Chauvel Charles: General Debate 
Chauvel Charles: General Debate 
[Volume:646;Page:15067] 
CHARLES CHAUVEL (Labour) 
: 
 I will talk a little bit today about KiwiSaver because it is a policy that I am really proud of. It was a great thing to be able to sit on the Finance and Expenditure Committee and watch KiwiSaver Mark II come through that committee into this Parliament. It is fantastic to see the take-up and the success that that policy is enjoying amongst New Zealanders. We heard today that nearly 500000 Kiwis are already saving through KiwiSaver and over 100000 young people have joined KiwiSaver despite the Leader of the Opposition’s confident predictions that they would not join it. So that is a wonderful thing. Also the KiwiSaver scheme has just had an evaluation report released last Thursday that shows it is attracting members from across all age groups all ethnicities and all income brackets and Kiwi savers are expected to become even more diverse as more of them join the scheme through automatic enrolment when they start a new job. It is very significant that on 1 April employers who are not already contributing will start to contribute to the fund at 1 percent. That really marks the sustainability point for this scheme because it is the point at which it becomes truly tripartite and that is a very important thing. 
I ask the National Party what its policy is on this fantastic scheme—KiwiSaver. Bill English backed away from issuing a policy at a superannuation conference yesterday. He was supposed to be giving a speech that was advertised as an opportunity to hear National’s policy stance on KiwiSaver. But what did the National Party’s spokesperson on finance say at the beginning of his speech? He started his speech by saying there would be no announcement on his party’s policy on this popular scheme. National’s slippery stance on KiwiSaver is looking more and more foolish by the day. National has voted—I have counted the votes in  
Hansard— 
40 times against KiwiSaver. It is the Muldoon years all over again. John Key predicted a low take-up but it was explained that he was always for KiwiSaver—despite him saying back in 2005 during the election debate that it is a terribly designed system. Well now he is not sure whether he supports it. That is just more indecision from Mr Key. What he says about the scheme will depend on whom he is talking to. What Kiwis need is clarity on the question of retirement savings not slipperiness from the National Party. We have put in place a sustainable scheme that is good for this country’s future. I call on the National Party to do the right thing and follow the nearly half a million New Zealanders and sign up to the scheme. 
I will talk about debt as well because that is the other interesting debate that is going on at the moment. I am very proud of the fact that Labour has reduced debt to prudent levels. We have had the longest period of economic expansion since World War II. The Government has been able to use that expansion to reinvest in public services and infrastructure to deliver tax cuts for families businesses and savers and to drive down Crown debt. As Clayton Cosgrove said earlier in this debate Crown debt now stands at less than 20 percent of GDP. That is down from over 35 percent 8 years ago when we were paying $2.3 billion per annum that we did not need to pay and could have been spending on schools hospitals roads—and we are spending it on those things now—just to service debt. That is why it matters. At the same time that we have been getting debt down we have been investing heavily in health education roading public transport and in providing over $4 billion per annum in tax relief for families businesses and savers. We have pursued a low-debt policy because we want to build a buffer against fiscal shocks in case we are entering darker economic times and we want to protect future generations. In providing that safety net that is exactly what we have done. If a downturn does occur Labour will not have to cut superannuation as Bill English did when he was the Treasurer on 1 April 1999. 
We need to know what the National Party’s policy on debt is. Mr Key has called for the raising of Government debt to 25 percent of GDP but Mr English says that that has never been one of National’s policies. He says that lifting Crown debt to 25 percent of GDP which is what Mr Key says he is comfortable with is not something National would regard as compatible with competent economic management—and it is not because lifting Crown debt to that level would add around $700 million a year in finance costs alone which is about what the Government has invested in new health services for each of the last 2 years. It is the Labour-led Government’s commitment to keeping our debt levels low and our refusal to borrow for today’s consumption that best demonstrate our belief in what New Zealand is truly capable of. Thank you. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.