The Green Party has found that the Government has not accounted for its own increased costs as an employer incurred by the KiwiSaver changes rushed through under Budget urgency last week.
“There’s anywhere between $633 million to $714 million of costs to the Crown unaccounted for in the Government’s Budget, as a result of its rushed changes to KiwiSaver contribution rates,” says Green Co-Leader and Finance spokesperson, Chlöe Swarbrick.
“The Finance Minister must have been aware of this, but despite incurring a legally required and quantifiable cost, she has failed to put aside funds to meet it. If the Prime Minister and Finance Minister knew about this better part of a billion dollar hole in their budget, they have deliberately decided not to be upfront and honest about it. New Zealanders are over it.
“If the Government doesn’t front up with the funds between now and April next year when the first set of changes come into force, Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis will be forcing immediate cuts directly to frontline services in health, education and social services to pay for their fiscal hole.
“Nicola Willis and Christopher Luxon have almost copy-pasted the John Key Government’s 2011 KiwiSaver changes by halving Government contributions and increasing default contributions for employers and employees - but Bill English and John Key accounted for the increased employer contributions for our teachers, nurses and officials by establishing a special fund to pay for it. Willis and Luxon have chosen not to.
“The Minister will no doubt say these extra staffing costs must be met within departmental baselines. If she’s honest with New Zealanders, that means the Government has intentionally hidden more than half a billion dollars extra in public service cuts to come.
“New Zealanders deserve so much more than this Government patronising about ‘growth’ while cutting the very investment and public services necessary not only for people’s wellbeing, but for that very growth. New Zealanders deserve honesty and transparency about who’s paying the cost of this Government’s cruel decisions.
“It is possible to reduce the cost of living, increase our quality of life and rapidly reduce climate changing emissions. We produced our costed and transparent Green Budget to show how, and it’s clear, after the Prime Minister spent half his Budget speech talking about us, our plan scares those profiting from the economic misery they’ve created,” says Chlöe Swarbrick.
Note:
- It’s illegal to reduce current employees’ pay to make up for the increased Kiwisaver employer contributions.
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