New Super Fund to Replace Kiwisaver $22 Billion Gravy Train
Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
20 October 2013
New Super Fund
to Replace Kiwisaver $22 Billion Gravy
Train
A new superannuation fund to save
billions of dollars for KiwiSaver contributors over the next
thirty years will be a central plank for New Zealand First
at the 2014 General Election.
An outline plan of
“KiwiFund” has been announced by Rt Hon Winston Peters
in his keynote Leader’s address at the party’s annual
convention in Christchurch today.
Mr Peters told
delegates that private funds managers were sucking the
lifeblood out of KiwiSaver, and in five short years had
already taken $325 million in management and investment
fees.
“Independent forecasts show that over the
next thirty years these funds managers will take more than
$22 billion from KiwiSavers and there is no government
guarantee that the remaining funds will be
safe.
“There is huge pressure from the finance
industry to get their hands on more retirement funds. The
figures show these companies will make spectacular profits
at the expense of people saving for their retirement.
“Our plan is to change KiwiSaver so that it is a
truly government-backed and managed retirement fund. Because
of the economies of scale, and the elimination of hordes of
ticket clipping fund managers, costs will be greatly
reduced. People who pay into KiwiSaver will get their full
return.”
Under the New Zealand First plan,
KiwiFund will be government-guaranteed and it would invest
substantially in New Zealand.
“People saving
through KiwiFund will be buying back New Zealand. KiwiFund
will invest in buying back farmland, state assets and
critical infrastructure. Funding will also be provided to
support smart local companies to develop new products and
create jobs.
“We have to invest in our own
future. Overseas pension funds and corporate investors can
hardly believe their luck – and are buying up everything
they can in New Zealand.
“New Zealand First says
its time to stop this sell out. We are already well down the
road to serfdom in our own country.”
Mr Peters
warned there would be “howls of outrage” from the
private funds managers who would “fight to the death” to
retain their $22 billion gravy train.
“In the
United States, private funds managers lost billions of
dollars of pension funds during the 2008 financial crisis.
We simply cannot afford to let that happen to the retirement
savings of New Zealanders.
“KiwiFund will enable
us to build a high performance economy from which all New
Zealanders will get the benefit,” said Mr Peters.
ENDS