kiwisaver

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Happy Kiwisaver Cuts Day

Written By: - Date published: 1:16 pm, July 1st, 2011 - 26 comments

From today, the government’s contribution to your Kiwisaver has been cut in half. ‘What?’, you say, ‘Didn’t they say that would only come in if they got re-elected?’ Yeah, nah. They were lying to you. From today on, the government contribution is a maximum of $10 a week. Remember, this was the central plank of National’s savings budget.

Encouraging savings the National way

Written By: - Date published: 8:53 am, June 12th, 2011 - 15 comments

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…

So much for seeking a mandate

Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, May 26th, 2011 - 15 comments

Remember when John Key was promising that he would seek a mandate from the people at the election before starting to sell public assets and cutting Kiwisaver. It was only a week ago. And he’s breaking his promises already: the Kiwisaver cuts actually kick in on July 1, and the privatisation process is underway.

Key’s dodgy scheming

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, May 25th, 2011 - 22 comments

*Key says that we will get to vote on his Kiwisaver cuts in the election. Truth is, they passed the law last week and the tax credits are cut from July 1. *What’s up with the dodgy Kiwibank numbers? Plans for sale? *The govt is importing World Cup workers while 270K are jobless. *Key’s jokes falling flat with pissed off voters.

National reforms Kiwisaver – again

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, May 12th, 2011 - 26 comments

John Key has announced National’s third reform of Kiwisaver in 3 years, saying the government’s contribution will be cut and made up with higher minimum contributions from members and their employers. It’s an embarrassing flip-flop from the government that cut default contribution rates and shows no plan for the future.

They cut, we pay

Written By: - Date published: 7:44 am, May 11th, 2011 - 49 comments

The Nats have run this country into the ground and say there’s no option but to slash Kiwisaver. The actual cuts they announce will be less than foreshadowed, and we will then be expected to be grateful. It’s the Nats’ old trick. But the reality is there’s no need for Kiwisaver cuts at all. Not while the rich keep the tax cuts National gave them.

Taking from Kiwisavers & giving to the rich

Written By: - Date published: 6:32 am, May 10th, 2011 - 81 comments

John Key has confirmed he intends to slash Kiwisaver to the bone by cutting the up to $1040 a year government contribution you get as a member. Of course, this is the savings budget according to National’s spin. They’re going to ‘encourage’ savings by taking that money from Kiwisaver and giving it to rich individual savers. It’s just more class war.

The Shock Doctrine

Written By: - Date published: 11:31 pm, March 1st, 2011 - 147 comments

I’m really pissed off that politics has come into the Christchurch earthquake so quickly. But make no mistake, the Nats are pursuing a strongly ideological agenda. They’re using the quake as cover for radically cutting important policies and making other extreme decisions, while preserving the tax cuts for the rich. It’s called the Shock Doctrine.

Brethren taking subsidies for illegal discrimination

Written By: - Date published: 10:16 pm, January 13th, 2011 - 65 comments

Another great piece of work from I/S at No Right Turn: “the Exclusive Brethren have set up their own KiwiSaver scheme… The scheme will only be offered to members of the cult. This is, of course, illegal.” They’re trying to take taxpayer money for a business that illegally discriminates on the grounds of religion. It must be stopped.

Killing the golden geese

Written By: - Date published: 9:26 am, October 16th, 2010 - 45 comments

National is developing an agenda for privatisation.  It’s crazy.  State owned assets are generating some rare bright spots in an otherwise dismal sea of poor economic news.  So why would any rational government sell ACC (or other state owned assets)?  Why would any rational government be cutting back on the Cullen Fund?  Why are the Nats determined to kill the golden geese?

Compulsory super savings welcome but…

Written By: - Date published: 10:07 am, August 16th, 2010 - 18 comments

Odd to see in the Sunday-Star Times that the Government is looking at introducing compulsory superannuation savings. After all, this is the same government that gutted Kiwisaver and the Cullen Fund just a year ago. Hmm, have they seen the light? Somehow I doubt it. The Nats see compulsory super savings as a replacement for the universal superannuation we have now.

KiwiBank boss wants leadership from National party

Written By: - Date published: 7:34 pm, July 2nd, 2010 - 7 comments

KiwiBank boss, Sam Knowles wants the Government to step up to the plate and improve NZs saving rate, through making KiwiSaver compulsory.

Don Brash, Rogernomics, and Huljich

Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, March 16th, 2010 - 20 comments

The New Zealand economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s were largely a failure.  This can be seen from the large negative divergence post 1984 in New Zealand’s real output per capita in comparison to Australia, our usual benchmark. New Zealand’s comparative position vis-à-vis unemployment also worsened. Poverty and social inequality increased. Australia undertook various […]

Exchange rates, Kiwisaver, breaking promises, & the art of doing nothing

Written By: - Date published: 2:35 pm, October 31st, 2009 - 8 comments

A range of interesting political/economic comment today in the Herald: Fran O’Sullivan joins the left-wing and groups like Federated Farmers in calling on the Key Government to sort out monetary policy. At the moment, the Reserve Bank is tasked solely with controlling inflation with interest rates as its only real tool, while the exchange is […]

Brash and Banks try to profit off vulnerable

Written By: - Date published: 2:13 pm, September 10th, 2009 - 31 comments

Former National Party leader Dr Don Brash and Auckland Mayor John Banks love making the big bucks. And what better way to do it than hitting the most vulnerable in society. Today the National Party stalwarts are after mental patients. The Herald notes: KiwiSaver targets mental patient An Auckland woman is dismayed her 25-year-old son […]

What National’s Kiwisaver cuts mean for you

Written By: - Date published: 4:59 pm, December 22nd, 2008 - 38 comments

The Council of Trade Unions has done some research showing a worker with a Kiwisaver account will stand to lose as much as $200,000 in accumulated savings over their working life as a result of the National-led Government’s changes to the scheme. If you’re on $50k a year then National’s Kiwisaver cuts will cost you […]

Kiwisaver changes

Written By: - Date published: 9:20 pm, December 8th, 2008 - 16 comments

NZPA reports that the Government is looking at reviewing its changes to Kiwisaver so that workers who don’t earn enough to get the full $20 tax credit in a revised 2% scheme are not unfairly discriminated against. The changes are expected to cost $700 million over five years. This is a good measure, and in […]

‘Become a nation of savers’

Written By: - Date published: 11:52 am, November 27th, 2008 - 35 comments

That’s Finance Minister Bill English’s message to Kiwis. So, that would be why he is cutting our Kiwisaver nesteggs in half to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, eh?

Unions offer better option for Kiwisaver changes

Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, November 14th, 2008 - 26 comments

The unions have proposed an alternative to National’s plan to slash Kiwisaver in half. If Kiwisaver has to be cut, and with National/Act in power it will happen one way or the other, then I prefer the union plan. As it stands now, you contribute 4% of your gross earnings, your employer matches that 4% […]

Ripping the stuffing out

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, October 30th, 2008 - 1 comment

The CTU has released a second great youtube vid. Well worth a watch and emailing around.

The Standard line: Kiwisaver

Written By: - Date published: 11:37 am, October 24th, 2008 - 26 comments

So, you’re talking with someone about politics and they say something really dumb and wrong and you know it’s wrong but you don’t have the arguments and facts at your fingertips to make a decisive point. That’s where our election series, The Standard line, comes in. The info you need in bite-size form. Today: Kiwisaver Points […]

John vs John

Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, October 21st, 2008 - 53 comments

Labour’s new television ad is up on Youtube and I’m pleased to see it’s actually pretty bloody good. They’ve managed to draw attention to one of John’s many flipflops, this one on Kiwisaver, in a way that uses humour and sticks to the facts and thereby avoids the nastiness often associated with negative campaigning. It’s […]

Confident or foolish?

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, October 14th, 2008 - 20 comments

So, you’re one of the 900,000 Kiwis who have so far signed up to Kiwisaver. You know that you get $1000 on signing up, you put in 4% of your gross income, the Government matches that up to $20 a week, and your employer matches with at least 1% rising to 4% by 2011. It’s […]

Trickle-down

Written By: - Date published: 11:22 am, October 12th, 2008 - 11 comments

A few thoughts from today’s Agenda: Questioned about why National would introduce another tax rebate, having endlessly criticised Working for Families because of its complexity, English says ‘we do, in the long term, want a simpler tax system’. So, be on notice, Working for Families is under threat from National – they would ‘eventualy, but […]

Getting it right matters

Written By: - Date published: 9:49 pm, October 11th, 2008 - 11 comments

I don’t want this post to be taken as overly critical; it’s just meant to offer some constructive advice. John Armstrong’s piece in the Herald today is good. It’s great to see a senior political commentator acknowledging that politics is a competition of ideologies, rather than merely a game or competition of personalities, but it’s […]

What happens if Nats gut Kiwisaver?

Written By: - Date published: 12:53 pm, October 10th, 2008 - 23 comments

I was going to write about the economic effects of taking money out of Kiwisaver and spending it on tax cuts but this youtube video with South Park characters does the job and is much more fun: (hattip: Labour’s ‘Campaign Trail‘ blog)

Small change

Written By: - Date published: 1:32 am, October 9th, 2008 - 56 comments

That was going to be the title of my first post on National’s tax-cut plan but then it turned out National’s plan would actually make about 1 million taxpayers worse off compared to Labour’s cuts (all figures derived from the Budget and National’s tax policy). That 1 million comprises approx 650,000, including nearly all super-annuitants, […]

Reviews of Nats’ tax cut/Kiwisaver cut/R&D cut policy

Written By: - Date published: 7:27 pm, October 8th, 2008 - 37 comments

Just a quick note at the start for our press gallery friends who live in central Wellington on high incomes. 50% of New Zealanders have an income below $27,000 and 50% of workers earn less than $37,000 a year (all of which is heaps higher than it was under National). The point is this: National’s […]

Farce

Written By: - Date published: 10:01 pm, October 7th, 2008 - 18 comments

It was with wry amusement I read Bill Ralston’s revisionist history of New Zealand superannuation today. According to Bill it was Muldoon who created an “unsupportable” super scheme as an election bribe in 1975. Of course anyone who remembers the situation (as Bill certainly should) knows full well that the real story was big Norm’s […]

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