Robertson Grant: Taxation (Budget Tax Measures) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Robertson Grant: Taxation (Budget Tax Measures) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:654;Page:4022] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 I want to address Part 2 of the bill which closes the KiwiSaver mortgage diversion facility. In particular I want to talk about the extent to which the public of New Zealand were aware of the fact that Part 2 would be coming before the House in this term. 
We can refer to what the National Party said about KiwiSaver in this interesting document that I hold in my hand which some members may be familiar with. This document lists the personal commitments of John Key to the public. We have already heard about the signed tax cut commitments. So what was said about KiwiSaver? I am checking whether closing the mortgage diversion facility was included within these commitments. The document states: “Encourage people to save for their retirement while making it fairer and more affordable for everyone in these tighter economic times by retaining KiwiSaver with contributions at the 2% plus 2% level.” Well leaving aside the generous interpretation of what the commitment states National would actually do with KiwiSaver—because it did not indicate that National would gut it would cut it in half which was what was done under urgency before Christmas—it does not talk about closing mortgage diversion. It does not talk about what is in Part 2. 
It would be interesting to know—perhaps from the Minister in the chair Peter Dunne or from a member on the other side of the Chamber—what promotion was done of the mortgage diversion scheme. We can see that it was not in one of John Key’s personal commitments. I have not seen a great deal of promotion of the mortgage diversion part of the KiwiSaver scheme. I acknowledge that it was brought in under our Government but I think members opposite may want to consider that and take a call to tell us how they thought the New Zealand public would find out about it. 
I think it is important to set mortgage diversion in the wider context of KiwiSaver. KiwiSaver is as the Minister in the chair noted a very popular scheme. It is a scheme that many New Zealanders have wanted to be part of. They have joined up and over a million New Zealanders belong to the scheme now and that is a good thing. But what are New Zealanders to make of what will happen to them in their retirement? Part 2 takes out mortgage diversion and overall there is the delay in Government contributions to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. That is part of the context of mortgage diversion of KiwiSaver. New Zealanders need to know what they will be entitled to in the future in terms of remuneration in their retirement. 
On Budget day yesterday we saw New Zealanders provided with an enormous amount of uncertainty about the future. The Government contributions will now be delayed for up to 11 years. What will happen then? The baby boomers will have retired. What will happen to the next generation of people? What kind of money is being put aside to ensure that future generations in New Zealand will have a secure retirement? KiwiSaver is an important part of that and both sides of the House now acknowledge that. The previous Labour Government was proud to bring KiwiSaver in and the Minister in the chair being part of that Government was part of that. The mortgage diversion scheme was an aspect of it. Perhaps now from the arguments we have heard here there is some justification for what is being done in Part 2 but there is no justification for removing the Government contributions to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund because that fundamentally undermines the security of retirement of New Zealanders. We know that the New Zealand public have once again been misled by the National Party. 
In respect of Part 2 we are not sure whether closing mortgage diversion was put before the public previously. Certainly in none of the pre-election meetings I was at did I hear about mortgage diversion. It was not even mentioned. I heard a lot about tax cuts. I heard a lot about the fact that taxes would be cut in 2010 and in 2011. I even heard about KiwiSaver generally and the fact that it would be reduced because that was going to pay for the tax cuts. Unfortunately that is not happening today. KiwiSaver has been cut in half public services have been cut and the tax cuts have gone. It is the triple whammy. Closing the mortgage diversion element probably is the right thing to do on balance given what we have heard from Mr Dunne today but I am extremely sure that the public of New Zealand did not know about it and that the National Party did not put it before the country. 
Here we are sitting in urgency once again going through changes that the National Government feels need to be done—undoing what it has already done in urgency. In December we along with the entire planet were aware of the extent of the global recession and the National Government put in place tax cuts that it knew were unaffordable. It knew they were unaffordable it knew they were an election bribe yet it put them in front of the country in urgency. We are sitting again in urgency repealing what was put in place in urgency and removing the mortgage diversion scheme without actually going to the public about it.