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:3829. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAN LOGIE (Green):Thank you Mr Chair that was a great decision. I am happy to take a call on the Committee stage of the so-called KiwiSaver Budget Measures Bill which as has already been well canvassed has very little meaning and conveys very little meaning to anyone.I have several alternative titles for this bill which I would like to explore in this Chamber. My first one is the “It’s Working So Let’s Fix It Bill” because actually we know that New Zealand has a massive problem with savings or a lack of savings. It has been much worse than what it is now. My colleague James Shaw has already mentioned that New Zealand is 22nd out of 24 countries in the OECD in terms of low levels of savings. So in international comparisons we have a real problem and this shows up quite significantly in our current account deficit. We have seen it over time in New Zealand. The Committee might be interested to know that household savings per capita in 1992 were $752 which is not particularly high. But you might be even more interested to know that in 2006 before KiwiSaver was brought in household savings per capita were negative $1359. We were in a crisis in terms of household debt at that point which is what triggered the introduction—I understand; I was not really involved at that time—of KiwiSaver. Now since we have had KiwiSaver the levels of household savings are up to $627 per capita so we are not even back to the point we were at in 1992.I have some ambivalence over KiwiSaver. I will admit that upfront because we live in such an incredibly unequal society where so many people are surviving well below the breadline in poverty. We know that a quarter of a million children are living in poverty and we know that so many workers the majority of whom are women Māori Pasifika and migrant workers are in precarious work living below that poverty line as well and that two out of five children living in poverty are in families who are working.So in that context KiwiSaver is a voluntary scheme—it would be even worse if it was a compulsory one. When people are struggling to put food on the table KiwiSaver actually exacerbates inequality in some ways because those who are earning the most are able to contribute the most and get more contributions from their employers so their KiwiSaver savings go up. That is good for our current account deficit that is good for our household capital accumulation but it is not necessarily good for addressing inequality.However this $1000 kick-start incentive actually is something that goes right across the board in terms of that universalism and is available to workers who cannot necessarily afford who cannot sacrifice food on the table to make weekly contributions for their future well-being. It is available to beneficiaries and the children of beneficiaries whom we want to have the chance to get a leg up. So choosing this mechanism to remove this is actually the worst possible thing that the Government could do in relation to KiwiSaver’s impact on addressing inequality.Another idea I had for this bill following on from the rather hilarious contribution I thought from the New Zealand First member who suggested this could be renamed the “OMG YOLO No Future Bill”—I had to be able to say that out loud; it was a pure moment in the Chamber for me. But I would suggest that another possibility for this title could be the “Boom—Your Incentive Is Gone Bill”. Sorry I did not manage to carry that off.Hon Member: Boom.JAN LOGIE: Boom—no I still cannot carry it off. But the point is real. This has come out of nowhere. I have heard from people just on my Facebook thread who were in the process—