I was not intending to take part in the debate on the first reading of the Taxation (Consequential Rate Alignment and Remedial Matters) Bill, but I will answer the challenge of Mr Nash. Mr Nash said to come and join the debate, to go and join his side of the House because I am one of them.
We have two classes of citizens in this country: the privileged and the underprivileged, the haves and have-nots. Once upon a time the Labour Party would stand up and fight for the underprivileged. What did we hear from Mr Nash? We heard criticisms of the amount of funding that is going into independent schools and education. A very small number of people have the privilege of an independent education, which is an education that is paid for by parents. An independent education is an education that the privileged in society can afford. This country needs a form of funding where the funding follows the child. The Government needs to put funding into the hands of parents who live in South Auckland to give children the capacity to go to independent schools. Let us give the people in South Auckland and the underprivileged access to quality independent education. When I hear the Labour members standing up for the rights of children in South Auckland to go to the best-quality schools we have and to give them the best chance in life, that is when I will consider supporting Labour.
We have also heard a lot about savings. I give credit to the Hon David Cunliffe. He had the courage to say last week that this country needs to recognise the fact that we cannot afford to continue to provide superannuation to people at the age of 65. Mr Cunliffe had the courage to say that we need to look at raising the age-limit to 67. He was not talking about people who are 64 right now; he was talking about people who are 54, giving them 10 years’ notice to plan for the future. The reality is that we have a two-class society. We have the privileged and underprivileged; we have the haves and have-nots. We have the people who can look forward to their retirement with sufficient money saved and not depend upon the Government. But we also have two-thirds of society who retire fully dependent upon the Government and upon politicians providing their miserable pension. How can we expect a family to live on $20,000 a year? That is the pension for a family.
I support savings, and another thing I give credit to the Labour Party for is KiwiSaver. Mr Nash talked about KiwiSaver incentives. Who is saving in KiwiSaver?
Stuart Nash: Hard-working Kiwis.
JOHN BOSCAWEN: I tell Mr Nash that the well-off are saving. Once again, incentives for people to save are giving money from people who cannot afford to save but still have to pay taxes to those on higher incomes who are in a position to save. If Mr Nash is concerned about shifting resources from low-income people to people on higher incomes who are in a better position to save, then he should not provide incentives to save. I congratulate Labour on setting up KiwiSaver. It was set up with an incentive of 4c in the dollar. That incentive has been reduced to 2c in the dollar and it should probably be 0c in the dollar. If I had my way saving would be compulsory. I said that before in my maiden speech.
I conclude my comments here, but I come back to the fact that we have a two-tier society. We have two classes of citizens: we have the privileged and the underprivileged, the haves and have-nots. When the Labour Party is prepared to consider ways of funding education that will allow people on low incomes with low wealth to get the best in education then I will consider its offer seriously. Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker Barker