Retirement income policies in Australia and New Zealand: Facing the fiscal challenge from an ageing population

Abstract

Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ), as part of their Future Inc series, commissioned research from NZIER that explored public attitudes to the future of retirement income policies in Australasia. New Zealand and Australia are different jurisdictions but with the same ‘retiree funding’ problem. The countries are similar in that they both have a general tax funded Pillar 1 superannuation scheme. Both Pillar 1 schemes are reasonably generous (by OECD standards at least). However, the overall cost of the scheme in New Zealand is 1% of GDP higher after allowing for tax concessions etc. This project compares the attitudes to retirement income policies in the two jurisdictions and examines why it is difficult to get durable changes in retirement policy onto the agenda in both countries.