"BREACH OF TRUST"

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 57, 8 March 1934, Page 8

"BREACH OF TRUST"

GREATEST INJUSTICE. SUPERANNUATION ATTACKED. MR. SAVAGE'S VIEWS. (By Telegraph.—Press Asjvuatlon > WAIMATE, this day. An attentive audience of about 200 heard Mr. M. <T. Savage, Leader of the Opposition, expound the Labour party's proposals for a return to prosperity. During his speech lie attacked superannuation in New Zealand, as characterising one of the greatest injustices in modern times. The Superannuation A.it was not intended to be on an actuarial basis, he said, but provided for certain payments into various funds by public servants, plus a Government subsidy, which was necessary to keep the funds financially sound. "Despite the availability of the Government actuary's reports, showing the exact subsidy necessary from time to time, mid notwithstanding promises of legislation made by their sponsor, the late Sir Joseph Ward, to servants that funds were impossible to fail as long as the Government fulfilled its guarantee," he added, "we find that the Government has not made good its guarantee, and has not kept its side of tlie sacred contract, thus committing a breach of trust with servants. It has misled people for years into the belief that surpluses were shown in public accounts, whereas actually the Government was not meeting its liabilities to the superannuation funds."

Probably, he added, the most transparent piece of injustice was the treatment of those compulsorily retired before serving their 3~> years. The present allowance was based on an actuarial calculation, which it was estimated would not place additional liability on the fund. The Government was now trying to unload some of its responsibility on to its servants, and was using other sections of the community, whom it reduced to still lower standards, as an argument in favour of what it was attempting to do.