I have a proposition, Mātua Winston, for NZ Super helping a future generation

Saturday, 6 June 2026

Sir lan Taylor is the founder and managing director of Animation Research.

OPINION: Tēnā koe Mātua Winston.

Let’s talk about superannuation, shall we?

At $24.7 billion, NZ Super was one of the largest single items in this year's budget. A number that is expected to rise to $31.2 billion by 2030.

And yes – that is billion with a B.

Your coalition partners see this as a cost that has to be reigned in. You see it as a promise that has to be kept.

Both are discussions that need to be had, but given the vagaries of MMP and your current polling, this is a debate that is likely to go on for years. It certainly won’t be resolved by 2030.

Which brings me to another number. 169,000.

This is the number of children living in material hardship in Aotearoa New Zealand. A rise of almost 50,000 in the past 3 years.

Put another way. That’s 1 in 7 children living in households that lack seven or more basic items like shoes, fresh fruit and vegetables, home heating, doctors' visits, and dental care.

169,000!

That’s more than the population of our fifth largest city, Tauranga, the city where you started New Zealand First, based on your belief that some people were being left behind by decisions being made in Wellington.

Let’s stop and think about that for a moment, Mātua.

Imagine every person in Tauranga living without the basic necessities of life. No certainty that there will be enough food in the cupboard. No guarantee that the house will be warm. No assurance that a visit to the doctor is affordable.

Now imagine that every one of those people is a child.

Children who did nothing to create their circumstances, children who have little power to change those circumstances.

This number, 169,000, appeared in the 2026 Child Poverty Report that was released alongside the “Securing New Zealand’s Future” Budget announced in Wellington last week.

Child poverty, one of the defining challenges facing our future, simply went under the radar because those children, our tamariki, seem to have no voice in the halls of power.

But we superannuitants, that’s me and you, Mātua, do have a voice.

Yours.

And people listen when we use it.

For decades, you have used it to defend the rights of older New Zealanders. To remind us that a promise made should be a promise kept, and it is a strong argument.

There are hundreds of thousands of older New Zealanders for whom every dollar of NZ Super matters. Rising rents, rising power bills, rising food prices. For many, NZ Super is not a bonus. It is the difference between coping and not coping.

Those New Zealanders deserve our support.

But, Mātua, you and I are not among them. Neither of us is choosing between heating or food. Neither of us is wondering whether we can afford to see a doctor or pay the rent. Neither of us is dependent on our NZ Super to survive the week.

But we are both beneficiaries of a New Zealand that invested in us. A New Zealand where home ownership was within reach, tertiary education was free, and jobs were plentiful.

We were able to take advantage of that, and I suspect there are many thousands of other super annuitants who could say the same.

People who are comfortable. People who have enough. People who understand that while NZ Super is a right, sharing it can be a choice we make. A choice to help create for today's children some of the opportunities that New Zealand once created for us.

And that, Mātua, is why I am writing this.

Not to convince you to change your position on superannuation or to convince Minister Willis to change hers. The two of you should continue that debate. It is an important one.

But our children cannot await its outcome.

Instead, I want to speak directly to the people who see themselves in this conversation. The people who, like you and me, have enough.

The people who understand that while New Zealand Superannuation is a right, it can also be an opportunity.

An opportunity to do something now. To make a difference.

If just 1% of New Zealand's superannuitants chose to share some or all of their NZ Super, that would mean around $200 million dollars a year would flow directly to the charities and community organisations already changing lives.

No management fees, no admin fees. All of it going to those making a difference at the cliff face. At 5%, that would be over $1 billion a year.

This isn’t about politics. It isn’t about an election cycle. It is something we could do now. Today.

Join me, and those who have already taken this step, at sharemysuper.org.nz.