There are fears Finance Minister Nicola Willis is opening a can of worms by looking into allowing people to withdraw money from their KiwiSaver funds to buy farms.
“If you can withdraw your KiwiSaver funds to buy a house, you should be able to withdraw them to buy a farm,” Willis told Newstalk ZB on Monday night.
She explained she was seeking advice from the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) on the matter, which is yet to be considered by Cabinet.
Willis’ comments followed the launch of a Federated Farmers campaign, designed to coincide with Fieldays this week.
“Allowing young farmers to access their KiwiSaver to buy their first herd, home, farm or flock is the number one thing the Government could do to help our next generation of farmers,” Federated Farmers dairy chair Richard McIntyre said.
“It would shave years of hard work and saving off their progression through the industry, and really turbocharge their farming careers.
“Why is the Government okay with that money being managed by stockbrokers and invested in Fortune 500 companies, but not by a farmer buying a herd to go sharemilking?”
Willis said she was “on the Fed Farmers’ side”, but wasn’t sure where she would draw the line in terms of which farm-related assets withdrawals could be used for.
“I’d want to look into that, because then that gets to a range of other issues – should you be able to buy your first set of tools if you’re a mechanic, should you be able to buy your first garage?” she said.
Willis told the Herald she wasn’t considering allowing withdrawals for investment in a “business”.
She wouldn’t elaborate on why she thought it was okay for KiwiSaver funds to be used for a farm, but not another type of business.
The head of accountancy, economics and finance at Massey University, Claire Matthews, feared Willis was “absolutely” opening a can of worms by considering the change.
She believed people would question why they could use their investments, ring-fenced for retirement, for farms but not other assets.
Matthews said the current allowance of KiwiSaver withdrawals for a first home was different, as it was about enabling people to secure a place to live, not pursue a business opportunity.
She believed people were better off at retirement if they owned their own home.
Matthews accepted farmers may argue they’d be better off at retirement if they invested more in their farms.
“But if the farm fails, it’s all gone,” she said, noting that having one’s money invested in a diversified portfolio of equities, bonds and cash, via KiwiSaver, provided a good back-up.
Matthews worried some people could be put off contributing to KiwiSaver if it was seen to be tinkered with too much.
While she supported the Government’s decision to lift the default contribution rate for employees and employers, she believed “having politicians fiddling with it erodes some trust”.
Asked how she could justify potentially eroding KiwiSaver’s credibility for the sake of what will likely only be a small number of farmers, Willis said she expected the IRD’s advice to include the pros and cons of such a change, including how many people it would affect and its effect on the integrity of the scheme.
Federated Farmers’ McIntyre said that using KiwiSaver funds to buy your first “farm, flock, herd or home has been an incredibly hot topic for farmers”.
“On the campaign trail of the 2023 election, [National MP] Todd McClay stood up in front of young farmers in Morrinsville and made a promise that he would make it happen,” McIntyre said.
“I’m sure he had the best of intentions, but unfortunately farmers have been bitterly disappointed by the lack of action from the Government on the issue to date.”
The Retirement Commission’s personal finance lead, Tom Hartmann, said the risks associated with the proposal would need to be properly examined.
“Any diminishing of KiwiSaver’s role as a retirement fund should be considered with a high degree of caution,” Hartmann said.
He was concerned that changing the scheme too much could diminish trust in it.
Ultimately, he said the focus should be on what puts people in the best financial position long-term.
Jenée Tibshraeny is the Herald‘s Wellington business editor, based in the parliamentary press gallery. She specialises in government and Reserve Bank policymaking, economics and banking.