28 May 2008 Media Statement

Fresh questions on National and KiwiSaver

New Zealand employers have been left in the lurch as John Key has this morning refused to commit to fully subsidising them for the cost of their KiwiSaver contributions, Finance Minister Michael Cullen said.

Mr Key’s reluctance to commit to subsidisation, and the full 4 per cent contribution, comes as he invents yet another alternative history of his support for KiwiSaver. Mr Key promised to scrap KiwiSaver as Finance Spokesman in the 2005 election, calling it a ‘terribly designed system’.

Then last year following the Budget 2007 enhancements, Mr Key said:

“we’re looking at all the options around KiwiSaver, we don’t really like the existing scheme in the sense that we think, um, the first mark I version of it worked very, you know, was probably gonna be successful and not too bad..”

Then this morning Mr Key reverted back to his previous position of not having been a fan of the original design saying,

“We’ll we’ve always said that we’ve got concerns about certain aspects of KiwiSaver, we’ve also said that there would be a KiwiSaver, I didn’t like the first version that Michael Cullen had, because there wasn’t really much in it…”

“John Key was against KiwiSaver, then he was for it, and then he was against it again,” Dr Cullen said. “Why should we believe what he said yesterday?

“After yesterday’s accidental announcement about National’s support for KiwiSaver employer contributions, John Key refused to commit to rolling out the full 4 per cent contribution. Now this morning he has refused to commit to the full government subsidy for employers. It’s time to end the confusion.

“Would he keep the $1,000 kick start in place?

“Would he keep the government contribution of up to $1,040 a year in place?

“Would he keep the full employer tax credit in place?

“Would he keep the full support for first homebuyers in place?

“What is the ‘middle class sweetener’ Mr Key has be hinting about for KiwiSaver?”

ENDS

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