Cunliffe David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCunliffe David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 18 June 2014. Volume:699;Page:18607. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]1.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Leader of the Opposition)to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by his reported statement that “if New Zealanders saved more the money could go into the productive sector and fund new companies and investments”?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Acting Prime Minister): Yes. I find it a lot easier to stand by my statements than that member does to stand by his.Hon David Cunliffe: Will he stand by his position that New Zealand needs to increase its national savings and that he is not ruling out a move to a compulsory savings system?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The Government has ruled out a move to a compulsory savings system because most of the people who can save effectively through KiwiSaver are already in it and most of the people who are out of it have opted out because they are unable to save.Hon David Cunliffe: Why did the Prime Minister earlier say that he was not ruling out a move to compulsory savings and has now told the House that he has?Hon BILL ENGLISH: There has been quite a bit of discussion about that issue and the Prime Minister has been remarkably consistent which is quite different from the discussion about donations in which that member has been remarkably inconsistent.Hon David Cunliffe: Does he agree with his finance Minister that there is an expectation that people “will be doing better than zero pay increases”; if so would he expect those to take effect before 1 October 2015?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Yes the Prime Minister does agree with the finance Minister which is a better effort than that member who seems to have trouble agreeing with himself.Hon David Cunliffe: Has the Prime Minister or perhaps his finance Minister put a figure on an acceptable level of a pay increase; if so what is it or are they taking advice from Mr Joyce?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I presume the member is referring to the pay increase for Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment staff who were in industrial action yesterday. The Government has focused on managing the economy so that it can produce more growth and therefore higher incomes. Of course the process by which any family or individual person gets a pay increase depends on their employer the workplace they are in or the market into which they are selling goods or services. Those are matters best worked out by them.Hon David Cunliffe: If the Prime Minister is so worried that people are struggling to get by why does he not adopt Labour’s policy of immediately increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour or is he just crying crocodile tears?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The Government has just recently—I think it was just 3 months ago—increased the minimum wage and in an economy where there is consistent growth we will be able to continue to increase the minimum wage.Louise Upston: What sorts of tax changes would have an effect on household savings in New Zealand?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The Government has made a number of tax changes which have had a positive effect on savings. In 2010 we reduced the tax on work the tax on profits and the tax on savings which enables all households to get a better return to saving. Other tax changes such as a widespread capital gains tax could actually have the effect of reducing savings because as I understand it the proposition for a capital gains tax is that it would apply directly to funds managed in KiwiSaver accounts which means that gains currently being made by the growing investment through KiwiSaver would become subject to a capital gains tax thereby reducing future savings.Hon David Cunliffe: What is the Prime Minister doing to help people in the regions save when they are being punished by interest rate rises increases that the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research says is a huge mistake and risks tipping them into recession?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The Government has been very supportive of the regions through policy that enables them to make the best of their resource-based economies. In fact we have been strong advocates for the regions in a fairly similar way to the way the Leader of the Opposition was a strong advocate for Mr Donghua Liu as we discovered today.Mr SPEAKER: Order!