Robertson Grant: KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3866. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central):There is one member sitting in the House right now who knows all about how it feels to stop superannuation from being universal and that member is Nick Smith. He was here in the 1990s putting on the surcharge and getting asset testing in place. If there is any member in this House who understands what it means to rip apart universal superannuation it is Nick Smith. That is also the record of the National Government in terms of this piece of legislation. Let us not let anyone watching misunderstand that when KiwiSaver went through Parliament in 2006 there were one or two parties that had some concerns about it at the first reading and the votes were a bit split. The Greens and New Zealand First supported Labour’s bill all the way through. By the time we got to the third reading of the KiwiSaver Bill one party was left opposing it.Hon Ruth Dyson: Who was that?GRANT ROBERTSON: The National Party. That was who was left opposing it and it has consistently undermined the KiwiSaver system—until today when we come here to debate this commitment from the National Party to take incentives to save away from New Zealanders.I went to a lot of electorate meetings during the 2014 election campaign. Wellington Central is an electorate where there are plenty of interested people who come out—Chris Bishop: There are two meetings a night.GRANT ROBERTSON: —that is right—week after week. I think we had about 25 electorate meetings and I listened intently every night to Paul Foster-Bell and occasionally when he was indisposed to Chris Bishop. I listened intently. James Shaw was there; he will back me up on this. At not one of those meetings was there a reference to the fact that this would be happening—that KiwiSaver would be undermined and the incentive taken away. Not once was that mentioned in the election campaign. Not once has it been mentioned in the 6 months that have occurred since then. The National Party in a desperate clawing bid to make next year’s surplus look like it exists has decided to do this because this measure today will save the Government $175 million next year. And what is the figure of the surplus? It is $176 million. So there is a $1 million difference. You have heard of the Swedish rounding that happens at the supermarket when they round up and down. Well this is the “English rounding” to get you to a surplus—a $1 million surplus after the $175 million has been counted from this.This is a broken promise. This is a broken promise alongside a series of other broken promises in the Budget—the surplus promise for example and the promise that there would be no new taxes to which we will come very shortly. Apparently there were to be no new taxes; now we have three—another broken promise. John Key stood up in this House and said that debt would be paid down this year. No it will not. [Interruption] In fact the Budget documents tell us Mr O’Connor that it will be 2019 before any debt is paid down. Debt will be $93 billion by 2019 as well. That is another broken promise and this bill is a broken promise.At this time in the economic cycle this is the thing that New Zealanders will come to understand. This is as good as it gets—3 percent growth this year down to 2.4 percent by the end of the forecast cycle. Dairy prices are not recovering. There is no sign of a plan to grow exports—they are flat-lining as well. This is as good as it gets and at the time when it is as good as it gets what does National do? It takes to KiwiSaver. That is its plan. There is no plan to grow the economy in this Budget. What we have got is a “political management” Budget rather than a Budget to grow the economy and if ever there was of a symbol of that it would be this bill—a bill that takes away from the future. It steals $1000 from future generations. If there was any looking to the future in this bill it would be about initiatives to increase savings.David Bennett: Oh more spending—more spending.GRANT ROBERTSON: Here we go. David Bennett says: “More spending.” This is $1000 to give people some dignity in retirement. Mr Bennett have you got KiwiSaver? He is the one member who does not. He is the one member over there who does not have KiwiSaver. The rest of them all took their $1000. I think Todd Barclay was about 2 years old when the bill went through. He got his $1000 but they want to deny that to the rest of New Zealanders.At the very peak of the economic cycle we have 3 percent growth. In 2006 we had 3 percent growth in New Zealand. We had a surplus of billions and unemployment at under 4 percent. Now with a growth rate of 3 percent we have a deficit and we have unemployment nudging up towards 6 percent. This is as good as it gets. It goes downhill from here and on the other side of the House there is no plan to grow the economy.Chris Hipkins: Look at “Benson and Hedges” sitting together.GRANT ROBERTSON: That is right; a great combination Mr Hipkins. The thing about KiwiSaver is that it has been an enormous success. In 2008 when National came into Government it had already worked out after opposing it in 2006 that it was an enormous success. So National members made the commitment that there would be no major changes. Well there have been eight. This is the eighth change. This is another broken promise in a series of broken promises. National said that there would be no major changes and that is because KiwiSaver has been a runaway success.Every member of this House will recognise that New Zealand’s savings rate over many generations has been poor. We have not been good savers. One of Michael Cullen’s many significant legacies to this country is that he took the initiative to turn that round and despite John Key’s standing up in Parliament in 2006 and saying that Michael Cullen was “dreaming deluded and in La-La Land” if he thought that a quarter of New Zealand would have KiwiSaver it has vastly exceeded expectations. It has vastly exceeded the doomsaying of John Key. That is why KiwiSaver has been successful.How unfair is it that if you were lucky enough to sign up to KiwiSaver on Wednesday you got the $1000 kick-start? Young families that I know of here in Wellington who have been really excited about signing their kids up just after they are born and getting them involved—if they were lucky enough to do that on Wednesday great but if it was Thursday then the kick-start was gone even though the legislation has not even passed yet. There were amendments put up by members on this side of the House to say to the National Party that it should at least give people a chance—how about extending it out for a year or even 6 months? That suggestion was turned down. It was turned down because fundamentally this $1000 kick-start has been wildly successful at encouraging people to join the scheme.It is the people who need the kick-start the most—those on low incomes—who will be the most affected by this. The truth is that the choice to become a saver is a difficult one when you are on a low income. We know that saving has got a huge long-term benefit for people. We know that it has got a huge long-term benefit for people but it is a big challenge when you are on a low income. So the $1000 kick-start is the thing that makes the difference. Actually someone told John Key this the day after the Budget. A young woman at a teen parent unit—I saw it on the television—said after she had met John Key that she wanted to get into that scheme but that she just did not have the money to do it and the $1000 has been taken away. That is exactly the person out of whose pocket the National Government is today ripping $1000.The other people are the younger generation. I think it is exciting that when young babies are born their parents say: “Let’s start the nest egg today.” That is great. That is called building a savings habit. Cameron Bagrie the chief economist at the ANZ does not often agree with the Labour Party but today he has come out and said that the reason why we have got the incentive is to actually start the habit of saving. The problem is that if you get to 18 or 20 and you have not got that account set up with that $1000 then there will be much less of a chance that you will carry on with it. National members can reflect on as they sit over there the fact that those are the two groups that they are taking the opportunity away from today. They are taking $1000 away from those low-income earners and those younger people. We have had a lot of preaching from that side of the House since their late conversion to wanting to do something about child poverty. Well here is something you could do: actually give people on low incomes the chance to get that $1000 and to get that savings habit under way. This bill undermines one of the great retirement savings initiatives of New Zealand and the National Government should be ashamed of it.