Ryan Bridge: Should National campaign on a partial float?

They haven't said it explicitly yet, but one day soon, our KiwiSaver contributions will rise to 12% and Kiwibank will be partially sold to foreign buyers.  On the bank, Nicola Willis is flying a kite and talking about a potentially partial float of the stock exchange for the wee Kiwi battler. It needs capital to grow and take on the big banks. They're getting access to an extra half a billion through changes already announced. But they could yet get more, should National campaign on a partial float.  It's sounding more and more like they will.  And the question is whether most voters will care? I think not. Asset sales are not the great electoral disaster they were once portrayed as - just ask John Key who whipped Phil Goff's butt in 2011 on a platform of partially privatising assets.  On KiwiSaver... the Government's already upped the amount we pay, and our bosses pay on our behalf, towards retirement.  Our default contribution is going up to 4% over three years. Add your employer's and that's 8%. Scott Simpson was at a conference yesterday and there's an interest.co.nz report quoting him as saying basically it'll happen before long. At a gradual pace. But here's the thing... like the partial float of Kiwibank, this is all stuff that needs to happen.  The Aussies' pensions funds boast $4 trillion in balances. That money is put to work. It funds infrastructure. It builds wealth. It grows a domestic economy.  Our KiwiSaver balances, collectively, sit just above $100 billion. It's David and Goliath.  So we need to save more. And if we're serious about a Kiwi bank taking on the Aussies and sticking it to them good and proper, we'll need some outside capital to give it that boost. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.