minto, and although Mana seems to be fairly quiet about Labour’s change of policy, Minto was utterly condemning of it. He intelligently challenged the need to restrict retirement incomes.

The unions have also been extremely quiet. The CTU’s response has been quite incredible. Where you might have expected the union to denounce the policy as an attack on workers’ rights, it instead seemed to mumble that they’d have to look at the detail. But they did at least say this: Many workers physically exhausted at 65 – CTU.

More intelligent critiques can be read in the following very good blog posts: Steven Cowan’s Work till you drop, Chris Ford’s No to Labour's plan to raise super age to 67!, and Martyn Bradbury’s Labour's raising of retirement age racist, anti-worker and intergenerational theft. Cowan’s point about MPs wanting to cut retirement entitlements while retaining their very own gold-plated parliamentary superannuation scheme is a very good one. Surely if Labour thinks that superannuation isn’t affordable, then its own luxury version for itself should be severely trimmed as well.

Whaleoil has also being doing a good job of highlighting’s Labour’s own prior statements against raising the age – see: What does Andrew Little say now?, What does David Cunliffe say now?, What does Chris Hipkins say now?, and Phil’s flip flop on super.

Finally, check out the ODT’s report on my interview with Minister of Finance Bill English: English expresses empathy with protest. As the newspaper reports, not only did English express ‘empathy with some of the ideals of the Occupy Wall Street movement’, he said he’d be prepared to talk to ‘the Occupy Movement in Dunedin's Octagon’, ‘but the discussion would need to be around what would replace capitalism if it ended’. It seems we live in strange topsy-turvy times indeed. [Continue reading below for a full list of the highlights of NZ Politics Daily]

Below are the internet links to all the NZ politics material from the last 24 hours that are either informative, insightful, interesting or influential. This list and the links are taken from a fuller document, NZ Politics Daily, which is emailed out, Monday to Friday, to various researchers, academics, journalists, MPs and so forth. The document is purely for research purposes only, and if you would like to be on the subscription list, please email: [email protected]

Labour’s retirement policies

Tracy Watkins (Stuff): Labour's gamble may force debate

John Armstrong (NZH): Party's courage setting agenda

Duncan Garner (TV3): Raising super eligibility could save $100B – Labour

RNZ: Many workers physically exhausted at 65 – CTU

RNZ: Labour's super policy 'will disadvantage Maori'

Felix Marwick and Newstalk ZB staff (Newstalk ZB): Labour confident of support for savings policy

Bernard Hickey (interest): Labour should be congratulated…

Lloyd Burr (TV3): Labour has got the balls, John Key doesn’t – Goff

Hayden Donnell (NZH): Labour has more 'balls', says Goff

Dom Post: Editorial - Top marks for political courage

NZH: Editorial - Labour takes a bold step on retirement