Hipkins Chris: Taxation (KiwiSaver HomeStart and Remedial Matters) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: Taxation (KiwiSaver HomeStart and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 25 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2618. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka):I am happy to take a brief call on this bill slightly sooner than I had anticipated but I am very happy to speak on the matter. Before I get into the specific provisions of the bill I want to pick up on a comment that the member who just resumed his seat Andrew Bayly made. He argued that the Government accounts for around 1 percent—around 1 percent—of new home builds in New Zealand. The point I would make to him is that housing in New Zealand has been at its most affordable when the Government has been an active partner in the house construction business. In fact in my electorate there are literally thousands of houses that were built as State houses that are now privately owned. Those people were able to buy those houses because the Government was a partner in that process and was actively engaged in making sure there was sufficient supply to meet the demand. So there is real merit in a more active stance from the Government.This bill in particular allows KiwiSaver members to withdraw the tax credit component of their KiwiSaver savings in order to purchase a first home. Previously they were only ever able to withdraw their own contributions and their employer contributions. This bill now allows them to withdraw the Government tax credit contributions as well so that they can get on to the property ladder in the form of a deposit contributed to from their KiwiSaver savings.In principle I can see the merit in that—in fact it was a Labour Government that introduced the KiwiSaver scheme—but I do have some anxiety. One of the reasons we introduced KiwiSaver in the first place is that New Zealand has a woefully bad track record when it comes to saving for our retirement. We have reached the point where people saving for their retirement can dip into that money prematurely just to get a foot on the property ladder. In fact not just necessarily to dip into it but potentially to clean it all out. This provision means that you effectively could end up cleaning out your KiwiSaver account your only retirement savings just in order to get on to the property ladder. Actually we want to have a situation in New Zealand where Kiwis can do both—where Kiwis can save for their retirement but also build up an asset in the form of their family home. So although I agree in principle with what this particular change is designed to achieve which is to give people who are really struggling to get on to the property ladder the opportunity to do so I have some anxiety that it is not going to lead to a sustainable rate of savings when it comes to their retirement.I think a lot of New Zealanders my age would not even think that far ahead. They are not thinking that far ahead because there are just too many other financial hurdles to get across at the moment. Buying a first home is one. Paying off their student loan is another—Stuart Nash: Getting married.CHRIS HIPKINS: Getting married is getting more and more expensive. That is not a particular burden that I have yet had to meet but there is always hope! I do believe that it is important that all New Zealanders start to think early on about their retirement savings.The final point I want to make in this very brief contribution on this legislation is just a general point around the nature of retrospective legislation and any provisions that have any kind of retrospectivity. There are really good reasons why we in this House do not do that and I am always very disappointed when any legislation has such provisions.So with that Mr Chair I thank you for the opportunity to contribute briefly to this debate. I had that one point I wanted to make because I think it is important.Hon Christopher Finlayson: And you’ve done it very well.CHRIS HIPKINS: I have done it very well. Oh look! Mr Finlayson is getting very very impatient over there. It is really important that we save for our retirement. Although I can understand the desire of people to get a foot on the property ladder they do need to be thinking longer term as well.