Wall Louisa: KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWall Louisa: KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3828. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa):Kia ora Mr Chair. Thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute to this Committee stage debate on the KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill. I will talk about some alternative titles later but I just want to provide some context for this piece of legislation. We have 4.41 million people in New Zealand and of those 2350000 are enrolled in KiwiSaver. Of those people who are enrolled 352000 are zero to 17-year-olds. So actually our children have engaged in this process and are taking advantage of KiwiSaver because like us we want them to prepare for the future. Seventy-eight percent are not enrolled. That is 2.12 million people but within that cohort actually 338000 people have opted out. So this bill actually has relevance to 1.7 million New Zealanders—that is the 40 percent of New Zealanders who are not enrolled in KiwiSaver. I would like to highlight the fact that of those not enrolled New Zealanders who earn under $30000 are actually the most disadvantaged. They are the ones who have chosen not to opt into KiwiSaver presumably because of their circumstances.I want to take the opportunity to also highlight the Greens’ Supplementary Order Paper 81 which would retain the $1000 kick-start contribution for those holding a community services card. Why that cohort? Because actually that is the cohort of low to middle-income earners who are not engaging. So it is very much about ensuring that those who are not in the system have opportunities to participate. I have been looking at the Inland Revenue Department’s report Who is enrolling in KiwiSaver?. It is dated February 2015 and it was prepared by the KiwiSaver Evaluation Steering Group. Of most relevance to me is that of the New Zealanders who have chosen to enrol there are three enrolment types. The first enrolment type is people who enrol directly with a provider. So 40 percent of people who enrolled with KiwiSaver did so with a provider. Forty percent of people are automatically enrolled and 22 percent opt in.The rest of my speech is going to be focused on that particular cohort—the 40 percent of people who automatically enrol. These are 18 to 64-year-olds who are in new jobs with a new employer and where that job is either full-time permanent part-time or it has got some sense of longevity to it. Here are some of the titles that I think this bill should have actually. If you are auto-enrolled this bill could be the “KiwiSaver (If You Are Single and Aged Between 18 and 24 We Don’t Care About You) Bill” because it is that cohort that is automatically enrolled.This bill could also be called the “KiwiSaver (If You Are Māori and Pacific Islander You Are Not Our Priority) Bill” because again it is Māori and Pacific Islanders who automatically enrol. This could be the “KiwiSaver (If You Are Secondary School - Educated Hard Luck) Bill” because actually hard luck to you. You have got only a secondary school education so too bad; we are going to take this opportunity away from you.This could also be called the “KiwiSaver (If You Are Working in Lower White-Collar Positions Work Longer Hours to Feed Your Family) Bill”. How about we title it that? What about this one: the “KiwiSaver (If You Are Working in the Retail Trade and Accommodation Industry Get More Tips) Bill” because you have got to go and do things yourself. Obviously this Government does not care about you. Finally what about the “KiwiSaver (If You Are Earning $35000 or Less in Employment Income Be Grateful With What You Have Got) Bill”?From our perspective there is a lack of analysis of this piece of legislation in terms of whom this piece of legislation is going to hurt the most. This Government likes to stand on platitudes and talk about helping people out of hardship helping people to create a better life for themselves and their families. But this report actually proves that it does not care that this is all about saving money and that at the end of the day evidence like this which they have should have gone to whoever is responsible for inland revenue and you should know the impact of this piece of legislation on the specific New Zealanders who are now going to have these opportunities taken away from them. If you out there think—