Orr certain NZ won’t go entirely cashless

from financial services companies based in the city.

‘‘I will continue to tell our story in different ways, to talk to different audiences,’’ said Orr, who has been criticised for his testy reaction to criticism, and adoption of Ma¯ ori iconography and language.

‘‘I am not here to talk to a few narrow specialists. I am not here to talk to just the institutions we regulate.

‘‘We are the central bank of everyone here in New Zealand, present and future, and we have been too narrow and too lax in our engagement with you all, and it is not going to happen again.’’

Orr spoke about the importance of economic and social inclusion in response to a question from Jackie Clark, founder of The Aunties wha¯ nau support movement, who complained New Zealand was a low-wage economy.

‘‘The owners of capital have been doing a great job over and above the owners of labour,’’ Orr said. ‘‘It has been extreme, unprecedented, over the past 40 or 50 years of that ongoing return to the owners of capital, and labour has become a global commodity, where production goes to the lowest common denominator.

‘‘We want low and stable inflation but that does mean we want low wages,’’ he said.

‘‘We have been celebrating the fact that nominal and real wages have been growing recently.

‘‘That is how we roll. That is how we have to roll, otherwise create yourself a gated community. Enjoy yourselves but do not leave.’’

Last year was the best year ever for Kiwisaver – but did you notice?

ASB has put out its latest Kiwisaver survey, which shows that, although it was an exceptional year for the sharemarket and many Kiwisaver members would have made thousands in returns, New Zealanders largely seemed not to realise.

It said its ASB scheme had returns ranging from 7.3 per cent in the conservative fund to 20 per cent in the growth fund after fees and taxes.

The NZX returned 30 per cent over the year.

But only 13 per cent of New Zealanders who responded to the bank’s survey said they thought Kiwisaver was the best bank product from returns.

By comparison, bank term deposit rates are about 2.5 per cent.

‘‘Part of the reason sharemarkets had such outsize gains last year was that they were coming off a pretty heavy drop at the end of the fourth quarter which had a lot of people nervous,’’ said ASB head of Kiwisaver Aidan Vince.

‘‘Even taking that recovery aside, the performance has been really strong over the last year, and we know this would have been similar across a number of other Kiwisaver providers.