I did not intend to participate in this debate; I will probably speak only until 6 p.m. and leave it at that.
It was very interesting to listen for the first time to Damien O’Connor speak in the House. He very proudly declared that John Key has acknowledged that there is an issue of climate change. Let me say to Mr O’Connor that of course the climate is changing. It has been changing for centuries; it has been changing for millennia. The climate is always changing. He thinks it is important to say there is climate change, but that is nonsense. The issue is whether humans impact on climate change or whether it occurs naturally, and it has been occurring naturally on this Earth for many, many millennia. I acknowledge that there is climate change, but since 2001 temperatures on this globe have been going down, so I ask why we would penalise working New Zealanders when we are not certain there is an impact.
Mr Bennett talked about the benefits of this bill and about incentivising people to buy electric cars. I noticed that Mr O’Connor was happy to acknowledge that. Mr O’Connor also talked about cross-subsidisation. He talked about the situation whereby someone who could not afford to buy an electric car, at twice the cost of a regular car, is subsidising someone who could afford it. It was very interesting for that member to raise the issue of cross-subsidisation, because with KiwiSaver poorer people who cannot afford to save are, through their taxes, subsidising those who can afford to save. In particular, people on lower incomes, who do not get as big a subsidy from the Government as others do, are subsidising people who can afford to pay more and who have higher incomes. We have cross-subsidisation in KiwiSaver. One of the first things this Government did, before that member came back into this House, was to reduce the level of that cross-subsidisation from 4c in the dollar to 2c in the dollar.
Sue Moroney: It’s not a subsidy!
JOHN BOSCAWEN: That is exactly what it was! The Government was subsidising people’s savings at 4c in the dollar, and the subsidy is now 2c in the dollar. In my view, we should take that subsidy down to zero and we should make KiwiSaver compulsory.
I was also interested in Mr Bennett’s comments criticising the Labour Party for wanting a classless society. I say to him that we should have a classless society. In New Zealand we have two classes of people: the haves and the have-nots. We have the privileged and the unprivileged. We have people who can afford to save through KiwiSaver and get a subsidy, and those who cannot. We have people who can afford private medical insurance, and those who cannot. We have people who have access to good health care, and those who do not. Those issues are confronting our society, and we should be ashamed that we have a two-class society. We should be moving towards a classless society. I actually congratulate the Labour Party. I wish its vision was true.
- Debate interrupted.