Orr’s bonus

So, Adrian Orr gets a 36 per cent bonus for his work as head of the Government Super Fund.

Former state servants, like me, who receive an annuity from this fund got a zilch inflation adjustment this year because it fell below the threshold.

Most retirees would regard the official inflation figure as creative writing given soaring health costs and local authority rates charges. Moreover, I and thousands of others, are taxed on our annuity way higher than the usual 17.5 per cent.

Successive governments have refused to rectify this tax rort.

The prime minister and finance minister have expressed dire displeasure at Orr’s bonus, Bill English suggesting that 2.5 per cent would have been adequate.

The cynic might think that pleasing poor plebs in election year has something to do with this outbreak of moral indignation.

The Super Fund board has trotted out the worn old argument that only megabucks will get the right bod.

But it is time that we realised that we are just a mid-rank economy and that to fill these top posts means digging harder and deeper to find and nurture the tons of local talent we have. TIM ABBOTT Waikanae