Logie Jan: KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLogie Jan: KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3859. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAN LOGIE (Green):I would like to make a few points in relation to the substantive clause of this bill.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Oh not briefly again!JAN LOGIE: I missed Mr Brownlee’s comment. I figure that is probably a good thing. I would like to just address Nick Smith’s comments though. He thought it was ironic that we seem to have so much concern on this side of the Chamber about debt when this was about trying to keep the Government’s books in the black. Well he may have noticed they are not in the black. They have not been in the black for quite a while—like ever.Hon Nanaia Mahuta: 7 years.JAN LOGIE: Oh gosh 7 years and you still have not managed it. Sorry Minister it is salt in the wounds I imagine. If we are talking about debt I would like to just point out to the Committee a little bit of a history lesson and I do think it is very relevant to this piece of legislation and what it is doing. Government debt per capita in 1990 was $10423. In 2008 it was $2408 and now in 2014 under this Government’s watch it is $13289. For a Government that is supposedly so concerned about its books and its levels of debt it has been overseeing a massive increase in the level of Government debt from a very low level when it came to power of only $2408 per person.I want to also call out both the main parties in this Chamber actually around the trend we have seen with household debt and with individual debt in this country which is specifically relevant to this bill. In 1992 the average household debt in this country was $33920. Now in 2015 the average household debt is $128050 and that has been inflation adjusted. We see here a pattern where in fact I would argue that Government debt per capita went from I think too high levels down to very low levels because it had been transferred to the individual. We are seeing that in the very high levels of personal debt through student loans; increasingly through speculation in housing; and through the Government’s lack of management of the housing market. There are now unsustainable levels of personal debt. Now we are also seeing under this Government escalating Government debt. So both sides of that picture are doing badly. The Government is not focused on getting into surplus. It is not focused on the well-being of our society as a whole. I do want to make a point here around income—Chris Bishop: Let the professor have a go.JAN LOGIE: Sorry? Let the professor have a go? Well we claim our knowledge in different ways in this party. I would like to talk just a little bit about intergenerational inequality in relation to this bill and to reference some common understandings of generational wealth and distribution.I am just thinking again about the situation we are in in New Zealand and the importance of saving schemes. After so much of the costs of participating in society have been passed on to individuals there is a common understanding that wealth distribution is strongly affected by life cycle. It makes sense that when you are younger you earn less and you have less wealth. There is an expectation that you will accumulate that over time as you pay off your student debts and that you have the ability to earn more and that you get your house and you pay it off. So you get to over that cycle increase your wealth. Well I just want to think about that. That is the traditional way it has been done. The reality now is that the average woman who has a university degree will be 50 before she pays off her student debt and we have the increasing unlikelihood of young people never being able to buy a house in this country. It is the abandoned generation.