Cosgrove Clayton: Taxation (KiwiSaver HomeStart and Remedial Matters) Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCosgrove Clayton: Taxation (KiwiSaver HomeStart and Remedial Matters) Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 24 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2530. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour): There are times when the Green Party and I have disagreed on some things but I have got to say that that last contribution summed up I think the piffle that this bill is.This is the National Party’s big hit—this is the big hit from the National Party. The National Party effectively is telling voters—typical of the National Party to give with one hand and take with the other—in this bill that out of the generosity of its heart people can unleash or will be able to withdraw their retirement savings to use as a deposit on a home loan. But in return for sacrificing their retirement savings the extra amount that people could withdraw as a result of this bill would be equivalent to less than 1 month of Auckland house-price inflation. That is how generous these guys are: the $521 which the Green colleague was talking about is worth less than 1 month of Auckland house-price inflation. So when Government members talk about the 90000 people who are supposed to sort of go down on their knees and thank the National Government for its great generosity—it is equivalent to less than 1 month of Auckland house-price inflation.You have got to say that as a Minister—Nick Smith has been in and out of the Cabinet half a dozen times and I have been a Cabinet Minister—what you look for from official advice is some sort of affirmation. You turn to officials in your ministry who are the specialists the people with skills and you say to them: “Look is what I am about to propose going to work?”. Well he did that and their words will hang around his neck as a political epitaph. When we asked the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment officials as other colleagues have said in the select committee “How good is this going to be?” the best they could do was call it “tentatively positive”. Well that is a ringing endorsement! Maybe the official who answered had calculated that if he unlocked his KiwiSaver he would have the equivalent of less than 1 month’s housing inflation towards a deposit. No wonder he was “tentatively positive”. That was the official advice.But worse than that when you look at the overall advice by the various Government agencies the cracker for me is where they say: “Increasing deposit subsidies is likely to stimulate demand and thus increase prices in supply-constrained markets thereby undermining housing affordability.” We had a great lecture on what a market does from that genius from the Government David Bennett and he explained to us in his own fifth form economics type of way what a market does. The problem for poor old David Bennett is that he did not read the advice from specialist economists advising him and his own Minister that this is a dud. Then the advice goes on: “The higher income caps shift the government’s support from low to medium-income households to virtually all households.” And it goes on to say: “Half of the eligible sales last year were in areas where housing affordability is not an acute issue.”So these guys have come up with an absolute cracker. Their gift to those people who want to get on the housing ladder is less than 1 month’s Auckland housing inflation—$500 and some—and they expect the people of New Zealand to go down on bended knee and be grateful for that. This is the big hit we are told. They talk about 90000 people. Well at best you might get 90000 people who get 500 bucks a month per year towards a deposit as the Green colleague said of over $100000. How generous is that?So I say to the National members as Andrew Little said to your leader “Cut the crap.”—cut the crap.” I think I know which turkey is going to call for the early Christmas—the speaker who is going to benext. I would like him to get up and address and rebut the official advice from his own Government’s agencies that says that this bill is a dunger. We will support the bill because I suppose 520 bucks once a year is better than no bucks once a year. But let us not dress it up. This is mutton dressed up as mutton from the National Party; nothing more nothing less. The ashen-faced performances of such enthusiasm by people like Jami-Lee Ross and that economic genius David Bennett the man who knows everything about markets do not alter the fact that this bill is a dunger. It is $521—[Interruption] Mr Ross can laugh. I ask him to get up and take a call and tell us how 1 month’s—Jami-Lee Ross: I have taken a call today.Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE: Have another one mate; have another one. We will do you slowly. How is less than 1 month of Auckland housing inflation going to help the average New Zealander get into a home? The bill is a dud and it is a con.