Logie Jan: KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLogie Jan: KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3806. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAN LOGIE (Green):I rise to take a call on the second reading of the KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill. Traditionally in Parliament second readings are the time when we reflect on the select committee process when we feed back what submitters have raised with the committee. After consideration and debate within the committee we reflect on those discussions in the House and the amendments to the bill that have happened as a result of that. Of course because again this is happening under urgency this speech is not able to be as fully developed as it would have been otherwise and the public have not had that opportunity to have input.So what I would like to focus on in this speech are the few comments I have been able to gather from people in New Zealand through Facebook on their views on this initiative.Hon Annette King: Real submissions.JAN LOGIE: Yes some actual submissions. That is what I am going to do in this speech. The first one is actually not necessarily disagreeing with the Government’s view and what it is doing here. This is an academic whom I know who is saying: “I am in mixed minds. I think it’s very disappointing they have further downgraded the incentive for people to save for their old age. But at the same time I’d be interested in seeing the demographics of those enrolled in KiwiSaver to know whether the kick-start was effectively operating as a wealth transfer from the poor to the rich in which case removing the kick-start would bother me less than if it was operating the other way. Now I’d like to see that evidence from the Government so that actually this country and this Parliament can make a considered decision around that.”Some of the other comments from now on are a bit clearer on their view about this initiative. Brenda Pilott ex-head of the Public Service Association is saying: “It’s an inexplicable move. We’re told that it’s vital people create savings for their retirement and KiwiSaver has been a great success partly due to this incentive. It makes no sense to cut it.” Another person Jacob is saying: “I feel like it’s making things harder for us future generations to save up for housing and retirement. This was a positive boost from the Government which I saw as a good incentive to join but now I’m like ‘Why join?’ I might as well just put my money into a savings account and then I can use it when I want however I want and it won’t be there for retirement.”Another person is saying: “Before KiwiSaver was introduced I’d never saved a cent in my life. I decided to join because of the kick-starter and have now got a tidy wee sum accumulating every month and I feel proud of that.” So the incentive the kick-start was an incentive for somebody to save for the first time in their life and that is backed up by policy advice from the Inland Revenue Department.Another person was saying: “They should have given 3 months for those of us who were halfway through the paperwork for our kids to have a chance to get this incentive.” So the fact that this has been brought in without any notice means that some people were halfway through the paperwork to get this incentive for their children and they have missed out. So again as raised by my colleague I would like to hear the justification for that.We have heard from Government members that “Two and a half million people have signed up. Really—how many more people are going to do it?”. Well some people were halfway through doing it. Somebody else is saying on that point: “Glad I took advice from the bank when I opened up an account for my daughter. But I hadn’t got on to it for my baby. Gutted she missed out.” One other person says: “Yeah working for the people huh? Note the kids these days just got set back yet another grand to buy that house they’ll never have because some old dudes in Parliament wanted a teeny surplus. Pathetic.” Another person is saying: “So this cut’s going to fund our $200 million fight against ISIS. What are you not telling us John?”.These are some of the views of New Zealanders and again we have been told by this Government that there is no choice but to do this if it is going to be fiscally responsible. It is interesting what it focuses on and what it is not focusing on in that discussion.