Woolerton R Doug: KiwiSaver Bill — In Committee 
Woolerton R Doug: KiwiSaver Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:633;Page:4945] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 New Zealand First supports Part 5 of the KiwiSaver Bill. We heard before that the Crown will not be responsible as there is no guarantee on the Crown’s part for the default providers. I guess that answers the issue I brought up a bit earlier that it will tend to be the bigger financial firms that will participate in the KiwiSaver scheme. Also this part outlines—and this is very important—that the employer is not to be the financial adviser or is not to give advice to the employee when it comes to which provider to choose. Sadly employees will probably have to go off to Craig Foss once he gets kicked out of Parliament and takes up his advisory role again. That is what will happen. There will not be a situation when by default the employer becomes the adviser and he or she is asked to give advice to the employee. I am certainly thankful for that. 
Just before Mr Copeland was taking all of the credit for including the mortgage diversion scheme in the bill. It is no wonder that the public sometimes gets confused because somebody was taking credit for something that members on the other side of the Chamber have spent most of the night dissing but that is the way it goes. In the course of that exchange across the Chamber Mr Copeland suggested that John Key if ever he could get anywhere near the financial portfolio as a member of a Government would change this bill. But I suggest that this would not be the case. In fact I have seen it in print that this is not the case—if we can believe whatever is in print. I do not know whether the president of my party was having a bad dream or what but I have just seen a whole lot of stuff that he put in print that I could not believe. I am not sure that what I read was correct. I read that Mr Key said it is most unlikely that the National Party would throw out this scheme. I am pleased to hear that because this is a scheme for the long term. It is a scheme to change the saving habits of New Zealanders and it should be looked on in that light. 
Following that exchange Mr Foss was talking about the providers. He said the Government had made sure that the default providers would be looked after. He was saying then—and it was a little bit contradictory—that providers would look on KiwiSaver as a loss leader for them to sell other financial products to these people. I say good good and good because that is what the bill is about. It is about involving people in the financial world who have not been involved hitherto and otherwise would not be. I think it is good that these companies may go on to sell them some insurance or whatever else or to add to— 
Craig Foss 
: Reverse mortgages! 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: Even the mortgage. They could even add to that sort of thing. In relation to the mortgage diversion scheme—and I am trying to cover a lot of things quickly because I transgressed a wee while ago and went over other ground—Mr Copeland said that he took credit for the mortgage diversion scheme. I just want to say that we should not get hung up on one line of thought because it is possible preferable and desirable that people save at the same time as they are paying off their mortgage. If there is a scheme whereby they can have a diversion for a wee while and pay some money to a mortgage and some to a savings scheme I think that is what happens in real life. Even though it came in at a late stage even though Mr Copeland will take all the credit for it and even though the National Party is dissing it mercilessly New Zealand First will stay staunch and support it. 
The other thing I want to mention that may be interesting to people as we go through this consideration is that we have an interesting situation in that the Inland Revenue Department will be taking a huge administrative role. That is not something that is new but it is something that is becoming increasingly prevalent.