Just a few days after promising that people's retirement savings would be safe with them, National is now talking about slashing retirement provisions as they are generous by world standards. Instead, they want to "rebalance" things to focus on economic growth - National code for tax cuts for the rich and driving wages down in pursuit of their vision of a low-wage, low-skill economy. As for how they'd do this, there's some pretty strong hints that they would cut government and employer contributions to KiwiSaver, and shift away from universal superannuation in favour of means-testing.
I'm glad English has come out and said this, because it makes it clear exactly what the stakes will be in 2008: your retirement. And it also makes it clear that National has not yet learned its lesson and disowned their Neo-Liberal past. Instead, like the exiled Bourbon, they have learned nothing and forgotten nothing. Which suggests that they need another reminder...
