Moroney Sue: New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 30 June 2015. Volume:707;Page:4900. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour):It is indeed a pleasure to rise and speak. I think I am the first female speaker in the Committee stage of the bill. The reason I raise that is because actually when it comes to superannuation women disproportionately rely on superannuation payments. During the course of our lifetimes on average we earn less than men do during the course of our working lives and we live longer. So this bill is of particular importance to the women of New Zealand so on that basis I am very pleased to take a call. I am a little disappointed in this bill because I thought the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Amendment Bill may well have been the bill that saw the Government fix up its mistake of stopping contributions to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. I had hoped that that was what this bill would do. Unfortunately it does not amend that particular big and costly mistake from the National Government. It does not reinstate the contributions.Christopher Bishop when he spoke gave an excuse for that and said it was because it would be remiss of the Government and wrong of it to have borrowed money to keep those contributions going in the midst of a recession. Well Mr Bishop why did your Government borrow for tax cuts in the midst of a recession? Actually what we know about the New Zealand Superannuation Fund is that the sorts of benefits coming from it the wise investments that were being made and the return on that investment would have been a better thing to borrow money for in the midst of a recession than to have tax cuts that simply went nowhere built no increase in our economy and did not create any jobs or do any of the things that they said it was going to do.Chris Bishop: Rubbish. You’ve got no idea what you’re talking about.SUE MORONEY: Well the member might well say “Rubbish.” but he is here debating a bill where National—I think that is the sound of National confessing that the Labour Party gets future planning better in this country that what National can. National said 15 years ago that the Labour Party was wrong to do this and that Dr Michael Cullen was wrong to implement this fund. Fifteen years later here they are saying yes it was a dog all right—it was a greyhound. It was a fast-running dog and it was one that got this country ahead of many other countries—many many other countries indeed. I think that is the sound of the National Party saying: “Sorry we are too focused on short-term gains and can’t see what the future looks like.” It is in fact the Labour Party that gets this right consistently time and time again. I am sure that is what the sound of that speech was.Part 1 of this bill sets up these fund investment vehicles and what the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation can do to take some more control of those fund investment vehicles. I cannot stand today in this Chamber and talk about superannuation and vehicles without pointing out to the Committee that one of the reasons that New Zealanders are going to rely so heavily on the outcomes and the proceeds of the investment that this bill talks about is because superannuitants are going to be paying the highest level of vehicle registration under the changes that that Government is going to bring in tomorrow. Most superannuitants are going to be paying $158 for their car registration.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): Come back. Come back.SUE MORONEY: So that is why Part 1 of this bill is so important. I am going to disagree—as I quite frequently do actually—with David Bennett. When he spoke he said the reason why we have this and why we have the Superannuation Fund is all about Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation. Actually no Mr Bennett the reason why we have this fund is for people. It is so they can live in some level of dignity and respect when they retire and when they reach their older ages. It is something that I am very proud of and that the Labour Government put in place against vehement opposition from the then Opposition the National Party. But we did it because we knew that this was going to be something that would see New Zealanders looked after in their older age. The great pity of this bill is two things really: the National Government has not used this opportunity to reinstate the contributions to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund that us baby boomers are going to need in our older age and secondly it has demonstrated the chaos that National is still in—the day-to-day chaos when the National MPs on the committee recommended one course of action but the finance Minister has done them over.