Following media reports yesterday that at least five of nine KiwiSaver providers are investing in companies that make land mines and cluster bombs, the Green Party is calling on the government to review default providers, to ensure New Zealanders aren’t unwittingly putting their retirement savings toward inhumane weapons of war.
But those with KiwiSaver accounts surveyed today and yesterday say they just want to know whether the cluster bomb investments are doing well.
Pensioner Gladys Beasley was spoken to on the street by Radio New Zealand reporter Anusha Bradley earlier today.
“Are you aware that your KiwiSaver dollars may be being invested in land mines and cluster bombs?” she was asked.
“Oh? Is that a good investment?”
“Well, it’s just that these are weapons that often blow the limbs off children long after the conflict has ended.”
“Are they doing well?” asked Beasley.
She was pleased to learn that they’re “doing pretty well.”
This was a sentiment echoed by those polled by Newshub overnight, 12% of whom said they were uncomfortable with the investments, 7% said they were comfortable, while an overwhelming 81% said it “depends on how the stock doing is doing.”
“Well that’s some interesting issues that you raise there,” said one 32-year-old Wellington man. “I mean, you hear these things about kiddies getting their legs blown off and that type of stuff, which is pretty horrible, so I’d bloody well hope we’re at least making some good money on it.”
Prime Minister John Key echoed the public sentiment today, saying he wasn’t “a massive fan” of cluster bombs or similar weapons, but that “markets fluctuate.”
“I think most New Zealanders would agree that markets go up and down,” he said. “Sometimes cluster bombs and cruel weapons of war aren’t a good investment, sometimes they are. At the moment they are. At the end of the day, I think most people would tell you they just want to see a healthy nest egg.”
This week’s controversy comes on the heels of last week’s report that most of New Zealanders’ KiwiSaver dollars are being used to buy up hundreds of lotto tickets, which banks say is the only realistic way of paying everyone out at the end.
[An earlier version of this story referred to Newshub as 3 News, which is the name of a better network.]