Money Talks: Simon Power - it is time to talk about changing KiwiSaver rules

Fisher Funds chief executive Simon Power talks to Liam Dann on the Money Talks podcast.

Simon Power is still most well known to Kiwis as a senior Cabinet Minister in the John Key Government. But despite retiring from Parliament at the top of his game in 2011 and heading into the corporate world, he remains a shameless political junkie.

The new chief executive of investment manager Fisher Funds, currently completing a PhD in political science, tells the Money Talks podcast that his most indulgent spending splurge was a trip to America to do a deep dive into US political history.

Power also talks about his new role at Fisher Funds and the need to get Kiwis to save more.

“After I left TVNZ, Lisa and I took the kids to Washington and to New York, and then I stayed and spent some time researching in Presidential libraries - Jimmy Carter in Atlanta, Georgia, LBJ [Lyndon B Johnson] in Austin, Texas, and then Reagan as part of the study I’m doing,” he says.

“And there was a point where I was sitting in one of those archive rooms going through materials thinking this is very, very self-indulgent. But I, I loved it. So that was probably the most indulgent, the passion thing I’ve done. I’m not very good at golf. I don’t own a boat so kind of the US politics is my ‘wow’ thing.”

Unsurprisingly Power is excited about what the next few weeks may hold in the US presidential campaign.

Perhaps it’s the freedom from the grind of daily political life that allows time to get so much joy from it.

After leaving parliament he took a senior executive role at Westpac NZ and was in the running for the top job - serving as acting CEO for several months in 2021 until the vacant position was filled.

“I applied to be the CEO,” he says. “I didn’t get the job. Catherine’s [McGrath] doing a great job in that role. So I was sort of thinking about, you know, what might be, what might be next?”

Perhaps getting the top job at Westpac NZ might have required doing some time with the parent company in Australia, Money Talks suggests.

“I don’t know the answer to that,” Power says.

But he is very firm about his commitment to New Zealand and to growing our economy.

“That’s one of the great things about Fisher Funds, you’ve got this two-third ownership from the Toi Foundation based out of the Taranaki Community Trust, the old Taranaki Community Trust.

“A big chunk of what we do goes into that community every year. I’m from the provinces. You know, I don’t identify myself as an Aucklander as such, even though Auckland has been very good to me. I’m from the Manawatū and I’m delighted to see those communities do well out of an organisation like ours.”

Power grew up in Palmerston North.

“Dad was in cars and mum in retail, real estate,” he says.

”I guess what was instilled in me was you work hard... but as well as that was the idea that you’re never quite sure when things are going to get hard and so to make sure that a portion [of your earnings] is swept into a savings account. That’s something that Lisa and I have tried to instil in our boys as well.”

Power worked at the local supermarket and says he spent most of his money on books.

“Which sounds slightly geeky, but that was true,” he says. “I’ve always been a collector of books.”

But he does recall splashing out in the Miami Vice era on a “particularly vivid, short-sleeved pink shirt with a vertical zip on it... as an early investment”.

He also recalls, with great passion, the politics and economics of that era.

“In 1984, when I was in fourth form, as it then was called, I can vividly remember a great teacher, who had the pictures of the fourth Labour government cabinet up on our wall in our homeroom. A couple of things resonated.

“The first was just the different way of managing the economy. And then secondly, this stayed with me, the power of the first term of a Government.

“So watching Roger Douglas, Richard Prebble, Mike Moore and that band. I mean, Geoffrey Palmer was an extraordinary legislator.”

That influenced his approach 25 years later when he came to be in Government himself, he says.

But while he was impressed with the sweep of the fourth Labour Government, Power says there was never any question that he was a National Party man.

“It was always National. I have this view on small government. I believe in the power of market economies. I believe in those things very, very strongly,” he says.

He concedes he is probably what might now be called one of the more liberal members of the National Party.

“My good friend Katherine Rich and others of that time, Clem Simich, probably Maurice Williamson and others would consider themselves similarly socially liberal.”

After many years in front of the TV news cameras, Power says he relished the chance to get behind the scenes as CEO at TVNZ in late 2021.

Regardless of missing out on the Westpac CEO job, the opportunity at TVNZ came up at the right time, he says.

“I thought that could be a really interesting thing to do, given the potential merger with Radio New Zealand.

“I had a set of skills, I think, that was helpful, some commercial background, but also understand how public policy is built and I absolutely loved it.”

Power says he has a “soft spot” for the newsroom

“I spent time down there when I could, keeping my hands off editorial decisions, of course, I really enjoyed understanding it. You know, I’ve been in front of plenty of those journalists during my career and watching them prepare was very different from being one on the receiving end.”

When the merger didn’t go ahead, it was time to move on, he says.

“That was really what I was there for. We put in place the strategy, to weight the digitisation and, and so on. Then it just seemed the natural inflection point to say, ‘well, let’s see what else there is’.”

That something turned out to be a chief executive position with prominent local investment firm Fisher Funds.

It seems a good fit for Power who earned great plaudits within the financial sector for the way, as Minister of Commerce, he handled the regulation of the sector after the GFC and finance company collapses, from 2008 to 2010.

The industry is still in good shape and the legislation he introduced (the Financial Markets Conduct Act) is ”still fit for purpose”, he says.

“The thing about the regulation of markets is that it should be done generationally so that there is a surety and a consistency in the application of regulation and the way a regulator interacts with market participants, “ he says.

“Including, of course, mum and dad investors.

“When I think back on it, the last time that it had been overhauled, was with Sir Geoffrey Palmer, when he did the Securities Act legislation. I spent time with Sir Geoffrey, you know, understanding, the levers and the depth of knowledge you had to have to make some of these changes.”

Power is keen to emphasise the collaborative nature of the legislative process.

“To that end working alongside not only cabinet colleagues, like Sir Bill English and others who were very determined to progress with work, credit has to go to Lianne Dalziel, who was sitting on the other side of the House and had started the Capital Markets Development Task Force when she was Minister.

“I supported that work from opposition and then when we moved to make some changes in government she was very supportive of those moves, so a lot of them ended up being quite bipartisan in nature, which gave markets reassurance that it wasn’t going to flip on its lid if there was a change of government.

“It’s for others to judge whether it’s been successful or not,” he says. “I just hope it’s brought some stability.”

With the fund manager hat on now, are there changes to regulation that he’d like to see?

“Look, I think where we’re sitting at the moment, we do need to have a nationwide discussion about whether the settings are right on KiwiSaver,” he says.

“So we’re having broad discussions about whether 3 or 4% seems to be the right contribution rate. In Australia, they’re debating between 11.5 and 12%.”

“We’re early in the life cycle of KiwiSaver, we haven’t had anybody go right through from 18 to 65 yet. There becomes, I think, an opportunity to have a conversation about: how much is enough?”

Power says he knows politicians will struggle with whether it’s the right time for that and cite the cost of living and so on.

“But, you know what? It’s exactly the right time. Because, if you signal these things ahead of time, you know, the OCR is down, there’s some opportunity potentially with some disposable income, people will be starting to think about how they use that disposable income. That’s actually the ideal opportunity to set out a pathway and have an intelligent conversation and see where it ends up.”

Listen to the full episode to hear more from Simon Power.

Money Talks is a podcast run by the NZ Herald. It isn’t about personal finance and it isn’t about economics - it’s just well-known New Zealanders talking about money and sharing some stories about the impact it’s had on their lives and how it has shaped them.

The series is hosted by Liam Dann, business editor-at-large for the Herald. He is a senior writer and columnist, and also presents and produces videos and podcasts. He joined the Herald in 2003.

Money Talks is available on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.