Superannuation poll defended by Mrs Hercus

Press, 17 March 1987, Page 3

Superannuation poll defended by Mrs Hercus

Wellington reporter

The National Party’s criticism of a poll on national superannuation has been rejected by the Minister of Social Welfare, Mrs Hercus. The poll, which was released on Friday, showed that about twothirds of those surveyed in urban areas regarded the surtax on national superannuation as fair. Just over half of rural dwellers thought that the surtax was fair.

The Opposition spokesman on social welfare, Mr Venn Young, said yesterday that Mrs Hercus had spent $6OOO of taxpayers’ money to discover the “political fall-out from the surtax.”

The options in the questionnaire had been loaded, and people had no chance to comment on National Party policy, he said.

Mrs Hercus yesterday defended the need for the poll and the questions it asked. She challenged Mr Young to find one policy option which had not been fairly explored, including National’s proposal to revise the age of eligibility and abolish income tests.

National superannuation took up 61 per cent of social welfare expenditure. It was reasonable to spend the equivalent of 0.0017 per cent of that expenditure to assess public opinion, Mrs Hercus said.