Lees-Galloway Iain: KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLees-Galloway Iain: KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3825. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North):Let me start where the Minister left off. The Minister said that members on this side of the Chamber only know how to borrow. That is from a Minister of a Government that has been in Government for 7 long years and has borrowed for every single one of those 7 years. There has been $83 billion worth of debt amassed by that Government over there and it has the temerity to lecture this side of the Chamber the parties that ran the Government that got New Zealand into a zero net debt position for the first time in our history that ran 9 years of surplus 9 nil. That side of the Chamber cannot lecture us about borrowing because all the Government knows is how to borrow. It borrows so that it can afford tax cuts for its rich mates. That is what it borrows money for—so that it can afford tax cuts for its rich mates.The title of this bill is the KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill. I wonder whether any of the people who have come along and are sitting in the gallery on a Saturday morning watching this would have any idea reading that title what the KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill actually does. This title tells us nothing. This Government is perfectly capable of giving bills titles that tell us what they do. We had the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Bill. That told us what that bill was pretty much about. We had the Crimes (Match-fixing) Amendment Bill. I think we all knew what that one was about. Even the rather dry Dairy Industry Restructuring (Raw Milk Pricing Methods) Bill gave us a pretty good hint of what that bill did. I could probably spend hours reading out names of bills but I will not do that. The thing is what the Government does is it gives a bill a title that is meaningful when it is proud of it. The Government is not proud of this bill because it is hiding what the bill really does by giving it the driest most bland title that would not give anybody outside of this House the slightest hint of what this legislation does.I have got a better title. I would call this bill the “KiwiSaver Cut Bill (No 8)”—the “KiwiSaver Cut Bill (No 8)”. Because what it does is it implements the eighth cut to KiwiSaver that has occurred under this Government in less than 7 years—eight cuts in less than 7 years—although we are not that surprised because members on that side of the House hate KiwiSaver. They hated it when it was first brought in. They hate the idea of people in New Zealand saving for their future.It was the National Government under Muldoon that got rid of the Kirk Government’s superannuation scheme. This country would be unrecognisable to us today if that superannuation scheme had remained in place. We would not be so desperately reliant on foreign capital if that superannuation scheme had been left in place. But the National Party does not think of the future. The National Party never thinks of the future. The National Party is always worried about the next Budget and the next election the here and now. There is never a plan. It is always about how to retain power.Why is this the “KiwiSaver Cut Bill (No 8)”? Well cut No. 1 was to reduce the minimum contribution rate from 4 percent to 2 percent. What did the Government tell Kiwis at the time? It said: “Oh we are putting more money in your bank account by cutting your contribution rates from four percent to two percent.” That is actually like telling someone that you have taken money out of their savings account and put it into their cheque account and that you have given them more money. Actually it just shows that the only way this Government can think of getting more money into people’s bank accounts is not through economic growth is not through wage rises; it is from stealing from their superannuation scheme and putting it into their cheque account. That is the sum total of this Government’s plan.The second cut was to the member fee subsidy—$40 per annum. That was just a little sweetener to make sure that the fees that are charged by the outfits that run the KiwiSaver accounts did not eat away too much at your KiwiSaver savings. Of course the Government’s second cut was to remove that.The third cut was to cap the compulsory employer contributions at 2 percent. Again this was saying to employers that the Government wanted them to be able to hold on to more money not through growing the economy not through ensuring that businesses’ consumers had more money in their pockets so that there was more demand for their goods and they could employ more people and pay them well. No it was by taking money out of people’s savings accounts and putting it into the employer’s accounts.