Super, scheme affects population changes

Press, 12 July 1985, Page 29

Super, scheme affects population changes

New Zealand’s superannuation scheme “must continue at all costs,” the New Zealand Demographic Society’s conference heard in Christchurch.

Mr Ron Megget, of Wellington, said it was “rubbish” to say the nation could not afford to continue with the scheme.

He said some people claimed New Zealand’s welfare State had produced a “soft, less-individudlistic, or dependent attitude, that we have lost our pioneer spirit and traded our independence for a comfortable mediocracy.

“This is nonsense, as the recent history of New Zealanders can show.' We are noted for our rugged individuality and resourcefulness,” said Mr Megget. The welfare State had provided a security net which had allowed the entrepreneur to take risks

without having to put too much aside to provide for his future.

People opposed to superannuation agreed that some means had to be found to provide for the elderly, usually either private insurance or accumulation schemes. “Here we enter the jungle, we slip back into the jungle from which we emerged. “‘All sorts of schemes of accumulation promise rosy futures if only the contributor will play along. They are usually not portable and ignore inflation. They depend on investments at astronomical rates and not much is said of risks and management costs,” Mr Megget said. Another method was to “tie” people to pension schemes run by their employer. “There is one thing that has become apparent since

the end of the Second World War, everything is changing and will continue to do so. “No longer can a teenager fit into a firm or trade in the expectation that he will have a good and safe careeer and retire on the firm’s pension at 65,” said Mr Megget. “The only alternative is the present scheme. It is portable and flexible. It enables the mobility of talent and releases the square peg from the round hole.

“Private schemes inhibit the worker and hold him in a job in fear of a loss of superannuation should he leave his employment,” he said. Superannuation was an important demographic input to population changes, he said. The provision of security in age had contributed to the fall in birth rates, stimulated geographical changes, and influenced the migration in and out of New Zealand. “People don’t just stay put because it is safe or that the local family will provide. “The people need to know clearly that the superannuation scheme will be there for them — no ifs, buts, or means tests.” Mr Megget suggested the scheme needed to be “resold” to each generation of taxpayers “so they all know of, and rely on the people of New Zealand to protect, the security of the aged.”