Hayes John: Taxation (KiwiSaver and Company Tax RateAmendments) Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Hayes John: Taxation (KiwiSaver and Company Tax RateAmendments) Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:639;Page:9475] 
JOHN HAYES (National—Wairarapa) 
: 
 I have heard some hypocrisy in my time and that last speaker definitely wants to take us back— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Clem Simich) 
: No use of that word please. I will not want an apology; just go ahead. 
JOHN HAYES 
: I thought I said “that last speaker”? 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Clem Simich) 
: Just carry on. 
JOHN HAYES 
: Thank you Mr Chair. Let me come back to the points being made by the last speaker. In my view this Government wants to take us back to the 1930s when we did not have a huge exodus from our country of people floating off to better terms and conditions in Australia. The Government wants to create the conditions that trap people here and stop them from leaving this country. 
 This is a control-freak Government. The 2005 “chewing gum Budget” tax cuts have now been abandoned. This Government is clearly saying to the community through this KiwiSaver legislation that it knows better than individual citizens how to spend their money. The Government has decided that people in my community in the Wairarapa should leave their money with the Government. They can spend it later; they cannot spend it now. 
The problem is that this control is unnecessary. What is necessary is that the Government stop its own excessive capturing and spending of the surplus wages that we might contribute to saving. The problem in this country is that Government spending is far too high. It is also not properly focused. I spent yesterday afternoon trying to help a member of my community in Masterton who is paying $230 a month for an unfunded Alzheimer’s disease drug. This person lives in rented accommodation is on a benefit gets the maximum disability allowance and does not have enough money to live on. How is that person going to engage in this savings scheme? I think of the standard person living in Kuripuni with four kids working for $11 or $12 an hour. Where is that person going to get the surplus from to contribute to this savings scheme?  
The reality is that at least half the people in this country who are actively engaged in the economy and are not on benefits are never going to have the surplus to engage in this scheme. What you are doing is grabbing savings and trying to capture people from leaving this country and going to Australia. You are trying to stem the outflow of people from this country by restricting their access to their own money. I am really concerned that a good proportion of my electorate who are in a low-decile economic group will never be able to afford your KiwiSaver scheme. The 1000 bucks you are going to throw in upfront will not make the slightest difference. My community wants jam to put on the bread not to give you the bread— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Clem Simich) 
: I do not need the bread. You must not refer to me. You do that by saying “you”. 
JOHN HAYES 
: This Government is locking up tax cuts and future pay increases. 
Let us see how much support this Government has when future generations of workers over the next 3 or 4 years say to their employers that they need a wage increase. For example yesterday a constituent said to me that there had been no change in their accident compensation levy since last year except for the bill which was up 17 percent. I think of every person in my community who is paying 12 to 20 percent rate increases on his or her property. Where will those people find the surplus to lock up in a savings scheme when they do not have sufficient money to put into their pockets now to meet their costs of living? 
As my colleague Lindsay Tisch said this scheme is about another tax imposition. It is a tax imposition on a community. It is a tax imposition on small business. The Government is saying that we have had 8 years of golden economic weather—but what is New Zealand doing? It is slipping down the OECD table. This Government has never had a better opportunity to increase standards of living—and what is it doing? It is sending us backwards. This savings scheme is going to send us further backwards. There will be a significant outflow of people from this community because they are going to say that there will be more Government control more bureaucracy and more people telling us what to do.