Matt McPherson

I think affordability is one that we should target because those people are making a decision that is having twice the impact with the employer losing the employer.

But other people may be making decisions because they may not be working or they may be retired.

There's all sorts of reasons, but particularly those people that are opting out because of affordability, I think they're being punished twice.

Yeah, I mean, at the moment, one in eight people joining have never been in KiwiSaver before.

If you look at just over 18s, it's one in 12 people who are signing up to our KiwiSaver scheme have never been in before.

It's an extraordinary high figure compared to what you see across the industry.

Some of that is that we've made it very convenient for people to sign up.

It's in the investing app where they're visiting quite frequently.

I think another one is that we've made KiwiSaver a bit more personal.

Something people can connect with a little bit by giving them some more control and options.

And I think, you know, this idea that people can go in and have more control and connection to their KiwiSaver has really stirred something because we're seeing a lot of people who hadn't been in it before all of a sudden decide to sign up, but also to start contributing as well.

Yeah, I think

First of all, there's a lot of interest in KiwiSaver by the political parties at the moment.

A lot of policy work's already been unveiled, and I'm sure we're going to see more.

And I think for a lot of us, it's because KiwiSaver's now quite a tangible part of our personal balance sheets.

So they're looking at an average balance of $35,000 to $40,000, and we're all invested here.

I think employers, if you're one of the 45% of employers that offer total REM packages,

I'd like to go away and make sure you're not shortchanging your staff as a compulsory.

contribution levels go up.

I'd also encourage you to think about whether it's in the best interests of your people and your company and the country as a whole, because I've failed to be convinced that it is.