Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the Government has a \u201cdeep commitment\u201d to universal superannuation, but wants to find more political common ground before making any changes to the government-funded retirement payment.<\/p>\n
Luxon made these comments at a Westpac-hosted Trans-Tasman Business Circle event on Friday. During a Q&A session with NZME\u2019s head of business, Fran O\u2019Sullivan, he said superannuation is one of the many areas that the Government has to invest in over the coming years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to deal with savings and investments in a number of other things [like] the housing market and getting that balance in the right way. Superannuation is one of those things,\u201d Luxon told O\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n
He proceeded to describe superannuation as \u201cif you’re looking out the front window screen of the car and you can see a bumper that’s down the road.\u201d The reasoning behind this comparison was left unexplained.<\/p>\n
In the 2026 Budget<\/a> on Thursday, Finance Minister Nicola Willis revealed that New Zealand Superannuation is \u201cgrowing rapidly\u201d as the country\u2019s population gets older. Budget forecasts show the annual cost of superannuation jumping to $31.2 billion in 2029\/30, up from $24.7 billion in the current 2025\/2026 financial year.<\/p>\n To help meet the future costs of New Zealand Superannuation, withdrawals from the NZ Super Fund are now expected from 2054 onwards. Previously, withdrawals had been expected from around 2035\/36<\/a>. As at 31 March, the fund\u2019s value stood at $86.6 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Friday, Luxon said he wants more \u201cvisibility\u201d on superannuation so that the Government could work out where to find common ground politically.<\/p>\n \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be an ideological issue; it\u2019s actually a New Zealand issue that the country is going to have to deal with and successive governments of different colours or flavours will have to deal with. So why don’t we talk about it and why don’t we work out where we can and at least try to find some common ground around an issue like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n O\u2019Sullivan told the Prime Minister that the NZ Super Fund had been sold to people like herself \u2013 the baby boomer generation, who were born between 1946 and 1964 \u2013 as being ready to start \u201cspilling out\u201d\u00a0by the time baby boomers needed to start drawing on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re all going to be dead by then,\u201d she said and questioned the Government\u2019s thinking behind pushing out the fund\u2019s withdrawal start date by 20 years.<\/p>\n \u201cThose are the kind of conversations that we’ve got to have as part of that core superannuation conversation,\u201d Luxon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that’s why I say to you, look, we’re [in the] early days and a problem is coming at us.\u201d<\/p>\n Contributions to the Super Fund are expected to increase to a total of $3.1b over the next four years which is $2.2b more than previously expected. According to Willis on Thursday, another significant change was the Guardians of the NZ Superannuation lowering their assumption of long-term expected returns from 7.8% to 7.2%<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis reflects their view that, with global equity markets at historically high levels, future returns will likely be weaker compared to recent years,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n