clear dig<\/a> at her coalition partner NZ First and chief opposition party, Labour, both of which are clear they won’t make changes.<\/p>\nThe annual cost of superannuation will rise to more than $30 billion by 2030 – up from less than $20b in 2023.<\/p>\n
“This is not a tomorrow problem, it’s for today,” Willis said.<\/p>\n
“People often talk about the rising super bill as if it’s something in the future. It’s happening right now.”<\/p>\n
But Peters, speaking after the Budget was released, told reporters that making the comments was an “unfortunate mistake that she should not have made”.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know why she said it, because not only was it the wrong time to say it, but what she said was wrong.”<\/p>\n
![\"Nicola](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4JNX6J4_Budget_Day_2026_3_jpg.jpeg\")
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\nNicola Willis
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Samuel Rillstone\n<\/p>\n
He believed the concerns over the funding of superannuation were overstated – as its 5.2 percent of GDP, whereas other nations have significantly higher percentages against GDP.<\/p>\n
“If it’s only 5.2 percent not 7, 8, 9, 10 percent like in some countries, then why have you got this concern.<\/p>\n
“Or is it because you don’t know how to run an economy with enough wealth creation, so that we’re going forward and growing at 4, 5, and 6 percent which is what we’ll be doing if we ever get a chance to run this economy.”<\/p>\n
He said for the last 40 years “they’ve demonstrated they can’t run the economy their way properly”, saying at a different time when “people thought more like New Zealand First,” the growth rate in the economy was running at a higher rate.<\/p>\n
Asked whether he meant the finance minister couldn’t run the economy, Peters rejected that.<\/p>\n
He clarified the ideology of some parties meant “there is no chance for us to be the country we once were”.<\/p>\n
“So we need a new ideology, and the only party that’s got that ideology, you’re talking to.”<\/p>\n
Peters said his party had backed the New Zealand Super Fund 20 years ago for its original purpose, to “smooth out the edges of high cost at future age”.<\/p>\n
He suspected there was an intention to take the fund and privatise it.<\/p>\n
Asked if it was appropriate for Willis to raise the superannuation debate in her Budget, Peters said “she was doing very fine until then”.<\/p>\n
“It’s a sad point of her preparation.”<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: RNZ \/ Louis Dunham New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says the Finance Minister made an “unfortunate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-449124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"NZ](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4JNWWDW_Image_33_jfif.jpeg\")
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