Lotu-Iiga Peseta Sam: Taxation (Annual Rates Trans-Tasman Savings Portability KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee 
Lotu-Iiga Peseta Sam: Taxation (Annual Rates Trans-Tasman Savings Portability KiwiSaver and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:666;Page:13467] 
PESETA SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie) 
: 
 I rise to support this bill as a Government member. But before I talk about the bill I want to straighten out a few facts that Mr Nash the member opposite who has just spoken did not quite understand or maybe he was deliberately distorting the representations made by Mr Foss and Mr Gilmore. Mr Gilmore referred to rates for a year—not $25 per week. The reference to $25 per week was a reference to our tax cuts. He said that there would be tax cuts of a minimum of $25 a week. I ask Mr Nash not to distort the picture or the representations made by my colleague Mr Gilmore please. 
Secondly Mr Nash said that Labour was not a party that would increase GST. He forgets that Labour was the Government that imposed GST from zero to 10 percent. It was a Labour Government that increased GST in 1989 from 10 percent to 12.5 percent. I do not understand the views of Labour members today. Some Labour members oppose it and some are asking for an increase. I do not know where Labour members stand today. I do not know who is leading the Labour Party today but there is certainly some conjecture and uncertainty on the cross benches. 
We also heard this morning that there was no plan yet in this House Labour members regularly ignore the fact that we have set out a plan for the building of infrastructure we have set out a plan for the taxation mix to promote investment and savings in this country we have set out a plan for increasing the standards in education and we have set out a plan for delivering front-line services in health and other social services. Members opposite choose to ignore the plan. Members opposite choose not to listen to the people. Why is that? 
After 9 long years of a Labour regime when we have export growth that has been negative now for 5 consecutive years I ask how we will get this economy moving. How can we get an economy moving when exports year on year are decreasing? How do we get our real wages moving in comparison to Australia’s when for the last 9 years under a Labour Government we had an average wage growth of 3 percent? I ask Mr Foss how much it was. 
Craig Foss 
: 3 percent. 
PESETA SAM LOTU-IIGA 
: It was 3 percent. Yet in the less than 2 years that this Government has been in charge of the Treasury benches our wage growth has been—I ask Mr Foss— 
Craig Foss 
: 8.7 percent. 
PESETA SAM LOTU-IIGA 
: —8.7 percent. We know that 2 years is not enough time to turn round this economy. We know that we have a job to do as the National Government and we know that we have had to sort out the mess that we inherited from members opposite. 
I return to the bill. The bill is supported across the House despite the protestations from members opposite. The bill opens the way for New Zealanders who have worked hard in Australia to bring their retirement savings home and that is particularly important. They are able to bring their retirement savings home. Of course there is reciprocity in this bill. Australians who live here can take their savings home. But we all know that the benefits of this bill will largely be felt by New Zealand citizens who are returning home. 
The bill is about allowing people who have made compulsory contributions to an Australian fund to return those funds home. The funds are required to be put into KiwiSaver accounts. That is important because it will ensure that in the long term those funds are invested in our superannuation scheme. This bill improves the plight of New Zealanders and obviously I commend it to the House.