On the Tiles: What was Government thinking with the 'KiwiSaver tax'

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Revenue Minister David Parker. Photo / Mark Mitchell

A week is a long time in politics, but Labour showed this week that a lot can change in 24 hours as well.

News broke on Tuesday afternoon that the Government had introduced a bill to Parliament with the intention of changing the GST rules for KiwiSaver providers, with the intention on bringing Australian providers into line with smaller local companies.

However, the changes would have made New Zealander's KiwiSaver balances $103 billion worse off by 2070.

The news was quickly jumped on by National, and after a wild media cycle, the bill was pulled by Wednesday afternoon.

While some commentators have argued that the bill would have been necessary to bring the Australian banks into line, others have said that KiwiSaver has enough fees as it is.

For this episode of On the Tiles, the New Zealand Herald's politics podcast, host Thomas Coughlan is joined by Newstalk ZB deputy political editor Jason Walls to discuss what the bill was intended to do, how it got scuppered so quickly, and whether the changes were worth the financial cost to taxpayers.

They also talk about how Labour has handled the scandal, and how this could impact polling as parties gear up for a general election in a year's time.

They also discuss how National and its leader, Chris Luxon, have performed in recent weeks, including the 'Rule-Out Game' trap that Luxon fell into over Brian Tamaki, and the Sam Uffindell scandal that is still hanging unresolved over the opposition party.

• On the Tiles is available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are available on Fridays.

• You can find more New Zealand Herald podcasts at nzherald.co.nz/podcasts or on iHeartRadio.