"Our senior generation is absolutely vital to the success and prosperity of tomorrow's generation. Because they possess a depth of wisdom that only life experience brings. We ignore that gift at our own peril."

- Paul  Adams:  Deputy Leader

Giving honour where it is due: The Family Party acknowledges the invaluable role our senior citizens play in society.  They possess a commodity which cannot be bought or taught, but can only be acquired with time, this being the wealth of accumulated wisdom that life experience brings. Most importantly, senior citizens are an essential part of the intergenerational family and have a profound positive and lifelong influence on grandchildren.

The Family Party takes policies pertaining to the aging population very seriously and will treat them with the integrity, respect and compassion.

Esteeming our senior population: The Family Party believes:

• Government should support the role and participation of grandparents in the broader family context in all ways possible
• Government should encourage and facilitate the transfer of knowledge and experience from the senior population to the next generation. This applies to family, community and business
• Many grandparents play an invaluable role in bringing up their grandchildren
• Government should encourage and support initiatives that enable families to accommodate and involve grandparents (and the older generation) in their home, recognising there are costs involved with alterations to living accommodation and special utilities etc.
• The aging population can play an invaluable role in the social and voluntary sectors through the delivery of mentoring and counselling for young parents and families based on real life experience, wisdom and knowledge

NZ Super and cost of living: The Family Party believes:

• Our elderly have been greatly disadvantaged by the current method of formulating the New Zealand Super. They are often neglected or overlooked when it comes to inflationary pressures that severely disadvantage them
• Where possible, elderly are deserving of special entitlements that ease financial pressures and enable them to fully function in society (such as public transport)

Making a difference: The Family Party will:

• Seek to remove GST off basic food groups, infant and ELDERLY necessities, household energy (power bill), rates and off the excise duty on fuel. (Elderly necessities would be determined in consultation with the relevant community groups and organisations) 
• Oppose any moves to raise the age of entitlement to superannuation
• Annually review the impact of inflationary pressures on the aged population
• Eliminate means testing
• Deliver greater recognition and reward for voluntary services within the community, including the reimbursement of genuine expenses accrued in the delivery of such services (such as fuel) and also look at ways of ensuring that any of these paid contributions will not affect their level of superannuation payments
• Support the full participation of older New Zealanders in the workforce and the broader community, should they choose to keep working beyond retirement. To that end, The Family Party will break down barriers to facilitate their employment in the public, private and voluntary sectors

Elderly health and care: The Family Party believes:

• Aged care residents are among the most vulnerable people in our community and we should be doing everything we can to protect and care for them. Our communities must have a concern for and a confidence in its aged care system, ensuring that it does all it can to safeguard the welfare of aged people
• Crimes against elderly should be treated with the same level of distain as crimes against children
• Older New Zealanders should be able to live in their own homes for as long as possible, rather than in aged care homes. As a society, we need to provide more care to people in their own homes to enhance their quality of life and to have systems in place that ensure that they are never forced out of their family homes simply because of issues outside of their control such as rate increases
• Appropriate accommodation should be available for our aging population who have severe disabilities and need full-time care
• Professionals and volunteers working in aged care and rehabilitation deserve to be well resourced and fairly remunerated

Elderly healthcare policies: The Family Party will:

• Give priority to delivering an effective level of healthcare for the ageing population relative to its growing demographic
• Investigate initiatives to improve the quality of aged-care services, staff culture in rehabilitation and aged care facilities and the health and wellbeing of people living there
• Encourage and work towards a greater co-operation between the private and public health systems to reduce hospital waiting lists, and allow public funded operations to be handled within the private sector
• Make health insurance fully tax deductible
• Ensure adequate staff funding for both the residential and in-home care sectors. Those providing greater care should be recognised and publicly commended. Incentives for providing a greater level of care are desirable
• Volunteers assisting our elderly will have full tax deducibility on their fuel costs based on a per km travelled basis
• Reduce the mountain of paperwork within our health system to allow our doctors and nursing staff to spend more time hands-on with patients
• Reduce compliance costs for those organisations working in the aged care sector