Latest / Best of Business / Jenee Tibshraeny: NZ Herald Wellington business editor on the concerns surrounding new KiwiSaver changes

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Jenee Tibshraeny: NZ Herald Wellington business editor on the concerns surrounding new KiwiSaver changes · Best of Business

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• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Heather Duplaic Ellen I Heather.
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  Speaker 2: In addition to attracting the international foreign home buyers, the
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  Speaker 2: fifth rules that you've previously discussed, the FIAF rules still
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  Speaker 2: outstanding putting foreigners off coming to New Zealand. Michael, thank
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  Speaker 2: you that those rules are the ones about how long
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  Speaker 2: you need to stay in the country or not stay
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: in the country in order to avoid certain taxes and stuff.
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  Speaker 2: It's all the shambles by the looks of things. Eighteen
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  Speaker 2: past six. Now there are fears that Finance Minister Nikola
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  Speaker 2: Willis might be opening a can of worms if she
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  Speaker 2: lets young farmers withdraw their kei we saver funds to
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  Speaker 2: buy a farm. G Native Chraney is The Herald's Wellington
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  Speaker 2: Business editor. Hey, you know, a hey, what's the problem?
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  Speaker 3: Well, you know, if you say that you can dip
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  Speaker 3: into your kei we saver to buy a farm, then
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  Speaker 3: where does it stop. Can you dip into your key
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  Speaker 3: we saver to buy a business, or to buy cryptocurrency,
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  Speaker 3: or to buy art or whatever else you think might
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  Speaker 3: help set you up for your retirement. I mean arguably
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  Speaker 3: already by allowing people to use the Kiwi sabor to
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  Speaker 3: buy a house a first home. You know that that
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  Speaker 3: is a controversial thing. But if you start allowing farms,
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  Speaker 3: then then where does it stop.
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  Speaker 2: So could we say okay, I mean I agree with
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  Speaker 2: the distinction that's being made here because I think when
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  Speaker 2: you start getting into buying herds and flocks and stuff
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  Speaker 2: like that, then it's basically why don't you buy your
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  Speaker 2: first set of tools or your coffee shop or whatever.
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  Speaker 2: But could you say a farm is like a house
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  Speaker 2: because you can live on it.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I guess you could. But then you'd say, well,
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  Speaker 3: if you want to live on the farm, then you
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  Speaker 3: could use the exemption that exists, which says you can
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  Speaker 3: use your keyw saber to buy your first home.
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  Speaker 2: So you can't live in that first home. You can't
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  Speaker 2: live in it yet because you're living on somebody else's
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  Speaker 2: farm and working that farm.
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  Speaker 3: Well, you know that's true. I mean the other thing
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  Speaker 3: is like if I have to live in Wellington for
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  Speaker 3: my work, but I want to buy a house in Auckland,
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  Speaker 3: then then that's also a problem. Like if you need
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  Speaker 3: to be here for work, but you want to buy
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  Speaker 3: your house there, then you know, then that's a problem.
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  Speaker 3: So that's that's just how it works under the rules.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I just wonder.
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  Speaker 2: If is that potentially the thing that needs to be
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  Speaker 2: eased up a little bit, that you can live wherever
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  Speaker 2: you want, but your first home, wherever it is, you're
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  Speaker 2: able to use key we say before.
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  Speaker 3: You know, look, as someone in that generation that has
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  Speaker 3: struggled to get into property, you know, it's it's kind
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  Speaker 3: of galling when they put these rules around things. But
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  Speaker 3: I think the concern is is that if you allow
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  Speaker 3: people to buy houses they don't live in, then that's
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  Speaker 3: an investment property. And and you know, do we want
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  Speaker 3: to be encouraging people to use their KEB savers for
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  Speaker 3: investment property or do we want to help them use
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  Speaker 3: their QB savers just to put a roof over their heads.
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  Speaker 3: But I think this is the exact sort of debate.
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  Speaker 3: You know, that would that the first time exemption has created,
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  Speaker 3: but if you extend it, then it just sort of
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  Speaker 3: exacerbates that debate. Now that you know that there might
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  Speaker 3: be good merit in and you know, the farmers would say,
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  Speaker 3: we're actually it's much better for us to invest in
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  Speaker 3: a farm than have our money tied up in the
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  Speaker 3: share market, you know, supporting American companies. That might be true,
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  Speaker 3: but the issue is here that if you tinker with KEI,
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  Speaker 3: we save it, which is meant to be a really
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  Speaker 3: stable scheme. You know, it has to be stable because
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  Speaker 3: we're investing it in the long term. If you tinker
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  Speaker 3: with it too much, people stop trusting it, and if
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  Speaker 3: they stop trusting it, they don't want to invest through it.
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  Speaker 3: So I think that's kind of one of the most
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  Speaker 3: compelling arguments that people who don't like this idea have made.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, thank you, Jane, I really appreciate it. Janetib Trainy,
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  Speaker 2: the Herald's Wellington Business editor.
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