Compulsory Savings

The NZ Herald endorses Winston Peters’ call for the Cullen fund and KiwiSaver to be turned into a fully fledged compulsory superannuation fund with individual accounts.

I opposed compulsory super in 1997, partly on the basis it was dictating the preferred form of savings. Often it was more logical for someone to pay off their mortgage before investing in a super fund. Likewise young farmers might be better placed to invest in their farm, than put money into bonds. Same for business owners.

But considering the Cullen Fund means taxpayers get massively overtaxed, so they don’t have the money to do these other things anyway, the proposal by Peters has more merit today than it did then.