Tax rules would change under National

National's finance spokesman Bill English told the Super Funds conference in Wellington yesterday that the party was broadly supportive of the changes introduced by the government over recent years.

"By and large we support these tax changes," he said. However, he would like to see them simplified.

"We are somewhat concerned about the complexity of them," he said.

However, he was unable to say how the rules could be changed.

"It's not something we can address between here and the election," he said because as an opposition party it did not have the resources to do the work.

English tried not to give too much away on National's plans for KiwiSaver, although the audience were keen to hear its plans.

He said that National would release its KiwiSaver policy closer to the election.

Also he tried not to rise to Finance Minister Michael Cullen's bait laid last week. In a release Cullen questioned whether National was going to do another flip-flop and now support KiwiSaver.

English did confirm KiwiSaver would exist in some form under a National-led government and that it would retain a government subsidy.

He said it was too early to say if the scheme was a success.

However, many speakers at the conference praised the scheme and in one panel discussion the benefits of what it could do for New Zealand and how it could generate capital for things like infrastructure development were discussed.