Background
I have a 9-year-old case with New Zealand's Ministry of Social Development (MSD), still ongoing. It began in September 2016 on acceptance for National Superannuation (Super). MSD administers Super.
At retirement age I hadn't worked full-time for a client for about twenty years. National Superannuation was available. I didn't need it, but it would help. I applied. It was granted and payments began of the about annual $22,000.
Then on 3 November 2016 MSD demanded I apply to MSD for the Australian Age Pension. I was entitled to about $25 a week. If I didn't apply, MSD would cancel my National Super. The Trans-Tasman pension agreement said MSD can deduct any overseas pension from New Zealand benefits. But deduction isn't mandatory. It's a discretionary power.
I asked if I could pay MSD the $25 myself. MSD said no. I asked if MSD could deduct the $25 from my Super. MSD said No. Then it kept issuing demands that I apply for the AAP otherwise it would cancel my National Super, which it eventually did in July 2017.
Why didn't I apply? It's a long and unpleasant story. Well, unpleasant if you think the Australian government shouldn't torture people.
The claim that Australian Army Intelligence tortures people has been made a few times. And there's the apparently verified story of Z Special Force (Unit) torturing people then killing them and burying them in unmarked graves in a Western Australian naval base. But that was during war time. My torture was during wartime, too.
On 30 January 2017, I asked MSD for exemption from applying for the AAP on the ground of trauma in the "testing country", Australia in my case. I gave details of names of people and places, dates, and description of events in Australia ample for asking a fellow UKUSA (now Five Eyes) member whether the torture had actually happened.
MSD had a policy on trauma in the testing country saying "we should consider their reasons on a case by case basis" preliminary to deciding for or against exemption. MSD has never decided my request, and concealed its policy for six years. Contradicting its hidden policy, MSD excluded trauma as a ground of exemption then staged a fake review of decision to avoid deciding my request for exemption. Deciding my request would mean considering my detailed claim of torture by Australian Army Intelligence.
Currently I'm trying to get the about $150,000 of Super arrears withheld by MSD from 2017 to 2024. I made the request and put my arguments in an 18 November 2025 letter to MSD chief executive Debbie Power.