David
PARKER

Spokesperson for Finance
1 July 2014 MEDIA STATEMENT

KiwiSaver’s 7th birthday something to be proud of

“KiwiSaver celebrates its seventh birthday today with 2.3 million people now enrolled, making it the most popular retirement saving scheme in New Zealand history, Labour’s Finance spokesperson David Parker says.

“KiwiSaver is yet another forward-thinking Labour policy that National vociferously opposed at the time but now supports through gritted teeth.

“On a day when there’s something to celebrate it’s sad National has to resort to myth-making and scare tactics regarding Labour’s capital gains tax (CGT) and KiwiSaver.

“Labour’s CGT will not increase the level of taxation on incomes derived from KiwiSaver or other retirement savings schemes.

“In fact, it is National that is guilty of increasing taxes on KiwiSaver. It slashed the member tax credit in half and imposed a tax on employer contributions.

“Rather than petty tinkering, Labour will build on our past successes by incrementally upping employer and employee contributions to a total of 9 per cent. We will also extend the KiwiSaver member tax credit and KickStart payment to virtually all employees by introducing universal KiwiSaver.

“All National can do is reheat old policies and pretend they are new.

“Labour is the party of innovative and fresh ideas that will help all New Zealanders get ahead,” David Parker says.

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