In the blue corner
The facts are stark. Rents are up, household power prices are set to increase, inflation is at an all-time high and the average house price is up by $400,000. We have a cost-of-living crisis in New Zealand and it is hurting everyone: all Kiwis are worse off now than they were 12 months ago.
Sadly, New Zealand’s seniors are not immune to the virus of inflation that has been stoked along by poor government spending and a failure to manage the economy. We need to limit spending on government pet projects such as the Te Huia train, which has cost $100 million and has a subsidy of $282 per passenger per trip, or $50 million for ‘‘design work’’ on a cancelled cycle bridge in Auckland.
During the past quarter, domestic inflation grew faster here than it did in other developed countries similar to us. Most of the country’s leading economists have warned of the significance of homegrown factors in our inflation and that high inflation is likely to be more long-lasting than originally thought.
The cost of household energy prices are set to increase, for some it will be up to $1000 a year according to Consumer New Zealand. How can we expect our seniors to pay for such increases, while the Government sits on its hands and allows the cost of living crisis to walk all over Kiwis.
On top of that, one-in-five New Zealanders over the age of 65 who is renting has seen average weekly rents increase by $150 under Labour, which will hit our most vulnerable superannuitants the hardest.
Our seniors, by and large, have paid taxes all their lives. They have contributed to this country in one way or another, and they deserve to spend their retirement comfortably and in a financially stable way. However, that simply cannot happen when you have a finance minister who is addicted to spending.
National has pushed the Government to allow Kiwis to keep more of what they earn through a long-overdue adjustment to the tax brackets to compensate for inflation.
Because NZ Superannuation is indexed to the average after-tax wage, superannuitants would also benefit heavily from this tax adjustment. The couple rate would increase by about $520 a year.
No one will get rich from these changes but they will make things a little easier for Kiwis struggling with the rapidly rising cost of living. This tax bracket adjustment will in turn help our seniors to achieve some sense of financial stability in what is an incredibly uncertain time.
Most of our seniors have worked hard all their lives, the last thing the Government should give them is anxiety about whether or not they can afford the basics.