Bill English - Climate Change For The "Political Elite"

National Party Deputy Leader Bill English believes climate change will not be a major issue in next year's election because it largely concerns the "political elite".

Speaking on TV One's "Agenda" Mr English said; "I think it's largely for the political elite. It's been a big big policy challenge for the political elite to work out not only the technicalities of how to make this policy work but also to negotiate the pathway with the public who are concerned but are pretty sceptical about what price they should pay in terms of lost income or lost opportunities."

Mr English also said the rhetoric being used by Labour to describe climate change risked being "alarmist".

"I mean if Michael Cullen believes it's the equivalent of nuclear war then he would have laid out a much tougher policy than he actually has, and that's why we were able to support the general principles of this policy because it is pretty reasonable compared to the rhetoric."

NATIONAL TIGHT-LIPPED ON SUPPORT FOR FOUR-PERCENT KIWISAVER THRESHOLD

National finance spokesman Bill English is refusing to say whether or not he supports the upcoming four-percent employer and employee Kiwisaver contribution scheme.

Speaking on TV One's "Agenda" Mr English said the National Party were "looking at the options" after a Select Committee involving Business New Zealand and unions said the four-percent threshold could be too high for the average New Zealander to partake in.

When asked if this meant National would draw the line at the two-percent scheme, he answered; "Oh no I wouldn't necessarily take that."

"I'm just letting you know what issues came through in the Select Committee because that was a good sort of post introduction review where we had the CTU and Business New Zealand making quite a number of similar points, and it was clear from that that essentially their message to the politicians was that if you want mass participation in this then the 4% hurdle is pretty high, remember that's about 5½% of net income."

ENDS

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