From President Colleen
Grey Power has an exciting year ahead – at a national level, changes to the makeup of the Grey Power Federation Board and election for Federation President and Treasurer at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in June, as well as the general election.
At the local level we are planning a public meeting with Mayor Little to discuss his vision for older people in Wellington amongst other issues, a workshop on national superannuation and retirement income, the Wellington Central Annual General Meeting in May or early June and other activities. Grey Power hasn’t taken over our lives!
At present the Grey Power Federation Board comprises the President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and seven Zone Representatives. The change will replace the seven Zone Representatives with five ‘at large’ elected Board members. Those Board members will not have a relationship with any Zone.
Wellington Central Grey Power Association has two votes for each motion at the AGM and will participate in the vote for new Board members. From the end of the Federation AGM the position of Zone Director will be replaced by Zone Coordinator, which is a new role. That person will have been elected at the May Zone meeting. Your committee supports the changes.
As with many Associations, Wellington Central is seeking new Committee members. The five current committee members enjoy their work and often talk about the bigger picture for Grey Power and how we can advocate more effectively for older people. We feed our thinking into the Federation’s advocacy work. We welcome new ideas and energy onto the Committee and hope some of our members might put up their hand at the AGM to join us. The role is not time consuming – one meeting on the first Monday of each month and the odd small task.
As summer ebbs to autumn, I wish you lots of happy days ahead.
Share the love?
Our website https://greypowerwellington.org.nz/ is looking unloved. Your committee wants to update it. If any member has writing and/or web skills, I would love to speak to you about assisting us.
Colleen Singleton, President
It’s all your fault! Or is it?
Newsletter Editor Alastair Duncan looks at the coming storm over National Super
“It’s all your fault for being alive”. It’s not a real quote but it could be the message from public agencies such as the Treasury, or private insurers like Milford Finance who have joined the list of those doom mongering about the cost of national superannuation.
The number of us receiving NZ Superannuation is rising. In the 1960s there were seven 15-to 64-year-old taxpayers for every superannuitant. Today there are just 4 and the projections are that this will drop to 2 in the coming years.
Add in the anticipated increase in healthcare costs, noting that as we age we ‘consume more healthcare’. It’s hardly a surprise that scarcely a week has gone by in this New Year, without op-eds and reportage on the tsunami of seniors and the pending collapse of national super.
“Treasury boss warns Super incentivises grads to leave”, reported The Post on February 14th just days after Milford, a firm that runs its own private super scheme, was forecasting a need to radically change access to national super. The Treasury options included lifting the age limit from 65 to 72, means testing and limiting the current universal access.
For a fuller and more nuanced take on both the problem and the solutions, economist Susan Snively’s pre-Christmas presentation to the Wellington University of the 3rd Age, U3A, was informative.
Snively notes that many pass the 65 barrier yet remain in the workforce and in so doing continue as taxpayers to contribute. That percentage is growing. NZ has the highest level of labour force participation of 65- to 69-year-olds in the OECD. And working or not, for those with more leisure, their consumption of travel, eating, reading, sports and time with families is a further contribution to the economy. GST doesn’t stop just because you are over 65!
Snively also pointed to the rise in unemployment, the highest in a decade and increased pressure on social services, food banks etc as also being influential factors in tax revenue – a point not lost on a Wellington audience that has seen thousands of public sector jobs disappear. Toss in a decline in Gross Domestic Product and declines in manufacturing, smaller families and now nearly 3% of the working age Kiwis leaving the country and the gap grows.
She reminds us that while there may be more demands on our health services, today’s citizens are healthier than their predecessors.
‘The world may be an uncertain place’ says Snively, but there are things we can do to benefit our health and wellbeing such as keeping close to those we like to be with. And for their part governments have the tools, if they are willing to ‘defuse the time bomb’ the pundits proclaim.
Supporting community as well as economic wellbeing is one step politicians could and should take as well as incentivising employers, including those in the public sector, to provide professional development and retraining so that willing workers can be retained at any age.
Curiously, many of the critics fail to reference the Cullen Fund, the national super fund set up 20 years ago that now tops $80 billion. The fund is designed to address the impact of the baby boomers’ reaching 65 and so qualifying for National Super. The contributions will likely peak in the 2050s and provide around 14% of National Super.
Outgoing CEO Matt Whineray told Radio NZ way back in 2023 that the fund outperformed 90-day Treasury Bills, returning a 9.5 percent a year return and stood at $64.4 billion making the country $40 billion better off. Whineray also said the fund would have been even better off if government contributions had been kept up during the global financial crisis and the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake.
So, it should be no surprise that National Super is one of the dog whistle issues in the forthcoming election. But listen carefully. The likes of Winston Peters will likely claim to be the only one defending the status quo, by which he means keeping it universal at age 65. But arguably the status quo is the problem. The status quo simply doesn’t deliver anything like a decent retirement income.
What’s more, as Radio NZ reported on 28 February this year the status quo, set at 66 percent of the after-tax ordinary time for couples and 40% for a single person, is an after-tax figure. Stats NZ says the June 2025 pretax median weekly wage works out at $1784 a fortnight compared to NZ Super of $1254.
Factor in slow and low wage growth and things get even grimmer.
Long live the party that talks about lifting Super so that seniors, be they single or couples, can actually live on those rates.
As the election rhetoric begins to climb, for Grey Power members there has never been a better time to ensure our voice and our vote counts.
Zoning in or zoning out?
Every three months Grey Power members from across the lower North Island gather in Palmerston North for a regular catch up, known as a zone meeting.
As well as sharing success stories, challenges and frustrations, the meetings also provide an opportunity to test ideas and activities members feel Grey Power should be involved with. With Wellington Central Grey Power President Colleen Singleton as the current ‘Zone 4’ representative, it’s also a chance to get a feel for what is, or is not, happening at the Grey Power Federation level.
Front and centre of the recent meeting was considerable discussion about the forthcoming rule changes to the way the Federation chooses its leadership and the extent to which the current process is or is not delivering a national voice for Grey Power.
At last years’ AGM Wellington Central delegates voted against the proposal to remove the regional representatives and replace them with five ‘at large’ members. The Wellington team were concerned that this would reduce the opportunity to hold board members accountable to local constituencies.
While the AGM voted overwhelmingly in favour of the proposal, several associations are now reviewing their initial support and, as the rule change will require a 75% threshold the AGM in June may mean the changes are not smooth sailing.
Both supporters and opponents of the proposal stressed the challenges and the failures of some current zone members to act effectively on the board. However, they were at pains to exclude Colleen from that criticism, though she has already made it clear she will not be standing again.
At the meeting Federation Treasurer Lew Findlay, who is also a zone 4 member, reported turning around the previous deficits into a modest surplus. At last years’ AGM Lew made particular mention of the 30% drop in Grey Power national membership, raising questions from some as to how a change in the constitution will contribute to turning that around.
Zone Representative Colleen reported that with Associations winding up due to not meeting their constitutional requirements of electing Officers to manage the Association, the Federation will change its constitution to include a new membership class of Grey Power Supporters. This enables members without an Association to still be part of the Grey Power family and enjoy the Federation benefits.
Your Wellington committee is also part of a working group that is considering Grey Power’s future – 10-20 years into the future.
Grey Power in the news and on the tele? Well, sort of!
There was a time when Grey Power was everywhere. Cabinet Ministers sought us out, TV journalists wanted our view and editorials noted our influence. But sadly, in the last decade it’s been increasingly rare that Grey Power hit the headlines. One of the concerns has been the extent to which the current Federation Board is proactively taking the time to share our advocacy message.
A good example of how to reach out came when Wellington member Peter Hooper spotted a press report about the cyber security breach of the Medimap database used widely across aged care and disability services. When Peter was a passenger travelling to the Grey Power Zone meeting in Palmerston North he fired off a quick note to Federation President Gayle Chambers alerting her to the issue. By the time Peter arrived in Palmerston President Gayle had a press statement drafted and released!
In the same week Wellington President Colleen Singleton was the very public face of Grey Power fronting a news story about the need for kiwis to be able to access cash as more and more bank branches close. Nicola Willis may or may not have seen the item, but Colleen’s grandkids sure did!
Behind these two experiences sits a very real debate about the extent to which Grey Power, locally and nationally, is seen as a credible voice for seniors on issues of the moment.
Dead right?
Wellington Committee member Peter Hopper spotted the following on the internet.
I’m 100 … Here is how I avoided a nursing home…
Intrigued, Peter watched the clip and here’s his take on the result……….
What is offered here is a summary of Evelyn’s thinking about old age as she unpacks it in the YouTube clip, – “I’m 100 … Here is how I avoided a nursing home.”
She opens with a statement that can seem shocking, “Nursing homes smell like disinfectant and death.” She from there unpacks Evelyn’s story
At the time of making the video Evelyn lives in the same house she and her husband purchased in 1965. She cooks her own meals; manages her own finances and presents as a person who believes in facts and common sense. It is her view, “where we end up isn’t a matter of luck, … it’s about a battle plan for one’s independence.”
Evelyn sees herself as different from her mother in that her mother moved from being a family matriarch to a person living in a retirement village where others shaped and chose for her how her day would unfold – “other people told mother when to eat, sleep, and when to take her pills.” This is not how Evelyn wanted her old age to unfold. For Evelyn old age is a verb, it’s something you do. She adds, one can do life well, or do life poorly?
She offers the opinion many may choose not to speak of – old age. Evelyn sees such silence as a mistake, one where people sadly don’t end up where they want to be, and that this she believes demonstrates the role fear can play in our lives.
Evelyn’s plan was her own, for her future old age had four parts.
Part One: Move – “Defy gravity every day.” Evelyn explains, “Whenever you decide that a chair is more comfortable than a walk around the block you started the process of dying, your body is a lose it or use it machine.” Evelyn walks, does her own gardening, carries her own groceries. She refuses to be sedentary.
Part Two: Think – “Your brain is a muscle, not an heirloom… The day you retire from your job should be the day you start a new job, the job of staying interesting.”
Part Three: “Fight the loneliness – a poison that convinces you that you are not needed any more. I have to talk to another human being, out loud, every single day, a real conversation.” Evelyn says, “Be a nuisance, break those walls … when your world shrinks to the size of your living room, you are in trouble. A sharp mind is your best defence against being treated like a child.”
Part Four: Physical shift/decline – Picking things up and putting things down will get harder, getting up out of the chair will certainly become more difficult. Be smart and consider altering the architecture of the rooms you live in; grab bars in the bathroom, check doorways can be used with a walker and doorway width is able to cope with what you now need to use as an older person. Decide things now that may need deciding, set up documents that spell out what you want to happen near your end of life. The key idea here is a desire that you’re not a burden, you act now because you care for those you love/care about. Avoid “not living while you’re still alive… it’s about dignity, freedom, being the author of your own story”.
As a reader of what is offered here, and a person who has viewed the YouTube clip Evelyn shares, there are things which can be said. Maybe you agree with her; perhaps you have other thoughts and plans for your future. You may feel planning can be over-done. Is old age best just that thing that is best left as that which unfolds under its own story and we should see fate as the real decider. Consider writing to Grey Power to outline your thoughts. Are there things we can do for you? Are there things we should be saying/doing in Wellington, and nationally, that need action.
Video link: https://youtube.com/watch?v=nhYxT8br9BY&si=-tqyxRW1d83UVk-B
All the way for equal pay
In February the Peoples Select committee on Pay Equity released its report damning the changes to the Equal Pay Act rushed through Parliament last year.
Made up of former Members of Parliament from National, Labour, New Zealand First and Green parties, the report slams the process used to cancel 33 equal pay claims already underway and to make new claims harder to take.
The big losers in the process included the thousands of care workers working in residential and home-based aged care who had their claims cancelled outright and the threshold for any new claims severely restricted.
Over a decade ago National, ACT and New Zealand First MPs all supported the law that followed care worker Kirstine Bartlett’s epic legal battle to have the 1972 Act correctly interested to enable pay comparisons across and between predominantly female and male dominated jobs. That put $2 billion into pay rates, though no back pay was ever received.
While the Grey Power Federation has been a long supporter of equal pay, in recent years it has moved away from formal submissions, a step that has brought both disappointment and criticism from a number of Grey Power Associations.
With that in mind Wellington Central had made a comprehensive submission, focusing on the need to defend the hard-won gains from the past and pointing to the importance of attracting and retaining a skilled, and properly paid care workforce.
While the health unions have mounted a legal challenge to the process used by the Coalition Government that is unlikely to affect the cancelled claims leaving thousands of working women struggling to support their own families while looking after ours.
Speaking at the launch of the report, the former National MP Marilyn Waring urged the audience, and the community to continue to fight against the change. Another former National MP Jacqui Blue said that despite the law change equal pay was sure to be an election issue. A week later Blue announced she had resigned her National Party membership, after 50 years because of the government’s action.
Copies of the report are available at https://www.payequity.org.nz/report
Pining for a pin?
Look at any politician worth his, or her, salt and you’ll frequently see a badge or a pin on their lapel. For US politicians it’s often a flag, and the main parties here have their labels. Now Grey Power has produced a ‘new’ pin for members who want to show the flag. What is it? Naturally, the redrawn wise Owl at $7.50 a pop or $60 got 10. Pins are available from the Federation office Tel 092992113 or email fed-office@greypower.co.nz.
Morning, Minister
From the SuperBlues (The National Party’s seniors wing)/Tim Costley MP: Health is a big issue for us on the coast, and while I’ve got the Minister here I’m running a morning tea in Whitby. It’s a morning tea with the Minister not a ‘public meeting’ so a bit more relaxed and topics other than health will also get covered, but he will speak for around half an hour with time for questions. 10am on Friday 13 March at Whiby Bowling Club. $10 to cover costs. RSVP to pollockl@outlook.com by 10 March.
Membership: wait for the invoice
Please don’t pay your 2026 membership fee until you get an email invoice from us; refunding double payments can be a pain in the %^&*. We’ll be sending out the invoice in a week or two.
The Wellington Central Association pays the Grey Power Federation a $7.50 per head fee from your membership subscription to pay for their services.