National proposes making KiwiSaver contributions compulsory for all workers from 1 July 2028, at the default rate on a glidepath reaching 6 percent each from employee and employer by 2032. Alongside it: a $1,500 Baby Boost with automatic enrolment at birth, a government KiwiSaver contribution for people on paid parental leave whether or not they contribute themselves, and compulsory employer contributions for workers over 65 — all from 1 July 2027.
Contributions would be made at whatever the default rate is at the time, following an already-legislated glidepath: 3.5 percent from 1 April 2026, rising 0.5 points in 2028 and each year after until employee and employer rates each reach 6 percent on 1 April 2032. The document says this is aimed at low-income, part-time and self-employed workers, whose contribution rates it describes as lower than average.
Three carve-outs: another employer-managed scheme, the period someone is on paid parental leave, and suspension — which would require meeting the hardship test already used for early withdrawal. The self-employed would pay only the employee share, 4 percent rather than the combined 8.
Every child born in New Zealand would be enrolled automatically and receive $1,500. The document works through the compounding: at an assumed long-run return of about 7 percent a year, that becomes roughly $5,000 by age 18 with no further contributions. Costing assumes about 60,000 births a year; it notes there were 57,700 live births last year.
Today the government matches contributions made by someone on paid parental leave. The document says only about 1 in 5 eligible people kept contributing in the year to June 2025, so 4 in 5 got nothing. From 1 July 2027 the contribution would be paid regardless, at the default rate applied to the parental leave payment.
Employers are not currently required to contribute for employees aged 65 and over. National would require it from 1 July 2027, on the same basis as for other employees. The document notes around 1 in 4 New Zealanders over 65 are in paid work and says this implements a 2024 Retirement Commissioner recommendation.
These scenarios and figures are National’s own, from the document.
National’s own figures, covering the Baby Boost, the parental leave top-up, the wider government contribution and the Crown’s own cost as an employer. The document says the cost would be met from future Budget operating allowances, and that it has deliberately not offset the total with the additional employer superannuation contribution tax the changes would raise, to keep the estimate conservative.
“Contributions will be made at the prevailing default rate as part of the agreed glidepath, lifting combined default contributions to 12% by 2032, matching Australia.”
“The cost of this policy will be met from future Budget operating allowances.”
“This directly implements a recommendation of the Retirement Commissioner, who called for employer contributions to be required for those over 65 in the Commission’s 2024 review of KiwiSaver settings.”
Points the document defers or leaves undefined. These are gaps in the document, not criticisms of the policy.
Which party holds a published position on which topic.
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