Aaron Gilbert: NZ’s retirement debate - Will tinkering today spell more trouble tomorrow?

For generations of New Zealanders, a lifetime of work has come with the promise of a secure and happy retirement.

Today, however, that notion of golden years spent in relative comfort is slipping out of reach for a growing number of struggling retirees. Without a serious policy rethink, younger New Zealanders may face an even tougher reality when their time to leave the workforce comes.

Despite these challenges, policies tabled this election year amount to little more than tinkering around the edges.

Damien Grant: Why default is inevitable under our current fiscal trajectory

I’d ignored the Budget. I am good at ignoring things. Dental appointments. Column deadlines. Parking fines. Eventually they catch up with me. Like death, taxes and tooth decay.

It was the American polymath Benjamin Franklin who is credited with the quip that only death and taxes can be certain and a few wags have pondered that perhaps he meant debt and taxes. It’s a good joke but what Franklin actually wrote was “... excepté la mort et les impôts.”

That’s French. Franklin was writing in French. Dette and mort don’t rhyme. And given everyone his age had false teeth I think tooth decay should have been included. I am off-track.

Is The Nats’ Strategy To Condemn Its Coalition Partners Madness?

On The Platform, Michael Laws asks "Is the Nats’ strategy to condemn its coalition partners just desperate madness"?

Click to view

Robert MacCulloch and Leonard Hong: National's Plans for Compulsory KiwiSaver

The National Party’s KiwiSaver announcement is one of the most significant shifts in New Zealand politics and economic policy in a generation.

"We are delighted that the Prime Minister has agreed to implement compulsory KiwiSaver if re-elected in this year’s election."

DTNZ: Peters unveils KiwiSaver-from-birth scheme and BNZ buyback plan

NZ First leader Winston Peters has announced a pair of major economic policies, including compulsory KiwiSaver enrolment at birth with a $1000 Crown contribution and a proposal to buy back the Bank of New Zealand from Australian ownership.

Speaking at a campaign event in West Auckland today Peters said every New Zealand citizen would automatically become a KiwiSaver member at birth under what he called the “KiwiSaver Generation” policy.

Peter Williams: A BoNkerZ idea

No Winston, we should not buy a big bank

Since my first vote in 1975 I’ve been pretty much around the party clock, although I never stopped at Green o’clock. Once I even put a tick beside a Social Credit candidate because Muldoon’s National was just impossible to support in 1981.

I’ve been with Labour and National and Act but in 2023 I went with New Zealand First. That’s because they promised us a proper inquiry into the covid response and that they would ensure if treaty principles were not to be defined, they would at least be taken out of most legislation.

David Farrar: A Good Idea

Radio NZ reports:

The ACT Party leader David Seymour has floated dishing out $500 to every year 11 student for an investment account, to promote investing at a younger age. 

It was not an ACT policy “yet”, he said.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: A $110 billion illusion?

KiwiSaver has $110 billion in assets and over three million members. Contribution rates rise from April. Both major parties want to push them to 12%.

Everyone assumes the scheme is working. But no one can prove it.

The only rigorous evaluation of KiwiSaver’s impact on wealth was published in 2017 by Treasury economists David Law and Grant Scobie.

Mike's Minute: KiwiSaver, success and competition

KiwiSaver is a newsmaker.

It's making news of late because of the so-called "hardship withdrawals".

Bad news is an easy headline.

David Farrar: KiwiSaver moving to 6%

National announced that if re-elected they will increase the default KiwiSaver contribution rates from 3% to 4% (already announced as government policy) and then to 6%. The rates will be:

Kerre Woodham: Do the Kiwisaver tweaks go far enough?

Christopher Luxon has made his party's first election promise at a Christmas gathering for the party faithful of the Lower North Island. He said that they would lift the default KiwiSaver contribution rate, and eventually the changes would mean employees would see 12% of their earnings going into KiwiSaver, 6% from them, 6% from employers - a level that would match Australia's superannuation contribution rate, although of course in Australia, the whole contribution comes from the employer because they can afford it. The figure would come from hiking the default contribution rate from 3%, where it is today, to four, then 6% by 2032. The employer contribution would also rise to 6%, achieving that combined rate of 12% by 2032.

Peter Dunne: A Kids Kiwisaver scheme

The proposal advanced by the Institute for Democratic and Economic Analysis (IDEA) for a Kids Kiwisaver scheme raises interesting questions.

Under IDEA's plan, which is effectively a compulsory savings scheme by stealth, every child would be automatically enrolled in Kiwisaver at birth. There would be a government kick-start to each new Kiwisaver account and thereafter a government matching of small annual contributions by low- and middle-income families to a child's account.

Bob Edlin: What happened to $66bn......

Come on PM – surely someone can tell you what happened to $66bn (and if officials are baffled, let’s give Google a go)

The PM huffed and puffed, when asked in Parliament this afternoon about the state of the economy.

He bridled, too.

Ryan Bridge: How do we possibly save for retirement?

Massey Uni releases these numbers each year.

They tell you how much you might need to retirement.

In the city... two people in a house... want to live comfortably... need $1 million.

Michael P Cameron: NZ First wants a compulsory KiwiSaver - Boosting the Super Fund is a better bet

An ageing population not saving fast enough for its retirement has been called a “timebomb” and a looming crisis, with many New Zealanders facing the prospect of hard times when they stop earning.

So, NZ First leader Winston Peters was on the money at his party’s recent annual conference when he pitched a major KiwiSaver overhaul. Under the plan, membership would become compulsory and minimum contributions from both employees and employers would increase to 8% of income, rising to 10% later.

Ryan Bridge: Should National campaign on a partial float?

They haven't said it explicitly yet, but one day soon, our KiwiSaver contributions will rise to 12% and Kiwibank will be partially sold to foreign buyers.

On the bank, Nicola Willis is flying a kite and talking about a potentially partial float of the stock exchange for the wee Kiwi battler. It needs capital to grow and take on the big banks.

They're getting access to an extra half a billion through changes already announced. But they could yet get more, should National campaign on a partial float.

Guest Post: KiwiSaver, the employment contract and Budget 2025

A guest post on Kiwiblog by Michael Littlewood:

KiwiSaver is about to change again. The Budget announced an increase in the minimum employee contribution (from 3% to 4%) over three years and in the matching minimum contributions paid by employers.

The government is also cutting its own contribution from a 50% match to the first $1,042.86 of members’ contributions to 25%. So, the maximum taxpayer subsidy drops from $521.43 a year to $260.72. It will also be income-tested so that the highest paid employees (receiving more than $180,000 will lose that.

Mike's Minute: We are housing snobs

A housing development for you.

A housing development that once again shows how reality beats theory.

Housing is a New Zealand obsession. We love housing and we long to own housing.

Mike's Minute: KiwiSaver reality vs ideology

Given the issues around KiwiSaver, it’s a miracle any of us save anything to become remotely independent in retirement.

Last week we told you about the Morningstar rankings and how the biggest operator in the market was performing so poorly, and now we have yet another crack at where the money is actually invested.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: The Finance Minister's Solution to Big Bank Oligopoly.....

The Finance Minister's Solution to Big Bank Oligopoly: Make You Pay for a Dirty Deal Replete with Kick Backs that Sells Out 3 Million KiwiSaver holders.

What's the object of Kiwi Saver? To build up retirement savings of New Zealanders by giving us the opportunity to earn high returns during our working careers. 

Yesterday Finance Minister Willis sabotaged that aim by announcing she would ask Kiwi Saver Fund Providers to invest up to $500 million in Kiwibank to try making it more competitive.