Jones Shane: Taxation (GST and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Procedure Third Reading 
Jones Shane: Taxation (GST and Remedial Matters) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Procedure Third Reading 
[Volume:669;Page:16154] 
Hon SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 Kia ora ano tatou. To ensure that members on the other side of the Chamber realise the particular legislation we are dealing with I say that we are on Part 5 of the Taxation (GST and Remedial Matters) Bill which contains the amendments to the KiwiSaver Act 2006. I fear the quality of the debate is about to change as the Minister of Revenue Mr Dunne leaves. That comment is neither positive nor negative; I just leave it for members to dwell upon.  
I draw our attention to clause 220B “Information sharing”. During the course of the deliberations at the Finance and Expenditure Committee I was one of the members who expressed concern in relation to an earlier discussion document in which officials contemplated the provision of information to credit agencies in the private sector about the indebtedness of citizens and what obligations or disputes they might have such as the liabilities of parents who have fled to Aussie while their kids are still here or the filing of late tax returns and residual obligations that are being worked through. Fortunately this portion does not bring legislative life to that suggestion in the discussion document. But for the purposes of the KiwiSaver scheme it says it is possible—and I should imagine that it is absolute common sense—that there be the sharing and provision of information.  
It is always timely—and it is an important part of the role of the parliamentarian—to point out the danger of creep. The danger is that what seems to be an innocuous change or a modest regulatory amendment develops a momentum and life of its own. I guess I want to repeat to the Minister in the chair the Minister of Education and our colleagues on the other side of the Chamber that whenever we are dealing with information we must ensure that the procedures and parameters around who manages that information and the purposes for which the information is being sent or dedicated are tightly constrained.  
We all know as public figures that information when misused or information that might fall into the wrong hands can have a destructive impact on how fellow New Zealanders or the community may view our suitability for a role. Indeed it can be used for a host of improper purposes. The Minister and the officials need to be extremely sensitive to that. A number of parliamentarians by and large do not want to obfuscate or worsen the pathway ahead for the officials working on tax legislation but members should know that a host of us are regularly petitioned by garden-variety Kiwis about their dealings with the State agencies about whether information being provided to them is both accurate and completely comprehensive and about whether all the information that is being held is actually necessary.  
There is a reference here to initial steps to winding up the KiwiSaver scheme. I do not want to repeat what earlier speakers have said; my colleagues have made our point. A small forest has been cut down and transformed into the Supplementary Order Paper. Mr Cunliffe and others have highlighted that. But without a doubt these technical amendments presage a deeper more savage set of changes that are on the way. I am sure my senior colleagues will address that matter in more detail than I will but I cannot let my small contribution at this stage end without making the observation that I think there is a great deal of potency in the term “winding up of KiwiSaver scheme”. The attenuation and the weakening of KiwiSaver started from the moment that the last election was held and—unfortunately for us—lost.  
I believe we will hear a great deal more from other speakers as to whether these technical changes actually reflect a deeper agenda—that is the winding up of the KiwiSaver scheme as we know it.