Harawira Hone: Taxation (Annual Rates Business Taxation KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — Second Reading 
Harawira Hone: Taxation (Annual Rates Business Taxation KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:644;Page:13433] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora Madam Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tatou e te Whare. Whenever Governments propose legislation they must also consider the views of those they purport to represent and polls are sometimes a good indicator of those views. So it was a very important revelation when a couple of weeks ago the results of the Marae DigiPoll were released. It was all bad news for Labour’s Maori MPs with 55 percent of Maori choosing Maori Party candidates and only 33 percent opting for Labour’s Maori MPs and with the Maori Party candidates winning hands-down in six of the Maori seats and deadlocking in a seventh for which we did not even have a candidate. 
It was also a very clear indicator of Maori opinion that when pollsters were asked who their preferred Prime Minister was they chose three Maori—two from the Maori Party and nobody from Labour. 
Hon Paul Swain 
: Point of order— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: I will just deal with it. The member needs to come back to the bill please. I have been a bit tolerant. Please come back to the bill. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: I am talking about the importance of public opinion because in respect of the Taxation (Annual Rates Business Taxation KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill and its reference to KiwiSaver that same Marae DigiPoll said a lot about how disconnected Labour was in terms of its view on KiwiSaver. We find when it comes to this flagship savings policy—KiwiSaver which is referred to in this bill—which was promoted with hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer-funded advertising that 84 percent of Maori said they had not even joined. 
Of course when challenged about the shattering findings of the Marae DigiPoll the Minister of Maori Affairs came up with his standard blub blub blub that the only poll that matters is on election day. It is all well and good introducing amendments about employer contributions and tax credits but what is the point of all the pontificating when Maori are not even bothering with it anyway? And why are they not bothering? The reason is that a lot of Maori Pasifika and Pakeha as well for that matter simply cannot afford to get into KiwiSaver. That is the reason. Eighty-four percent of Maori surveyed have not even joined KiwiSaver and one of the main reasons they give is that they simply cannot afford to get into it. 
We regularly get reports coming into this House highlighting the reality of food banks being swamped by people in need and of families who cannot even afford basic housing heating food and health care. These facts are highlighted by the national homelessness forum held to highlight the sheer scale of homelessness not just in American movies but right here in good old Aotearoa. We know how poverty limits a child’s options and we know only too well how many low-waged workers are teetering on the brink of survival. Hence the importance of reference to KiwiSaver. When a family is struggling to make the zero line the possibility of saving 4 percent a week is just beyond their horizons. Jarrod Rendle from the New Zealand Federation of Family Budgeting Services Inc. says that for many of his clients $15 a week going to savings means $15 less being spent on essentials such as food. For too many families even $10 is $10 too much. 
We support the recommendations of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions the National Distribution Union and the New Zealand Nurses Organisation about reducing the worker’s contribution to 2 percent in order to encourage workers to join. We support too the submission from Ngai Tahu about amending the withdrawal criteria to make it more flexible and more accessible for people in need such as that already agreed upon to help second-chance homebuyers. We support too changes in the tax structure to help working people to save. We would also like to see real incentives to encourage poor people to save as well. 
Taxation is an important issue for Maori as evidenced in the Marae DigiPoll which showed that Maori-roll voters ranked tax cuts as the most significant issue for them right now for the first time ever. Unfortunately this bill will not deliver the necessary changes and we would recommend further changes in order to enable that to happen. 
In fact the focus of this bill is more about enhancements and amendments flowing on from Budget decisions announced some time ago which we are generally happy to support such as voluntary tax compliance tax exemptions for Pasifika trust funds tax credits for Aotearoa-based research and development and tax relief for charitable donations. We liked also the provision to remove the Maori authority net deduction limit of 5 percent of net income which will mean that Maori authorities with a charitable trust or purpose will now be encouraged to put more money into organisations with a charitable purpose and get a tax benefit from investing in things like education grants and community support projects. 
We noted with concern though an issue raised by both the National Distribution Union and the New Zealand Nurses Organisation that young workers above the compulsory school leaving age or with an early release from school should be eligible to participate in KiwiSaver and that to deny them would be discriminatory. We note that the Finance and Expenditure Committee did not support the proposal which I guess is consistent with this Government’s decision to discriminate against youth workers generally by paying them at only 80 percent of the average wage. 
We note also an opinion confirmed by Maori voters who were asked who most effectively represented their views in Parliament. At the top of the list of 21 Maori MPs was the Maori Party’s Dr Pita Sharples and three of the top four MPs were from the Maori Party. Again nobody from Labour appeared. In fact the Minister of Maori Affairs—Labour’s most high-profile Maori MP—could barely scrape up 5 percent of the vote. 
We will support the second reading of this bill but will continue to raise issues of equity for young workers and support for those most in need in this country as part of our wider commitment to a fair and just society. Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker.