When National announced its policy to automatically enrol people for KiwiSaver but allow them to opt out, Finance Minister Bill English was asked why not go the whole way and make the scheme compulsory.
He replied that some people would not have enough money and others would have better things to do with it.
The really poor already find too much week left at the end of their pay packets. Reducing their take home pay be taking more, albeit for savings for their own retirements, will cause real hardship.
Other people would have higher priorities for spare money such as paying off mortgages or other debt or investing in their education or business.
Labour’s policy of compulsory KiwiSaver would make life more difficult for the poor and take choice away for those with better ways to invest in their futures.
The other part of the policy – increasing employer contributions to 8%, will result in lower wages.
Few if any employers would be able to absorb the increased cost of higher contributions. The choices are increasing the price for the goods and services they produce or reducing costs elsewhere and the obvious place to do that is in the wages of workers whose superannuation they are subsidising.
They can do that by having fewer staff or paying those they do have, less.
Wages might not come down but they either won’t go up or will increase much more slowly if employer subsidies increase under Labour’s policy.
This policy in isolation will make employers more hesitant to take on extra staff. Combining it with increasing the minimum wage to $15 will increase the hesitation.
Lowering wages and threatening jobs is not the policy of a worker-friendly party.
Homepaddock 
They are clueless and that’s a fact but are the Nats much better?
I am not inspired
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What a wonderful world – Labour announce a policy they won’t have to pay for (employers will) and no doubt if they ever get to introduce this policy would then berate employers for not keeping wage increases up with the rate of inflation.
They have demonstrated yet again that the love OPM (other peoples money).
I agree with Andrei – they appear to be economic illiterates, who seem separated from the reality of the modern NZ economy.
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And do you also share Andrei’s concern that the Nat’s are not much better? Are you too, not inspired?
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Wouldn’t you love me to say ‘yes’, Robert?
Of course not. National has a plan which it is implementing to return to surplus, reverse away from over spending and over taxing and go forward with more savings, investment and export led growth.
It’s not happening as fast as some would like but that’s because National is doing it’s best to go forward without leaving people behind as would happened if the changes happened at speed.
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