Winston should set up his own KiwiSaver fund
Hamish Rutherford at Stuff reports:
Winston Peters is proposing to establish a new state-owned KiwiSaver fund, saying private schemes were a “pot of gold” for providers, but not savers.
Speaking at the NZ First conference in Christchurch today, Peters said KiwiSaver providers had extracted excessive fees from savers. Since it was formed five years ago, providers had “sucked off $325 million from the people paying into the scheme”.
According to Peters, an “independent source” had told him that over the next 30 years, the amount of fees would climb to $22 billion.
“KiwiSaver is a pot of gold – for the providers – not the savers.”
Peters today proposed that a scheme on the same footing at the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, called KiwiFund, which would be government guaranteed.
Return would be “a lot higher” than they were in private providers, Peters said.
“Our plan is to change KiwiSaver so that it is a truly Government backed and managed retirement fund.
I’m in Carmel Fisher’s KiwiSaver Fund and very happy with the returns thank you.
If Winston thinks KiwiSaver Funds are not delivering a good enough return, then there is a simple solution.
Winston should set up his own KiwiSaver Fund. This would allow all those who believe in the financial genius of Winston to invest their life savings with him, and get this guaranteed higher return he talks of.
The Herald reports that Winston’s policy may cause problems with Labour:
New Zealand First has put a potential roadblock between itself and a post-election coalition deal with Labour by setting a bottom line on retirement savings that Labour is lukewarm on at best.
Leader Winston Peters told NZ First’s annual conference in Christchurch yesterday that the party wanted to effectively nationalise KiwiSaver by putting it “on the same footing as the New Zealand Super Fund”.
So many politicians wanting to nationalise so many things – it is like being back in the 1970s.
The KiwiFund policy was “most definitely” a bottom line for any post-election coalition talks next year.
But while Labour leader David Cunliffe said his party was happy to look at the policy in more detail, “we don’t think that the KiwiSaver industry is fundamentally broken.
Some sanity from Labour. Yay.