Logie Jan: KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLogie Jan: KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 21 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3785. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAN LOGIE (Green): I am a little bit at a loss as to whether it is even worth standing up to speak when all I can hear from that side of the House is a barrage of laughter and heckling and a round of applause for a speech that I think took less than a minute defending a policy that I think is actually indefensible. The last speaker Jami-Lee Ross stood up and tried to tell this House that the Government is being beneficent by taking half a billion dollars from some including very low-income people in this country who otherwise would have no savings whatsoever and are trying to survive and feed their kids while it gave tax cuts to the wealthiest people not that long ago and increased taxes by increasing GST on every New Zealander. This was not: “Take from here—this is the only place we can take it from to be able to give to this group.” There are other places. The Government could be more creative but it has not been. It has gone for the very easy option.I will say—and I have said it before—that when the economy is not working for everyone it is not working. We know this economy is not working when a quarter of a million children in this country are in poverty and when a measure which the Government is so proud of purporting to be $25 a week will not in fact be $25 a week in the hand for beneficiary families because they will be losing it through accommodation cuts and money being taken off in health costs and other abatements. So the Government is giving with one hand saying it is being so generous while it is taking with the other.I want to talk a little bit about inequality which is a real problem in this country. People in New Zealand are increasingly concerned about it. There are two types of inequality. It is a basic thing. There is inequality in relation to income and then there is inequality in relation to wealth. Income is pretty easy to understand. Wealth is something we do not talk about as much but in New Zealand the last survey that we—[Interruption]Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! If members want to maintain a discussion can they go to the lobbies.JAN LOGIE: Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. I do not think they care. I do not think they care what other people think. I think they are just so pleased and proud of themselves for taking this money away from people that they do not need to listen.In 2003 and 2004 the top 10 percent of New Zealanders owned 51.8 percent of the net wealth of all households in New Zealand. Those people in that category averaged about $835000 worth of wealth each. The top 1 percent had 16.4 percent of the wealth in this country and averaged about $2.6 million each in their wealth and yet the bottom 20 percent of New Zealanders had zero or little wealth and some were in debt. This policy which provided $1000 in savings for people may have been the only wealth they had—the only chance they had to have some savings. That has been taken away by this Government. It will have a compounding effect on inequality in this country.The Government is saying: “We can’t. We’ve got no choices if we’re going to give $25 a week to people who have children who are dying through income-related poverty.” I would remind this House and members on that side that the wealth of the richest person in New Zealand is worth $7 billion while 20 percent of this country have zero or little wealth and many of them are in debt. This is at the heart of what this bill is about—the Government contribution to KiwiSaver enables some people to actually get some savings. We know that KiwiSaver can contribute to increasing inequality because people who are earning the most will get the most from their employer contributions and therefore they are able to go ahead and their wealth will breed more wealth and it grows. However for the people on the lowest incomes who are not able to afford those weekly contributions to KiwiSaver their wealth or lack of wealth will stay there. This bill does not help inequality in this country.