MPs’ KiwiSaver choices revealed
OPINION: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has switched KiwiSaver provider to Booster after finding out last year that ANZ KiwiSaver had investments in companies supporting the Saudi military.
It was slightly embarrassing as Ardern had just ordered an inquiry into a deal under which Air New Zealand serviced engines for the Saudi Arabian navy, saying the deal did not pass the ‘‘sniff test’’.
Her switch to the Booster KiwiSaver scheme has been revealed in the publication of the register of MPs’ financial interests, which provides a fascinating look into MPs’ money lives.
National leader Christopher Luxon, Air NZ’s former chief executive, could not recall the Saudi deal being done. The register of MPs’ interests lists suggests he may be a bit sketchy on KiwiSaver too. Luxon is the only MP to name interests in two KiwiSaver schemes: Westpac and AMP. Currently, KiwiSaver rules only allow a person to be in one scheme at a time. Looking over MPs’ shoulders into their KiwiSaver lives does provide a few surprises.
AMP, which is a relatively poorly-performing scheme, is the most popular, with 19 MPs invested in it. ACT leader David Seymour was one of them. Second place goes to Booster, which was the beneficiary of ethically-motivated switches out of ANZ KiwiSaver by Ardern and Green MP Chloe Swarbrick.
The Booster scheme, which is New Zealand-owned, had 13 MPs invested in it, including eight Labour and three Green MPs. Booster has a socially responsible investment fund, one of the oldest on the market.
Just four MPs were invested in the well-performing Milford KiwiSaver scheme; Mark Mitchell, Rino Tirikatene, Simon Watts and Simon Bridges.
ANZ and locally-owned Kiwi Wealth were the joint third most popular schemes. Simplicity, Fisher and ASB tied in joint fourth, with big-hitting MPs Trevor Mallard, Andrew Bayly and Paul Goldsmith all with Simplicity. Westpac came next.
Eight MPs didn’t list a KiwiSaver scheme. They included former National Party leader Judith Collins, though she is one of a group of National MPs with private super schemes set up just for them.
Many senior MPs have significant property and investment wealth, including wealth held in family trusts, and in other super schemes, which may mean KiwiSaver is less important to them than the average worker.
Ardern, for example, is in three super schemes; two managed by Booster, and one by AMP of which just one is a KiwiSaver.
A few MPs did not use the correct names for their KiwiSaver schemes, which may be an indication of KiwiSaver’s importance to them.
National grandee Gerry Brownlee, who is one of the National MPs with a private super scheme, said he was invested in the AXA scheme, which was merged into AMP’s scheme many years ago.
In recent years there’s been a lot of coverage of KiwiSaver investment ethics. MPs are expected to walk their talk by investing ethically, or at least in line with their parties’ ethical and ideological stances. But as Ardern and Swarbrick found, it can be hard to achieve ethical and ideological purity through KiwiSaver, which is invested in a large number of companies both in New Zealand, and overseas.
There was a strong ‘‘buy local’’ flavour with half of MPs in KiwiSaver having opted to back New Zealand-owned KiwiSaver schemes including Booster, Simplicity and Kiwi Wealth.
The register of MPs’ financial interests does offer some interesting fodder for speculation, but it’s surprisingly limited.
It tells us clearly that most MPs take their wealth and their retirement savings seriously. But there are no dollar-values given for MPs’s financial interests, which is not very useful. Someone with $500,000 invested in a particular share has more at stake than someone with $50 invested in it.
And when it comes to KiwiSaver, we only know the scheme MPs’ are in, not how much they have invested, or whether they plumped for a growth fund, which is the logical choice for most high-earners who won’t need the money for a decade or more. We don’t even know what proportion of their incomes MPs are saving.