KEY POINTS:
The National Party has clarified that it has no plans to change New Zealand Superannuation or the so-called Cullen Fund after comments by finance spokesman Bill English appeared to suggest that he viewed existing retirement saving provisions as too generous.
The comments, reported by the Herald on Tuesday, included a view from Mr English that the trio of universal superannuation, the Cullen Fund and the enhanced KiwiSaver scheme were very high provisions by world standards.
Mr English said National was looking at a more balanced approach that was not solely focused on savings.
Labour yesterday seized on Mr English's comments to launch a blistering attack on its rival, accusing it of indicating that a National government would cut New Zealand Superannuation and KiwiSaver.
Acting Finance Minister Clayton Cosgrove said people should be worried that National was "dropping hints" about scrapping universal superannuation.
But a spokesman for the National Party said there were no plans to change superannuation or the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.
National had said it would keep the original KiwiSaver scheme intact, but was still considering what it would do with the extensions announced in the Budget, the spokesman said.
The comments and clarification could be seen as unhelpful for National, particularly as leader John Key works hard to make sure the party's policies or statements do not upset or scare the public.
While Mr English did not say his party would actually change anything, his comments were enough for Labour to suggest that National was open to changing any one of the three prongs of retirement saving provisions.
Political sparring was not limited to retirement savings yesterday as the relentless rise of the dollar also drew attention.
The kiwi passed through US78c yesterday, and its runaway rise caused Mr English to again point the finger of blame at the Government for putting pressure on interest rates and therefore the dollar.
He said Finance Minister Michael Cullen had ignored advice that Government spending was putting pressure on interest rates, and gone ahead with record new spending in the Budget.
Mr English also came as close as anyone in Parliament has so far to criticising Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard's intervention into the currency market last month in an effort to stem the kiwi's rise.
Dr Bollard moved when the dollar was around US76.19c, and his intervention led it to drop more than a cent.
But the kiwi has since scooted well past the level the Reserve Bank moved at.
"At the time, the intervention may have worked if the dollar was at the top of its cycle, and there were some reasons to think it was," Mr English said.
"It's turned out that's not the case, so in hindsight the intervention hasn't made much difference," he said.
Mr English argued that the dollar's rise was the result of six or seven years of a particular approach to managing the economy, but his blast was countered by Mr Cosgrove calling for National to stop playing politics with the currency.
Mr Cosgrove said the exchange rate was being affected by weakness in the US dollar.
"Mr English's negative approach is not what exporters need right now as they struggle with the high dollar," Mr Cosgrove said.
