Nicola Willis responds to equity concerns over KiwiSaver, Super mix, saying ‘we can have both’
Tuesday, 23 June 2026
National’s finance spokesperson Nicola Willis has dismissed the suggestion that shifting the emphasis on retirement funding from NZ Superannuation to KiwiSaver could increase inequality, indicating that is not the party’s plan.
The party has announced it will campaign at the election on making KiwiSaver compulsory and lifting both employee and employer contributions to 6% of workers’ pre-tax income by 2032.
Willis also told The Post in early May that the country would need to change the settings for NZ Super, saying the only alternative would be to tax New Zealanders “more and more and more”, which she said would not be a good proposition for the economy.
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said National had done a sudden U-turn on KiwiSaver because it intended to raise the retirement age.
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“The National Party is trying to impose personal responsibility on all New Zealanders for the state of this economy, which they have shredded effectively.”
People’s KiwiSaver balances are tied to individual workers’ earnings, while universal, flat-rate NZ Super entitlements funded through taxation have the effect of transferring income from higher-income families to those on lower incomes.
The Treasury has estimated, for example, that making NZ Super less generous by tying payments only to inflation, rather than wage growth, would slash the amount of income a low-earner born in the 1970s would have to spend over their lifetime by about 5%.
But Willis indicated she did not see a trade-off occurring between the schemes.
“For as long as I’m in Parliament, universal superannuation is here to stay. It provides a necessary support to New Zealanders.
“What we’re saying is, let’s build on that with additional retirement savings for every Kiwi worker … for every baby born, so that every young New Zealander has the opportunity to build up a nest egg, either to buy their first home or to look forward to a better retirement. We can have both.”
Willis suggested preventing lower-income workers from opting out of KiwiSaver, its planned $1500 “Baby Boost” payment to kick-start accounts, and its proposal to always maintain the Government’s contribution when people were on parental leave, would address some inequities.
“We want to address the ‘motherhood penalty’,” she said, referring to concern that mothers, in particular, often missed out on retirement funds by skipping contributions when on parental leave.
ACT Party leader David Seymour said it would be easier to change the settings for NZ Super if people saved more. However, he questioned whether higher contributions to KiwiSaver might simply displace people’s other savings.
Making KiwiSaver compulsory was a great policy for firms in the financial services sector, he said. “It’s a huge gift to the banks. I'm not sure that it will leave people better off overall.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins declined to say whether he believed National had an agenda to advantage people on higher incomes through pension funding reforms.
“The National Party haven’t been clear on exactly what it is they’re campaigning on when it comes to New Zealand superannuation, so unlike them, I’m not going to make up the policy on their behalf,” he said.
“The challenge the National Party haven’t answered is making KiwiSaver compulsory doesn’t make it more affordable for those low-income New Zealanders. If anything, it puts them into more immediate financial hardships,” he said.