Household debt
The IMF warns that our household debt is far too high, as desperate tenants start raiding the Kiwisaver accounts to pay the rent.
kiwisaver
Check your Kiwisaver
An excellent piece by Matt Nippert, Caleb Tutty, Olivia Carville in The Herald is generating a lot of discussion this morning. Are you unknowingly investing in tobacco and munitions?
Employers failing Kiwsaver obligations
In a sign of just how stressed our economy is: “Inland Revenue is chasing employers for unpaid KiwiSaver contributions worth tens of millions of dollars.”
National costs you $100,000 from your retirement fund
If you’re an average worker the actions of the National government have reduced the value of your KiwiSaver fund at retirement by about $100K.
Destroying a savings culture
Key: “The removal of the $1,000 kick-start contribution will not make a blind bit of difference to the number of people who join KiwiSaver.” Wrong. Completely and utterly wrong.
Auto Kiwisaver
Nice to see English acknowledging the importance of Kiwisaver – thanks Michael Cullen, thanks Helen Clark! I certainly support default enrollment. But – isn’t this Big Government Nanny State Gone Mad?
Labour’s housing plan is much better
National has announced its housing policy using Labour’s Kiwisaver scheme to provide extra money to first home buyers. But the policy will only add to housing inflation instead of addressing it.
Labour’s Kiwisaver announcement
Labour has released its Kiwisaver policy. Kiwisaver will now be universal for all workers except those earning less than a to be set level. Contributions will be gradually increased. The $1,000 Kick-start and government contribution of up to $521 a year will be retained and will apply to all new enrollments
The retirement age debate
Labour’s current policy to gradually increase the age of retirement is a fiscally appropriate response to the pressures that will result from the baby boomer bulge in the population approaching retirement. But is it the right thing to do?
KiwiFund: nationalisation or competition?
Winston Peters’ KiwiFund proposal would nationalise KiwiSaver. Russel Norman supports it, but in competition with private schemes. Cunliffe is open to negotiation. Key is dismissive, but says Peters is so untrustworthy he is likely to back down & form an alliance with National anyway.
Dithering Nats
Changes to the tax rules that kick in today reverse two decisions made earlier by the government. Dither dither dither.
Compulsory Kiwisaver?
Good to see the government considering a move that would significantly boost KiwiSaver uptake – even if it does highlight their ideological inconsistency!
Encouraging savings the National way
Amongst the many vacuous claims made in relation to the last budget, the claim that cuts to KiwiSaver would encourage savings always struck me as the dumbest. Now the facts are in, and guess what…
The Kiwisaver “employer contribution” scam
The media is claiming Kiwisaver cuts will be offset by increased worker and employer contributions.
But because of a loophole in the scheme National created in 2009, employers can simply take their “contribution” out of their workers’ wages.
No wonder business lobby groups are unconcerned by the move.
What’s the Govt’s economic vision?
To build a brighter future for New Zealand we need to invest in it. We need to build up our national savings, invest in R&D, and build a sustainable, more self-sufficient economy. National has cut savings and R&D investment, and talked down New Zealand’s potential for hi-tech manufacture. Seems they’re only interested in short term pay offs for the rich.
Reviews of Nats’ tax cut/Kiwisaver cut/R&D cut policy
Just a quick note at the start for our press gallery friends who live in central Wellington on high incomes. 50% of New […]
Nats break into your piggy-bank
John Key has announced that Kiwisaver would be slashed along with National’s tax cuts for the rich (and they are tax cuts for […]
Great expectations
John Key is being pretty evasive on his tax cut plan. He won’t say whether the famous ‘$50 a week for the average worker’ […]
Kiwisaver cuts to fund Nats’ tax cuts?
So, the rumour is that Kiwisaver will be slashed to fund National’s tax cut policy. Currently, the Government spends up to the following […]
EMA Kiwisaver campaign in breach of EFA?
The Employers and Manufacturers Association’s advertising campaign to defend the ability of employers to make workers pay their own Kiwisaver employer contribution while […]
More anti-worker policy from the Nats
On Sunday, Bill English let slip that National still intends to take away the work rights of employees of small businesses for the […]
Notional Policy: Kiwisaver
Tracy Watkins reported yesterday that National’s weakening of the employer contribution to Kiwisaver may take a different path to the one we envisaged. […]
Why didn’t Kate know Nats’ Kiwisaver policy?
The most surprising thing to come of the National’s Kiwisaver fiasco is not that they want to undermine the scheme and get employers […]
“pretty similar”
I noticed an interesting comment from Ferdinand in our Kiwisaver thread yesterday: I signed up to Kiwisaver based on the 4% employer contribution […]
Nats to journos: say what we want or shut up
Here’s Barry Soper on ZB on the ‘Kate-gate‘ Kiwisaver debacle: What I found interesting was the way it was handled. I was the only person […]
Kremlinology: National and Kiwisaver
National’s refusal to say what it stands for is becoming so ridiculous we have resorted to the Cold War art of Kremlinology. Today, […]
The Nats on KiwiSaver
Here’s the footage of the Nats’ accidental commitment to employer contributions under KiwiSaver. The first video is of TV3’s 6pm coverage, the second […]
The status of KiwiSaver
Tracy Watkins reports: “National has been forced into an embarrassing u-turn on KiwiSaver after its industrial relations spokeswoman Kate Wilkinson appeared to put the […]
National still won’t say what they’d do
Seemingly content to coast along on the “time for a change” sentiment, the National Party are still refusing to offer any substantive details […]