ACT signals super age of 67 ahead of fiscal plan release
ACT leader David Seymour has again signalled ACT would lift the NZ Super age to 67 in its fiscal plan.
He restated the position ahead of the release on Sunday, a day before National releases its fiscal plan. Seymour said ACT will balance its books with spending cuts and no new taxes. RNZ
He set three conditions. KiwiSaver, the retirement savings scheme, would stay available at 65. People with more than 20 years in physical work could get early access on compassionate grounds. Tax would be removed from investment returns inside KiwiSaver.
Seymour put numbers on it. He said a three-month lift saves about $400 million. A two-year lift would save more than $3 billion a year. Labour, the Greens and New Zealand First are campaigning to keep the age at 65, according to RNZ. National says it should rise to 67.
Seymour has called the change long overdue. He described a higher entitlement age as "inevitable" but said it should be done "carefully and slowly". He said the world is watching New Zealand's "dumpster fire" policy debate. NZ Herald
The policy is not new. ACT proposed a gradual rise to 67 of two months a year from 2023. Its Real Change Budget proposal would add two months each year until it reaches 67 in 2035, and it separated KiwiSaver access from the super age. Seymour has previously told audiences someone already retired would see no difference.
Two other markers sit beside that history. The government plan announced in 2017 was to reach 67 in 2040. In May this year, Seymour said the government has no policy to "change the framework of superannuation".
The broader context here is how fiscal plans work under MMP, where parties must negotiate to govern. Seymour is using a higher super age to provide a large, long-term saving. That lets ACT promise restraint without new taxes and set itself apart from National a day earlier. The KiwiSaver and physical-work conditions soften the fairness objection.
For those who follow the Beehive, the divide is clear. ACT and National agree on 67 in principle. Labour, the Greens and New Zealand First do not. That makes super both a budget tool and a coalition test. Seymour is showing where ACT would start that talk, not where it would finish.
