Woolerton R Doug: KiwiSaver Bill — First Reading 
Woolerton R Doug: KiwiSaver Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:629;Page:1682] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 New Zealand First will be supporting the KiwiSaver Bill because we have long agreed with incentivised savings no matter how big or how small. I personally agreed absolutely with Lianne Dalziel when she said that one is missing the point if one goes to the technical aspects of the bill and ignores the ability of the bill to change behaviour. 
It saddens me somewhat—and I am not one for criticising other parties—to hear Mr Key say that National accepts that there is an aging population that we do not have a good savings record and all those sorts of things. Then I heard Mr Lockwood Smith going on about tax. I have lived through—and was a participant in—the days when the National Party’s mantra was that the free market would fix everything and that if we would just sit back get rid of all the Government institutions and leave it to business then everything would be all right. That mantra did not work then and it has never worked. Today the mantra we are hearing is: “If you cut tax everything will be fine. Leave it in the hands of the wealthy and everything will be all right.” Well it will not work in that way any more today than the so-called free-market mantra worked all those years ago. 
 One of the essential things in society for a Government to do is to send messages. If a Government is intent on sending messages it will also be intent on making sure those messages have something of a monetary nature to them. That is why we fine people who speed that is why we fine people who do wrong and that is why ultimately we put those people in jail—but we often find that jail does not work as well as a financial penalty. So it saddens me that the argument for and against the KiwiSaver scheme degenerates quickly in my opinion to one of technicalities. It is not about that. It saddens me that Mr Key who is a respected expert in the financial markets—and I personally do not have a problem with that; I respect his expertise and all the things he has done in a remarkable life so far—cannot accept that one does not have to be a financial expert to understand what is going on with this scheme. 
If we go down the road of analysing everything as a financial expert is wont to do we will miss the essential message that needs to go out to the other 90-odd percent of New Zealanders—and that is what the KiwiSaver scheme is about. I remember when I was in the National Party that there was a little blue membership book. The party probably still has it; I hope it does. It talked about a property-owning democracy. Is it still there? 
Hon Members 
: Yes. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: Yes it is. I believed in that and I believe in that today. But unfortunately for a whole number of reasons property ownership is not as widespread as it used to be. The trend lines are heading in the wrong direction and we need to fix that. We need to give messages that are understood not only by the financial market but by average Kiwis in particular the young when they are vulnerable at the start of their business or married lives and the aged who are vulnerable because if mistakes are made their ability to earn is not so great. I have already talked about the inability of most people to understand let alone participate in the financial market so messages are the things we have with the KiwiSaver scheme. 
New Zealand First has said all along that for our savings record to be changed we must have incentives. We must have surety that our savings will last forever. The importance of those savings is not so much in the return they will give people although that is obviously very important as it is in the surety that they will be there when people need them most. The KiwiSaver scheme will do that. New Zealand First has supported the savings scheme loosely known as the “Dr Cullen scheme” and that is proving to be a success but sadly it is another scheme that the National Party did not back or endorse in any fulsome manner at all. So New Zealand First believes in not only sending a message out but in the Government putting its money where its mouth is however small that amount of money is—and I agree with the National Party that it is not enough. 
A homeowner incentive of $1000 to get an account started or $5000 over 5 years is not enough and it will not be enough. I also agree with National that there will be changes to this scheme. But New Zealand First is not nearly as pessimistic about the number of people who will participate in it and we are not nearly as pessimistic about whether it will work. But we certainly believe that changes will be made over time and we have no problems with that as long as those changes are advantageous to participants and are not in the nature of making things worse for them. 
New Zealand First believes that over recent years people in the retirement sector of our community have become increasingly worried as people have spoken about there not being enough retirement funds for future years. It has been said that the first of the so-called baby boomers will use up all the funds and that there will not be enough money even for the rest of the baby boomers let alone for the generations to come. We do not subscribe to that pessimistic view either but we certainly believe that to take the worry out of people’s lives something that gives them surety needs to be put in place and this legislation does that. 
New Zealand First is certainly in favour of anything that encourages saving whether or not the scheme is perfect in its entirety. This scheme may not be perfect but it is certainly something we will support. It is certainly something we have spoken about since our party was formed in 1993 and we will continue to keep speaking about it in spite of the pessimists in the National Party.