Street Maryan: Taxation (KiwiSaver and Company Tax RateAmendments) Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Street Maryan: Taxation (KiwiSaver and Company Tax RateAmendments) Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:639;Page:9465] 
MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 I want to pick up a couple of points in speeches made over the last few minutes. A couple of things seem to be missing from the Opposition’s analysis of KiwiSaver its application and its potential uptake. First of all has the Opposition not noticed that the social debate around savings has altered—that people are very aware of the need to put aside money for their retirement? In fact after listening to some of the vox pop coverage expressed yesterday in the wake of the announcements about KiwiSaver it is patently obvious to me that of the four young people I heard all four would rather have the $20 put aside for them to complement their own savings than to have that $20 in the hand. That was said by four out of four people who were asked about that. They were young people who were watching their parents approach 65 years. One woman in particular said that her mother was approaching 65 and it was getting a bit scary. To a person they would rather have the money put aside and contributed to KiwiSaver than to have the $20 now—which they thought would go nowhere. 
This is absolutely a savings regime for the poor and the low paid. This is exactly who it is for. This is the best opportunity for the poor and the low paid to provide for their retirement—the best opportunity. The sooner the Opposition understands the structural shift in the economy that this KiwiSaver initiative represents the better. How will they go out and say to people: “We will give you a $10 a week tax cut across the board. You can have $10 now.”? People will say: “Oh yeah great; thank you. That’s not going to do much for me. I would rather make sure that I have $20 a week that’s going forward to my future.” This is the best opportunity that low-paid workers have of providing for their future. 
Given that the National Party seems to think it is on a crusade to woo the women’s vote it may like to consider what this means for women’s superannuation. It is an absolute given—it is well known—that women do not accrue the same level of savings as men and they do not receive the same amount back in superannuation as men do for all the reasons that we know about. First women are located predominantly in the lower-paid parts of the labour market. Secondly women have interruptions to their work history that interrupt their payment into savings. Thirdly we still have a persistent gender gap in earnings. Therefore there are three structural reasons why women do not achieve as much in the way of superannuation returns as men do. 
This is the best opportunity for women to be preparing in their own right as well as with their family and their partner to receive very substantial returns for their superannuation in years to come. KiwiSaver allows for holidays on payments. It allows for those holidays so that if and when women take time out of the workforce to raise children they can be seen to be continuous contributors including those holidays from their actual payments. It means they will have safeguarded accounts they can rely on when they turn 65. 
The first Labour Government was known for the welfare State and for provision for the poor and the needy. In Norman Kirk’s day the Labour Government was known for independent foreign policy. This Labour Government will be known for its contribution to older people and for security in the future.