Latest / Best of Business / Liam Dann: NZ Herald Business Editor at Large calls for bipartisan effort to reform KiwiSaver

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Liam Dann: NZ Herald Business Editor at Large calls for bipartisan effort to reform KiwiSaver · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk sed B.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 2: Write a push for compulsory key WE saver is gaining
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  Speaker 2: momentum with New Zealand First National Opportunities Party or backing
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  Speaker 2: some form of mandatory retirement saving. New Zealand Herald Business
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  Speaker 2: Editor at Large Liam Dan says New Zealand has spent
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  Speaker 2: too long relying on borrowing instead of saving, and argues
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  Speaker 2: compulsory key WE saver could be the key to building
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  Speaker 2: the kind of long term wealth that's helped Australia surge
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  Speaker 2: ahead economically. He's urging the Labor Party to do future
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  Speaker 2: generations a favor and get on board with compulsory key
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  Speaker 2: WE Saver, and Liam Dan joins me.
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  Speaker 3: Now, good morning, Good morning Fantaska.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you very much for your time. Hey, is compulsory
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  Speaker 2: key WE savor the economic game change in New Zealand's
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  Speaker 2: been missing.
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  Speaker 3: Well, Look, I don't really believe in the idea of
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  Speaker 3: a single silver bullet, but I think when you look
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  Speaker 3: at the things that could change the game for us,
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  Speaker 3: it's right up there as one of the most significant.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, I'm sort of excited that we're as
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  Speaker 3: you point out, you know, we've got two parties in
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  Speaker 3: the coalition, a party that could be a coalition decided
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  Speaker 3: or if it gets five percent, you know, three parties
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  Speaker 3: that are significant their national being, the big one really
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  Speaker 3: deciding to go for it. So we're close. We're close
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  Speaker 3: to sort of a bipartisan approach to this. And I
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  Speaker 3: just think, you know, I look across at Australia and
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  Speaker 3: I see all that wealth. People ask me all the time,
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  Speaker 3: you know, why is Australia richer than us? And I
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  Speaker 3: think it's as simple as as why the you know,
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  Speaker 3: the guy next door or whatever is richer than us.
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  Speaker 3: It's you've saved more money, you have more money.
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  Speaker 2: Should we be comparing ourselves to Australia?
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  Speaker 3: Is it?
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  Speaker 2: Is it relevant in this situation?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, And we compare ourselves to Australia all the
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  Speaker 3: time because we're geographically close, culturally close, and you know,
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  Speaker 3: we see their lifestyle and it's similar to ours, but
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  Speaker 3: it's got they get paid more to live.
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  Speaker 2: It's also there's also more of them and they have
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  Speaker 2: a slightly different economy than now and things like that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I mean I think that the mining thing is
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  Speaker 3: the one that comes up all the time, isn't it,
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  Speaker 3: Because and I've looked into this. You know, it's not
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  Speaker 3: wrong to say that they earn more money as a
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  Speaker 3: nation from from exports per capita than us because of
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  Speaker 3: their mining. But I think it is overly exaggerated and
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  Speaker 3: we overly you know, there's a tendency to say, oh, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: we can't compete with them because we don't we don't
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  Speaker 3: have masses of iron or coming out of the ground
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  Speaker 3: or whatever. When you when you actually look at it
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  Speaker 3: and you break it down a bit further into how
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  Speaker 3: much commodity experts we earn and how much of that
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  Speaker 3: that export money stays in the country. Illan is not
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  Speaker 3: too bad. You know, we're five million country with a
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  Speaker 3: massive dairy industry, one of the biggest dairy industries in
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  Speaker 3: the world. You know, we have a huge tourism industry.
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  Speaker 3: So we're we're behind them per capita, on on on
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  Speaker 3: what we bring in in export commodities. But it has
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  Speaker 3: often forgotten that the status I've seen eighty six percent
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  Speaker 3: of their mining industry is far and owned. So while
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  Speaker 3: it does generate higher taxes for them, good tax base
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  Speaker 3: for them and pay high paying jobs. They lose a
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  Speaker 3: lot of those profits. Of sure, we retain a lot
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  Speaker 3: more of our modernity export profits here because of fonteria
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  Speaker 3: and things, but then we lose money. We're draining money
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  Speaker 3: because we don't own our banks, we don't own most
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  Speaker 3: of our international companies, so profits go out. We have
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  Speaker 3: a lifestyle that we really can't afford, and so we're
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  Speaker 3: borrowing both the government and privately billions of dollars every year.
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  Speaker 3: We have a deficit just to find our lifestyle. And
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  Speaker 3: as many commentators point out, you can't do that forever
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  Speaker 3: or you end up just going backwards. So the key
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  Speaker 3: to that is having a massive savings pool. That means
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  Speaker 3: that you're invested around the world as well. So whatever
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  Speaker 3: is leaving the country, you've got dividends coming in from
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  Speaker 3: all your invents and other companies. What's lacking that that
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  Speaker 3: sort of net balance of savings dividends them.
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  Speaker 2: You argue, New Zealand doesn't have an income problem, it
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  Speaker 2: has a savings problem. Is the reality that keewis are
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  Speaker 2: just bad savers is compulsory? Can we save?
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  Speaker 3: The answer? Well, I think all all people you know,
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  Speaker 3: there is an idea and this you know I've pointed
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  Speaker 3: out this is why parties like ACT and people on
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  Speaker 3: that sort of part of the part of the sort
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  Speaker 3: of political spectrum don't like compulsion because there's an argument that, well,
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  Speaker 3: people should be you know, have freedom to be rational
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  Speaker 3: economic units. And they might. They can, they can decide
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  Speaker 3: what's best for their money. But I just I just
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  Speaker 3: don't think that stacks up. And I'm not trying to
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  Speaker 3: say I'm clearer than anyone else. I'm just as stupid
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  Speaker 3: as everyone else. And I don't mean, you know, but
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  Speaker 3: but people, people don't always do the best thing with
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  Speaker 3: their money. They you know that you just have to
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  Speaker 3: look at gambling stats and things like that, or you know,
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  Speaker 3: we all we all split shout we shouldn't. And I
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  Speaker 3: have this idea that you know, you see these personal
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  Speaker 3: finance articles and it'll be about a couple somewhere that's
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  Speaker 3: got they're anying over one hundred thousand each and they
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  Speaker 3: can't work out why they're poor, and the personal finance
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  Speaker 3: person is trying to sort them out. That's what New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand reminds me of. We don't have a problem with
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  Speaker 3: really with the amount of revenue that's coming into the country.
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  Speaker 3: We have a problem with what we're doing with the
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  Speaker 3: money once it gets here. So the compulsion is a
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  Speaker 3: way to ensure that you know, everybody is saving, we're
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  Speaker 3: collectively growing the pot to a much higher level. And
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  Speaker 3: then it leads to other conversations, of course, about how
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  Speaker 3: much more we need to save. I've seen some pushback
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  Speaker 3: on the idea that we need to be going for
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  Speaker 3: six percent savings and six percent contributed by the employer.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, they're at higher levels than that in
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  Speaker 3: Australia and it's painful in the short term, but they
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  Speaker 3: do cope, and then you move on, and then you
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  Speaker 3: forget about it and you just look at that giant
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  Speaker 3: figure on you on your ken. We say mistake, and
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  Speaker 3: you hope that.
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  Speaker 2: There's not another. You hope that there's not another crisis,
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  Speaker 2: and we want to drop. Thank you so much for
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  Speaker 2: talking us through that. Liam really appreciate that. More from Lim.
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  Speaker 2: You can head to New Zealand Herald dot co dot.
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