KiwiSaver auto-enrolment: the new election issue

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Wed, 03 Aug 2011 6:00p.m.

John Key says the Govt is considering compulsory KiwiSaver enrolment

John Key says the Govt is considering compulsory KiwiSaver enrolment

By Patrick Gower

The Government is pushing policies that could see up to a million New Zealanders automatically enrolled in Kiwisaver, and the superannuation scheme is shaping up to be a big election issue.


Mainfreight managing director Don Braid says “it’s time” to move to compulsory superannuation in New Zealand, and says “either Labour or National should just get off their butts and make it compulsory”.

He says compulsory superannuation would increase the capital New Zealand can invest in its own companies and help cover the costs of an aging population.

“If it does cost [Mainfrieght] more, so be it. But I think the cost to the country long term will be less rather than more.”

National is considering automatic enrolment, which would mean signing up the 1 million workers currently not in KiwiSaver and leaving it up to them to opt out.

Prime Minister John Key says he expects more people might stay in the scheme if they were automatically enrolled.

“There might be some people who if auto-enrolled may just decide lets just stay in the scheme – it’s quite a generous scheme from a company, government and personal perspective.”

If the $1000 KiwiSaver kickstart was kept in place, this would mean a $1 billion start up cost for the Government, something Mr Key says is worth it in the long term.

“It gives New Zealand a stronger economic position, and I think that's a good thing.”

Labour leader Phil Goff says he’s “not ruling options in or out at the moment”.

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Comments

08 Aug 2011 05:13p.m.

William wrote:

Kiwi Saver is not National Superannuation along the lines of the Australian model.Without Government Guarantees and increased Government and Employer contributions it is not a runner given this Governments cheap Labour/ non liveable wages policies

06 Aug 2011 12:19p.m.

michael potter wrote:

@mike mckee, thanks to labour we have kiwisaver, national voted against it. many people like me have 9 grand in the scheme,that's 9 grand I wouln't have if national got their way. the scheme was a gods send to the finance sector in nz
but john key threw a spanner in the works and now he has done a lot of damage. the funds are billions of dollars that our economy needs and thousands of people have a nest egg that key has all but wrecked. national do not like seeing people do well and want to create unemployment etc to make a rich-poor economy. labour have contributed billion to the economy while national borrow.. a no brainer,
vote labour .

04 Aug 2011 09:40p.m.

Mike Mckee wrote:

Goof is a fool. Why does the man not have any balls? 9 yrs Labour were in govt and they should have put this into parliament then, we should have had 10 yrs of Kiwisaver, not fart arse about now with a will he or won't he. We need Kiwisaver and one that politicians can't finddle with too.

04 Aug 2011 05:49p.m.

steve wrote:

We all need to save in Kiwi Saver .For most over 50s will need an extra $40,000 to live on in their retirement based on a 20 years after leaving work thanks to the GST rise .Basically the National Government devalued a persons retirement fund by 40 to 50 thousand because that what extra it will cost to live .For most it is a possible break even .

04 Aug 2011 09:45a.m.

William wrote:

Is John Key going to offer us government contributions of a dollar for a dollar and government guarantees of our contributions against loss the same as for superannuation schemes if he makes Kiwi Saver contributions compulsory. To date all the National government has done is to reduce government and employer contributions whilst increasing employee contributions all in a climate in which wages have fallen behind the cost of living. With what money are Kiwi Mums and Dads likely to be able to afford shares in government assets thanks to inflation derived in good part from the governments increase in GST to 15 percent, to governments increase in petrol levies and ACC levies and to the governments reductions in education ,health and social services spending.

04 Aug 2011 05:41a.m.

Alex wrote:

John Key and his party are a bunch of jokes. They are pushing legislation to make student union membership voluntary but now decided to make superannuation under Kiwisaver compulsory. Political flip flop

03 Aug 2011 11:17p.m.

TWE wrote:

I agree with Henny.. I don't trust this scheme so I opted out of it. In my case there is a great number of years for something to wrong with it and the money to vanish into thin air. I believe that is exactly what will happen.

03 Aug 2011 11:01p.m.

kevin wrote:

Change of tune since the budget, maybe someone got some good party contributions from Kiwisaver providers

03 Aug 2011 08:58p.m.

Chris wrote:

Who really cares and why is this even an issue, focus on more important things please John Key. I can see most people opting out of it straight away they aren't on it now for a reason and that is because they can barely put food on the table with what income they have. Stop ripping us off with more and more tax on everything.

03 Aug 2011 07:40p.m.

Henny wrote:

remember, you will never see a penny of the money...
the elites are keeping their machine going as long as they can on the back of the population (well, what's left of it...) but they cannot do so for very much longer...