An opinion piece in today’s Sunday Star Times by Matthew Hooton, certainly puts the boot into Micahel Cullen.
Hooton, disappointed at the quasi-compulsory nature of the Kiwisaver changes announced in this weeks budget, lauded Cullen is a “despised and patronising” politician who “…thinks himself so superior….how limited his own life has been”.
Well Matt is entitled to his opinion and all, but clearly there is a savings shortfall in New Zealand, caused in part by the transfer of capital from savings to property investment. If it take quasi-compulsion to redress the balance then just perhaps it is a necessary evil.
Hooton states that Kiwisaver was “designed initially for losers who can’t drive past a Noel Leemings store without putting something on hire purchase” but is unnecessary for “those sensibly building a home…”. Sorry Matthew but it’s those very Ma and Pa investors building homes who are also speculatively buying investment properties. If and when the real estate correction comes, it will be these same Ma and Pa investorswho not only lose their investment but put the security of their own homes on the line.
Maybe Cullen’s concept will not only help those Noel Leemings losers but also give the Ma and Pa brigade a rationale for diversifying their investments.
