#75 - Jane Wrightson - The courage to choose

In this episode, we speak with Jane Wrightson, the Retirement Commissioner, as she concludes her six-year term as the country’s independent voice on retirement income. Jane arrives at the edition’s themes from a completely different direction – retirement – and lands squarely on many of the same conclusions. Her most arresting figure is a projected doubling in the number of older New Zealanders renting by the late 2040s: our pension system assumes a country where people reach retirement owning their home outright, and that assumption is quietly failing. We talk about why she sees the retirement system and the housing system as two halves of one problem being run in isolation from each other; the gap between men’s and women’s retirement savings that begins surprisingly early in life; and why the market keeps building three-storey townhouses that older people can’t actually live in. Her answer echoes the rest of the edition: a long-term, cross-party plan that outlasts any single government. We’d like to thank Jane for taking the time to speak with us for this episode. And don't forget to subscribe to the CHA Hub Podcast – wherever you get your podcasts from. The CHA Hub Podcast is sponsored by our Founding Partner, Westpac New Zealand.