Richard McIntyre: Federated Farmers' banking spokesperson on the petition urging the Government to change KiwiSaver rules for farmers

Federated Farmers has launched a petition calling for KiwiSaver rules to be changed to help young farmers get their foot on the ladder.

The petition’s launch has been timed to coincide with Fieldays, where thousands of farmers, industry leaders and politicians will gather at Mystery Creek.

Federated Farmers' banking spokesperson Richard McIntyre says farming is very capital intensive and young farmers need a boost in the name of fairness.

"Kiwi farmers are really struggling to put that money aside and a lot of them are actually deciding not to put money into KiwiSaver and basically scrimp and save because they know they need all the money they can get to actually get their foot in the door."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
Should young farmers be allowed to use their keyw savers
to buy the first farm, the first flock or the
first herd. Fed Farmers has just launched a petition calling
on the government to urgently change the key we saver
rules to help farmers get their foot on the ladder.
And Richard McIntyre is fed Farmer's Dairy Chair and with
us now, hey, Richard, hey, it seems to be a
no brainer at least to be able to buy the

(00:37):
first farm.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Right, Oh, look at it very much as to us, Heather,
you know, to us this is very much about fairness
for farm staff and then also enabling progression and then
succession within the actective.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
What about the first herd? Though, Explain to me why
you'd do that. I mean, because I can understand with
the farm you're living on the farm in the same
way that I'm living in my first house. But you're
not living in your herd, are you.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Well, Farming is very very capital intensive and to get
your foot in the foot in the door, you need
a lot of money. As a deposit in order to
begin affectively moving your way up the ladder, such as
you know, leasing a farm and buying a flock of
sheep or herd owning share looking and so for example,
you know, for us, we ever heard of four hundred
and fifty cows. We needed over three hundred thousand dollars

(01:21):
as a deposit in order to be able to buy
that herd and progress within the sector. You know, Kiwi
farmers aren't really struggling to put that money aside, and
a lot of them are actually deciding not to put
money into kiwisaver and basically scrimp and save because they
know they need all the money that they can get
to actually get there for the door and move up
that ladder.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Would that not be the same as me taking out
my key we saveor to buy my first business.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Well potentially, you know, and obviously they're going to need
to be some good guidelines around that, you know. Where
we would see it, it would be the idea that
you could only use the money to invest in something
that wouldn't appreciate effectively, So you wouldn't use it for
vehicles or anything like that. You could use it for
bricks and mortar or a herd or a flop which

(02:05):
although they do get old and can die, and they
also reproduce themsel as well.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Okay, I mean I think probably on the herd of
the flock you may have a bit of a there
may be a bit of an argument about whether that's smart,
but certainly the first farm seems no brainer. So why
hasn't National done it? Then?

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yeah, look, we're trying to understand it a little bit
as well. I suspect there are a few a few
things they need to work through in terms of how
they would potentially make this fear for everyone else, you know,
a little bit like you're referred to. But to us
it seems like an absolute no brainer. Probably. The other
big point to make here is at the moment, you know,
when you if you live in an urban and sitting,
you can easily buy your first heart or you know,

(02:40):
put take money out of you keep. We say, to
buy your first house because you live in it. When
you're in a rule setting, your job typically comes with
a service centers, so a house that you live in
on the farm because you live remotely, and so all
of these young farm staff are actually unable to get
onto the property ladder at the same time as urban
pairs and so there's a real fairness issue here that
needs to be addressed.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Now I know that there was Remind me who it
is in the National Party who's got the members bill?

Speaker 3 (03:07):
SU's maybe the MP for it together?

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Okay, so like, let's not be I don't want to
be unkind to her. But she's nobody right, She's right
back there. This is not a big person putting their
name to this, So I think this is just being
parked the fact that they have got this, sus has
put it into the biscuit t in about three weeks ago.
You guys are now launching a petition. Is that you
being frustrated that they're not actually getting on with this
in a significant way.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
So well, first of all, we're divided with what Susan
has done. She's been awesome in this respect, but we
are really pushing the government to actually, you know, follow
through on their promise that they made pre election, which
is to allow young farmers to remove money from their
QUI save it and a one off.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
What's going on though, Rochard? I mean, you guys are
tapped in this is It Act or New Zealand First
who is putting the kai bosh on this.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Well, not entirely sure at this point, but in Certaly
not progressing as fast as we think it should end.
So this petition, which has had a huge amount of
support so far and I'm sure we'll get heaps of
support over field days, is going to help to add
to the pressure on the government to actually get this
over the one.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, brilliant stuff, Hey, Richard, thanks for talking us through it.
Richard McIntire, Federated Farmer's chairperson of dairy. Ye're not to
be disrespectful to sus, but sus as their parking ward
and a they've parked it, they've given it to sus.
They were like, park that for us, make it look
like we're doing something and we're not actually doing anything anyway.
Nicola Willis is with us, as you know. She's with
us after six on a Monday, so we have a
little chat to her and just find out what's going

(04:26):
on here.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
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