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Labour rules out changing superannuation settings if elected
With National’s KiwiSaver changes coming alongside rhetoric aimed at raising the retirement age, Labour has ruled out any changes to superannuation settings.
National at its annual conference over the weekend announced a policy to automatically enrol babies in KiwiSaver with a $1500 ‘Baby Boost’; and make employer and employee contributions to KiwiSaver compulsory – including for those aged 65 and older.
It comes on top of promises last year to further increase the default contribution rate.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis spent the majority of their post-Cabinet media briefing on Monday speaking about the policy, the costs of which an economist and business leaders have said would likely be borne mostly by workers.
Willis clarified the party was also considering phasing out employers’ “total remuneration” approach to pay packets – where a combined salary and KiwiSaver amount is paid, rather than paying KiwiSaver contributions on top of salaries – despite National previously having kaiboshed a Labour member’s bill that would have done just that.
Speaking afterwards, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said National was “all over the place” when it came to KiwiSaver, and there remained unanswered questions about how the party would pay for its promises.
“Nicola Willis says there is no money in the cupboard, the cupboard is bare, and the government has to tighten its belt. Now they’re saying that they’re going to spend potentially billions of dollars from future budgets in order to pay for this KiwiSaver policy,” he said.
RNZ/Samuel Rillstone
National had also not said how it would support those who currently were not contributing to KiwiSaver but would be forced to, he said, before criticising the party’s track record on KiwiSaver.
“Every single time the National Party has touched KiwiSaver, they’ve ended up cutting it. So they cut the Kickstart – which they’re now proposing to bring back, but only for children born after a certain date, meaning the children born before they miss out.
“They’re now proposing to increase contributions … government contributions, which used to be quite a significant part of KiwiSaver, particularly for a lot of low-income families, have been cut by National governments I think three times now.”
However, when asked if Labour would reverse those cuts, he only said the party would set out its KiwiSaver policies “in due course”.
When it was pointed out Grant Robertson had previously committed to reinstate the $1000 KiwiSaver kickstart, Hipkins said he would have to check but he believed that had not been part of Labour’s subsequent election policy.
“Look, oftentimes you oppose things in opposition, which you don’t then reverse when you’re in government. That is the nature of democracy. The needs and the pressures and the issues do move on.”
He did support the increase in default contribution rates for employers and employees, but would not say whether he backed compulsory enrolment or the other changes proposed.
However, he firmly ruled out any changes to superannuation.
“Labour’s position since introducing KiwiSaver has always been and will continue to be that it is a supplementary form of income in retirement, not an alternative to New Zealand superannuation,” he said.
“Labour will not means test New Zealand superannuation, and we will not increase the age.”
That was despite in April saying Labour was “open” to a bipartisan conversation about means testing superannuation. Hipkins said he “cleared that up very quickly the next day”.
He also committed to outlaw total remuneration packages, saying that if Willis felt it was an important issue “she could have done something about it in the last two and a half years, and yet all the government’s done is block it”.
At the release of the Budget this year, Willis said parties unwilling to tackle the problem of the rising cost of superannuation were “prepared to rob everyone in this country under the age of 50 for their own political expediency”.
Luxon has also confirmed the party would campaign on raising the age of eligibility, but has not yet unveiled the policy.
New Zealand First has committed to not changing the settings for superannuation, while ACT’s David Seymour has backed those saying the age needs to increase.
rnz
The chief executive of the Parliamentary Service is confident there will be enough room to accommodate the increased number of MPs and their staff coming into Parliament.
On current numbers, up to 131 MPs could be sitting in the Chamber following the election, brought on by a record overhang result.
Clerk of the House of Representatives Dr David Wilson told the Spinoff that currently the debating chamber had enough chairs to seat 124 MPs – including the Speaker of the House – and work was being done to accommodate more by altering the seating arrangement.
In a statement, Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said planning for a larger Parliament had been going for “some time”.
“Now that the election results have confirmed an increase to the number of members we are looking at several options.
“We are confident we will be able to accommodate all members within the Chamber.”
VNP / Phil Smith
Gonzalez-Montero said office accommodation for members and their staff would be “stretched” for a short time, but the new Members’ Building was only a few months away from “practical completion”.
That building – located behind Parliament – was due to be ready to occupy in April next year and had capacity to accommodate around 30 backbench MPs.
“All members should be in fit-for-purpose accommodation from that point,” Gonzalez-Montero said.
Following the 2023 election, 123 MPs sat in the Chamber – a record number at the time. That decreased to 122 following the resignation of National MP Judith Collins.
Collins held the seat of Papakura and stepped down in May and Parliament voted against holding a by-election because it was too close to the election.
The election result also meant high-ranking National Party MPs like Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith, Nicola Willis and Gerry Brownlee – Speaker of the House and an MP for 30 years – would likely not make it back into Parliament.
Only resigning or retiring MPs were permitted to give a valedictory speech meaning none of them would get the chance to give a valedictory statement.
Asked if their would be special allowances for valedictories, Wilson said in a statement that normally only MPs were allowed to speak in the House but the House could suspend its own rules or temporarily alter them.
“It could do so to allow former members to address the House.”
Wilson said no such arrangements could be made until the next Parliament opened and members sworn in.
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