3 News political reporter Patrick Gower spoke to Firstline this morning about the Green Party’s official campaign launch, their proposed changes to KiwiSaver and New Zealand First’s dire situation.
> Watch the video for the full interview
The Greens’ policy on KiwiSaver is to setup a state-run Kiwisaver scheme with less fees and money that stays in New Zealand.
Currently, when you go into KiwiSaver, you end up with a private provider like Tower or Mercer and they take out a whole lot of fees.
“The Green Party want to start up a Government-run one using the existing framework like Inland Revenue, KiwiBank and the Government’s big superannuation fund,” Patrick says.
“Their objective for this would be to drive down the fees and act as a competitor in the market – it is a common sense idea, the question is, why didn’t one of the big parties like Labour or National adopt it?
“You would have to say Labour has been trying to be too radical and National hasn’t really been that interested in superannuation.
“It is a good idea and one they can bolt on to the other parties in coalition agreements,” Patrick says.
• Live updates from the election campaign – click here
But current polling shows a Labour-Greens Government would be a stretch – what about a National-Greens partnership?
Patrick says there is no chance of this and the Green supporters at the campaign launch “were all laughing at John Key – they think he’s a joke”.
Green co-leaders Metiria Turei and Russel Norman did tell the audience that there is a possibility they could work with National – but Patrick says “that’s all for show”.
“I put that idea to one of the MPs, Catherine Delahunty, and she couldn’t keep a straight face as she tried to repeat the party’s position that they hadn’t technically ruled out a coalition with National.
“But the Greens and National just don’t agree on anything – National wants to sell state-owned enterprises and the Greens want to keep owning them and turn them into Green energy – they are just at different ends of the spectrum.
“What you would see is a memorandum of understanding where the two parties would agree on small things – but what that means is that National would keep deep-sea drilling and the Greens would get $4 million for possum traps”.
On the topic of Winston Peters, Patrick says “it’s pretty interesting stuff” and says it goes like this:
> John Key won’t work with Peters
> Peters won’t work with John Key
> Labour will work with Peters – but Labour wants to change the retirement age
> Peters would rather die in a ditch than raise the retirement age
> Labour needs the Greens – but Winston will not work with the Greens
> Greens say Winston won’t be back and are calling for him to be killed off
“Try and draw that circle there,” Patrick says, “it’s like one of those psychedelic drawings where you follow the lines but they don’t match up”.
> Read Patrick’s blog: Goff should rule out Winston – right now
3 News