Heat on Agriculture Minister to deliver KiwiSaver farm promise

Otago Daily Times

2 days ago

The heat is on the Agriculture Minister to deliver this term on a pre-election promise to unlock KiwiSaver so it can be used to buy a first farm, a flock of sheep or herd of cows, and not just a house.
At the moment, if you have been contributing to KiwiSaver for three years, you can withdraw almost all the money to buy a first home to live in, although there are a few exceptions. As a general rule, you can't have owned a home or land before. But there are some exceptions for second chance buyers who, for example, might have been through a relationship breakup.
Federated Farmers has launched a petition urging the government to loosen the rules for accessing the retirement scheme, saying it will turbocharge the next generation of farmers and deliver on a commitment that Agriculture Minister Todd McClay made during a meeting in Morrinsville prior to the election.
The minister has now said that his comments were a National Party promise, rather than a coalition promise.
But McClay told Checkpoint he does intend to uphold the promise before the end of the government's term.
"I hope to have an announcement later this year and yes, that would be before the end of this term. But the work is underway now," he said.
"We're gonna work pretty hard on it. If there is a reason not to, I'll front up and tell them. But I'm confident that it will be done before the election"
McClay said that while he is determined to stick to the pre-election promise, he wants to ensure that it does not come with any unintended consequences.
"You've gotta make sure that it's fair cause there will be others in the economy that say, well, you know, I want to use my KiwiSaver to buy a business that also allows me to get into a farm," he said.
"Secondly, it's around whether if you get a flock of sheep and what happens if you decide that you don't wanna go any further, and then purchase a home... then money might go back into KiwiSaver."
McClay said that because of these scenarios, the overall policy responsibility lay with another minister.
"As Agriculture Minister, I'm focused on what we can do for farmers... I think there's a much broader conversation than I'm willing to have as the Agriculture Minister."
Federated Farmers Dairy Chair Richard McIntyre told Checkpoint the changes would help young farmers get on the property ladder.
"This is a chance to allow young farmers to actually progress their way up the ladder, investing in in small scale business ownership with ultimately the goal of buying a farm," he said.
"A tangible asset like a flock or herd that gets young farmers progressing up up the ladder within the agriculture sector makes a huge amount of sense."
He said although the promise hasn't yet been delivered, he still has faith in the Agriculture Minister to deliver.
"We've still got a lot of confidence that we're gonna get this over the line. It's just taking a little bit more work and a bit more pressure than we'd like it to."
McClay said this government had already delivered the majority of what Federated Farmers had called for prior to the election, as well as intending to fulfil this final promise in some form.
"We announced probably 25 pieces of policy and [Federated Farmers] had a list of 12 that we had already put out. Of those, 11 have been delivered on fully or are now under way with law changes."
National MP for Rangitīkei Suze Redmayne submitted a members bill late last year, which will achieve some of what Federated Farmers is calling for, but it is yet to be drawn from the ballot.