Super crisis looms

Your editorial of July 30, ‘‘No avoiding super decisions’’, is timely. We face a future fiscal crisis over superannuation and health-care funding. Several recent media articles have highlighted the fiscal impact of an ageing population, huge increases in the corresponding health-care costs for the aged, and the successive failure of governments to take the necessary action.

All politicians know that something needs to be done, but none have the political courage or the honesty to acknowledge the urgent need to act.

There is no option but to raise the age for superannuation entitlement, eliminate corporate welfare, and means-test many of the current welfare handouts, such as interest-free student loans, winter heating supplements and even superannuation itself, among others. And the sooner the better. Soon, without action, taxation will have to increase significantly. The Cullen Fund’s $76 billion will be totally inadequate to fund the estimated $20b annual cost of superannuation alone in 2050, quite apart from the health costs.

As in the past, governments could borrow, but this increases our vulnerability to future financial crises. Successive governments, including the current one, have failed or are failing our country. Millennials should be deeply concerned, for they will have meet the costs.

Vince Ashworth, Morrinsville