Editorial: Poor shouldn't fund elderly daytrippers

OPINION: By all accounts the SuperGold Card has been a godsend for the elderly. Pensioners who have not ventured far from their homes for years are using the free public transport component of the card to visit family and friends and generally get out and about.

The card has proved particularly attractive to elderly residents of Auckland's Waiheke Island and their contemporaries in Auckland who fancy a harbour cruise. Pensioners, or rather the Government on their behalf, spent $2 million on Waiheke Island ferry travel in a 12-month period. That's 11 per cent of the $18m spent on the scheme in total.

Undoubtedly the scheme has been good for the elderly, not to mention Fullers, the ferry company that operates the Waiheke service. It is effectively receiving a $2m subsidy from the Government for services that were already running.

However, there is a question to be asked about whether the Government should be subsidising the discretionary travel of elderly daytrippers while it is rationing healthcare, stinting on teacher pay and putting the squeeze on Government departments.

It is a question Transport Minister Steven Joyce tried to ask last week when he said a review of the SuperGold Card would consider the level of reimbursement that transport operators received and the inclusion in the scheme of certain high-cost services such as the Waiheke ferry and Wellington-Wairarapa trains. Within 24 hours he had abandoned any thought of removing either the Waiheke ferry or the train service from the scheme.

His about-face was a triumph of political expedience over principle – 500,000 superannuitants make for a powerful voting bloc. The Key Government is not about to hand its political opponents a cudgel with which they can beat it about the head.

That is a pity. The scheme has undoubtedly widened the horizons of many elderly people and may even have improved their general health. It is to the benefit of everyone if health costs are reduced.

But, as with so many of the recent initiatives of this and the previous government, the Government is pandering to a vested interest group.

As a landmark Social Policy Ministry study showed in 2001, elderly New Zealanders on average enjoy a higher standard of living than their children and grandchildren. In cases where that is the result of their own endeavours, they are to be congratulated. But where it is a consequence of twisting governments' arms, they are not.

Quotable Value puts the median value of a three-bedroom house on Waiheke Island at $650,000. Just because the owner of such a home wishes eventually to pass that property on mortgage-free to his or her heirs is not a reason for a Porirua mum, living in rented accommodation and working nights to put food on the table for her children, to subsidise the pensioner's discretionary travel.

The Government has aptly read the political winds. Working New Zealanders and their children are the losers.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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Lonewolf   #3   10:20 am Mar 17 2010

So a few elderly visit Waiheke - let them. The government never stops moaning that they are entitled to free stuff because they work hard blah blah blah. The elderly have worked hard too - payed taxes and being productive to society.

Let them enjoy the few perks they can - they deserve it. As mentioned elsewhere, we will all be old someday. Are we going to take from the elderly now only to give it back to ourselves later because we deserve it more than they do?

Surely there are more important things to use to divert our attention from real matters ?

Vicount   #2   09:51 am Mar 17 2010

Okay, some, and I repeat, some, elderly pensioners may be getting 'out and about' by using their Gold Card but...there are an awful lot of pensioners who still cannot get 'out and about' by using the Card because they just happen to live in an area that is serviced by neither bus nor train (try living in the area between Otaki and Levin for example). You can't punish all pensioners just because the area of the country with the greatest proportion of the population has people who are able to use the Card to their advantage. Remember, everybody will get to be a pensioner one day so calm down, relax, and find something else to ease the financial burden on the country. Pensioners have worked long and hard and deserve some pleasure in the latter part of their lives...don't begrudge them cheaper transport.

Ken Crafar   #1   07:28 am Mar 17 2010

Lets crunch a few numbers here? We are talking about $18,000,000 over 500,000 superannuitants. That works out at $36.00 per head. As I dont live in Auckland/Waiheke nor Wairarapa/Wellington and have yet to receive any form of Gold Card discount, I have personally received no benefit whatsoever. I am not even on a bus route although living within a city!Grey Power is a lobby group,being a superannuitant is not?We can afford $190,000,000 for the Rugby World Cup and $40,000,000 for the movie 'Avatar'. Billions in student loans and interest are written off at the rate of some 48%. A plethora of benefits accrue to Maori in Waitangi Treaty claims and ethnic service duplication while the Government racks up $10 billion per year in unsustainable debt. Focusing on the aged is a cheap shot, like "sacking the cleaner"? But you are right we do change Governments! Maybe we should lose the vote?

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