Hobbs Marian: Taxation (KiwiSaver and Company Tax RateAmendments) Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Hobbs Marian: Taxation (KiwiSaver and Company Tax RateAmendments) Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:639;Page:9474] 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 I rise to support this legislation because I find this a very interesting Budget and a particularly interesting scheme. Budgets can make some changes to how we live as people and I want to take members through in a sense the experience of my parents and their behaviour and my behaviour in terms of debt. 
My parents lived through the Depression and consequently they never ever borrowed to buy something. They saved before they bought a fridge; so we did not have a fridge until about midway through the 1950s. We did not have car until about the 1970s; and that was a Skoda and that was doubtful! They would never ever do things like borrowing to buy something because they were brought up very strongly with this idea that one saved money before one went out and spent it. 
I have a look at myself and I find that if something goes wrong with the dryer I will very easily take my credit card to the company and buy a dryer on the credit card and then pay it off. That is so much the reverse of what actually happened in our parents’ lives. That is what this Budget and this bill are about. It is about returning us to a different way of acting to a way of responsible acting that accumulates money in this country instead of making us always subservient to money that we have to borrow overseas. 
This is a Budget about building capital for this country and I would have thought the capitalists who are so good at borrowing capital from overseas and who sit on the Opposition benches might be interested in this debate. [ 
Interruption 
] I cannot hear them; they are yelling so much. This bill is about bringing discipline self-pride and security to both individuals and this country’s economy. It is something that we desperately need to do. 
I have been out and about today and doing a radio programme with some economists. Have I found there has been a real buying of this legislation? You bet I have! The response from young people on the streets of Wellington has been: “A $20 a week tax cut disappears very fast—four lattes four bottles of beer. But $20 from the Government going into my savings account instead of a tax cut is money that will grow. It is money that will grow for the country’s capital development and money that will grow for me as a person. I would much rather have money saved than have money squandered.” That is the difference in what is being offered here. 
People on the other side condescendingly talk of the poor not being able to save. At the moment the “poor”—the people they refer to so blissfully at the Otara market which I do not think they have ever been to—are the people they refer to as not wanting to save. People do want to save and people want to find a way in which they are supported in their saving. This bill builds on that scheme and gives an incentive to save. The Opposition would rather give that incentive to be spent right now rather than saved. It is not a question of starving or saving because with this legislation the same Government is returning money to those very people whom the Opposition refers to as starving. They are the people who will receive better money because they will pay less when they go to the doctor and pay less for prescription charges and those aged 25 to 44 are the last group in this respect. That is money that is being saved and it is being awarded from this Budget. Therefore it is not a question of starving or saving; it is a question of supporting people into saving and supporting people into security for the future. 
I find it absolutely hypocritical to hear members opposite talk about a sound economy. I must say it is always really interesting that whenever one is on the hustings with the National Party people they always say very quickly: “It’s all right; for those roads we’ll just go out and borrow.” Where would they be borrowing from? It would be from overseas. Who has to pay back the money for that? The taxpayer has to pay back the money borrowed from overseas. This KiwiSaver is about growing capital in our country and growing security.