English Bill: Taxation (Urgent Measures and Annual Rates) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
English Bill: Taxation (Urgent Measures and Annual Rates) Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:651;Page:257] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Prime Minister) 
: 
 Dr Cullen just cannot stand the idea that the National Party put a plan for the economy to the New Zealand public and they voted for it. It is a different plan to his plan. In fact people who are voting for the KiwiSaver changes tonight are voting for a KiwiSaver that will be fair. It will be fairer for the simple reason— 
Hon Member 
: Fairer? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: —it is—that Labour has never understood that most of the working-age population is not in KiwiSaver. Labour has always believed that the great battling New Zealand public should put their hands in their pockets to fund Labour’s latest little vote-catching scheme. We have changed the rules so that those New Zealanders get an opportunity to join KiwiSaver because if they are able to join KiwiSaver they will get the benefit of the subsidies provided by the Government. If they cannot join KiwiSaver which most working-age New Zealanders have not done they do not get one cent to help them with their saving. If they are working on the average wage trying to pay off a mortgage when interest rates have been rising and cannot afford to join KiwiSaver because they cannot give up almost 6 percent of their net pay each week—which a lot of people cannot; and they are the ones who did not vote for Labour because Labour would not listen to them—those people who are struggling to keep their heads above water on their mortgages now have a better chance. Because interest rates are dropping they may now be able to enter KiwiSaver at 2 percent. 
See Labour did not listen to those people. They listen only to the people who take the cash and say they are grateful. Those are the only people they listen to. Also through this debate we found out that Labour always intended KiwiSaver to replace national superannuation. That is why they have been talking about— 
Hon Member 
: We did not! 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Dr Cullen has been saying that his intention for KiwiSaver has been to make it like the Australian scheme. The Australian scheme is 9 percent KiwiSaver is 10 percent and that is how we should have it! The Australian scheme—as I pointed out to the House—replaces the public pension. It is viciously income-tested and asset-tested. New Zealand does not have income and asset-testing. We had a 20-year debate over it we have settled on universal superannuation and now in addition to that we are pre-funding it. So every year the New Zealand taxpayer puts $2.5 billion into the New Zealand Superannuation Fund to pre-fund national superannuation. That is staying where it is. That is part of the deal for retirement income. The KiwiSaver arrangements Labour had simply cut too many people out so we have changed them. 
The other example of Labour listening only to people who take its cash and are grateful is that of all those people in New Zealand who over the last 4 or 5 years have not benefited from Working for Families. The benefits of Working for Families for households with children have been significant: big increases in their net income—$100 or $150 a week in some cases. But people who earn under $44000 who have no children of whom there are 630000—battling Kiwis who voted Labour loyally for 10 years—got nothing. The strongest economic growth in a generation and they got nothing. Tonight we have listened to them and we have given them something so alongside families they now have the tax cuts and the share of the economic growth they should have had 10 years ago.