The Financial Services Council has welcomed ACT’s KiwiSaver policy, saying New Zealand is now closer than ever to a political consensus that KiwiSaver needs to be strengthened.
ACT recently announced it would remove tax on qualifying investment earnings within KiwiSaver, allowing returns to compound tax-free.
FSC CEO Kirk Hope says the significance of the announcement goes beyond the detail of any one party’s policy.
“Something pretty remarkable has happened this election. KiwiSaver has gone mainstream politically.
“National, Labour, ACT, New Zealand First and Opportunity have now all put forward ideas to strengthen retirement saving.
“The policies aren’t the same, and we’d expect plenty of debate about the best settings. But there’s increasingly broad agreement on the destination: Kiwis need to be saving and investing more for their future,” he says.
Hope sees this as a big shift and a welcome one.
This election, we’re debating how to strengthen KiwiSaver rather than whether we should…
“For years, meaningful changes to KiwiSaver have often been put in the too-hard basket because of the politics around them. This election, we’re debating how to strengthen KiwiSaver rather than whether we should.
“ACT’s proposal puts another important idea on the table: the effect tax settings can have on long-term compounding and retirement savings.”
Hope says the FSC has consistently called for a more ambitious, long-term approach to retirement savings.
“New Zealand has an opportunity after this election that we shouldn’t waste.
“Whatever the make-up of the next Government, there’s now a strong platform for political parties to work towards durable, long-term KiwiSaver settings that survive changes of government.”