Faafoi Kris: KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFaafoi Kris: KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3827. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana):It is a privilege to speak on clause 1 I think it is of this Committee of the whole House stage. This is an opportunity for some members on this side of the Chamber to have a bit of fun with the title. My colleague Iain Lees-Galloway has come up with a few interesting titles but mine is quite a mundane title. This bill should be retitled the “KiwiSaver (Reduction and Privilege) Bill” and for the benefit of the Committee I am going to use the acronym to make things easy—the “KRAP” because that is what this is. The “KRAP” is a mean-spirited bill that takes away saving opportunities from our young people. That is essentially what this bill does. The “KRAP” will basically take money from those people who have not yet signed up to KiwiSaver and from some of our youngest and unborn children. That is what the “KRAP” does. The “KRAP” is an awful piece of legislation. When you look at the numbers the “KRAP” as I want it to be changed to is not only a mean-spirited bill in terms of what it will do for the savings regime and the culture of savings in New Zealand but it is also a fiscally cynical piece of legislation. By cutting the $1000 kick-start payment for Kiwis this Government will save about $175 million next year. The projected surplus next year just happens to be $176 million. So this is a lazy Government. It could not look to save a bit here and to save a bit there. It just takes away the KiwiSaver kick-start as part of this “KRAP”.As part of this “KRAP” we have been I guess antagonising members on the other side of the Chamber as to who should pay back their KiwiSaver contribution. It is not very often that I get to stand in this Chamber and praise a member on the opposite side of the Chamber. As it stands now—of the National members in the Chamber now—David Bennett is the only one who has not signed up to KiwiSaver. He is the only one on that side of the Chamber who has not signed up according to the Register of Pecuniary Interests. So he is the only one to whom we are not offering the challenge to pay the $1000 back. David you can leave the Chamber in the next 2½ minutes and I challenge your colleagues who have all taken the $1000 kick-start because they are all signed up to KiwiSaver. You can leave. You are not going to be criticised here. Your colleagues who are sitting in the Chamber right now are quite happy to take $1000 but from 21 May at 2 p.m. no one else can. That is the reality. Every member on that side of the Chamber who is signed up to KiwiSaver—then fine; I will take that $1000 but from 21 May at 2 p.m. no one else can. Not one person.David Bennett you are either principled or you might be a bit stupid because you should have signed up to KiwiSaver. You should have signed up because it is a great scheme which was started by the Labour Government. It is so good that 2.5 million New Zealanders have signed up to it and that National Government is trying to take credit for it. But under this “KRAP” the Government is ruining KiwiSaver. It is ruining it and it is not the first time. The Government has got a track record of doing this. This is the eighth time—the eighth time—that it has taken the knife to KiwiSaver. This “KRAP” is an embarrassing piece of legislation for the Government because it is trying to get it to a surplus that it will never achieve and it is ruining the savings culture of New Zealand. Why if something is working do you in this “KRAP” take away something that is an incentive for the 2.5 million people who have signed up to KiwiSaver? It does not make sense.Here is the challenge again—and David I do appreciate that you have not signed up. The tragedy for David Bennett is that he cannot sign up. He cannot sign up. The challenge to the other members of the Committee on the other side of the Chamber is that you have got $1000 but you are now denying every Kiwi who has not signed up to KiwiSaver. You got $1000 that at least 1.5 million Kiwis are not entitled to now. You do not have to David; you did not get it. If you on that side of the Chamber are quite happy to sit there and pass the “KRAP” pay the $1000 back. Give it back. That is essentially what you should do if you have got some honour and you want to pass this “KRAP”—give the $1000 back. It is the decent thing to do and it is the honourable thing to do. David Bennett—good on you.