O'Connor Damien: KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Connor Damien: KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3807. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR (Labour—West Coast - Tasman):There is an old saying “Follow the money.” and so too with this piece of legislation. This country was built on capital from England coming into this country and we have been told for many many years that we have been very poor savers. So that terrible Tory Robert Muldoon destroyed what was a Labour Party initiative through the good work of Kirk and Rowling to build up a superannuation scheme and savings that would have given our country proper savings and proper investment funds. The terrible Tory Muldoon destroyed that and so too does this Tory Government intend to destroy the savings scheme we have. Michael Cullen brought in KiwiSaver Kiwibank and the Superannuation Fund to offer us security in superannuation and to encourage savings that would have given this country real investment capital—and indeed that has occurred. But what we have got now is a Tory Government intent on destroying that savings ethic. It is not the $1000 that has given real effect here to the cuts; it is the disincentive to the hundreds of thousands of Kiwis out there who have wanted to get into KiwiSaver. This will destroy that incentive. Why? Well follow the money.If we have as we do now a building capital fund to invest in our future to take ownership of our own assets we can control our own destiny. But I will tell you what—if you are a Tory a money trader or a traitor you do not want that. You do not want that. So what we have got is Jenny Shipley Chris Tremain and Don Brash in charge now of Chinese banks that are coming in to this country with trillions of dollars available to invest in New Zealand. KiwiSaver the Superannuation Fund and Kiwibank are the only fair honest New Zealand players to counter that investment. What this bunch of terrible Tories is doing is exactly the same as Robert Muldoon did: undermining the ability of New Zealanders to invest in our future through a building capital fund that has real wealth and real capability.I think it is an absolute outrage that the Government is taking from New Zealanders from young New Zealanders the incentive to invest in the future not just in their own personal accounts but in the building of a capital fund that can invest in the value-added investment we need. In fact we have got Ruth Richardson in the ANZ bank trotting around the country at the moment saying two things: firstly that cooperatives are no good so get rid of Fonterra; the second thing she is saying is that we need billions of dollars to grow this economy into the future. And who is going to provide that? Oh your mate Jenny Shipley through her Chinese bank your mate Chris Tremain through a Chinese bank and Don Brash as well. The Tory Government in power now wants to undermine the growing focus on savings and investment from within this country. I think it is an outrage and I think this is a treacherous act that might seem on the face of it just fiscal responsibility.As the bill says quite honestly this “will achieve significant fiscal savings” but then it goes on to say a ridiculous statement that cutting back this $1000 “will therefore improve the value for money of this KiwiSaver scheme.” This is about undermining the objectives of the KiwiSaver scheme. It is about undermining the savings ethic of a country that has just started to realise the value in that. And the Tory mates in here and the ones out there are conspiring to ensure that we are fed a diet of foreign investment in capital rather than that built up by our own people for our own future. This is an outrageous piece of legislation and I am sure Nick Smith is going to get up on his hind legs and say it is wonderful. Justify what Jenny Shipley is doing. Justify how you can take a $1000 incentive away from the young New Zealanders who want to own their own future.