The New Zealand Superannuation Fund is a sovereign wealth fund in New Zealand. New Zealand currently provides universal superannuation for people over 65 years of age and the purpose of the Fund is to partially pre-fund the future cost of the New Zealand Superannuation pension, which is expected to increase as a result of New Zealand's ageing population. It was created by the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Act 2001 on 11 October 2001 under the leadership of Michael Cullen, Minister of Finance in the Fifth Labour Government,[1] and is colloquially known as the "Cullen Fund".[2]
The Fund began investing in 2003, and had approximately NZ$19.2 billion in assets at 31 May 2011. Unlike many of the sovereign wealth funds that have been established in recent years, its source of wealth is not commodities.
In 2009, the National Government suspended payments to the fund. Forecasting by the New Zealand Treasury projects that contributions will be resumed from 2016/17.
The Fund has recently had a high profile in New Zealand after it and Infratil (a publicly listed New Zealand company) acquired Royal Dutch Shell's downstream assets in New Zealand, since renamed Z Energy.[3][4]