KEY POINTS:
Finance Minister Michael Cullen must have watched one too many episodes of Dancing with the Stars.
"Just get over it" was the basic message Cullen sent yesterday to chief executives who are critical of his KiwiSaver expansion. Not quite Suzanne Paul telling off Brendan Cole or Craig Revell-Horwood
(but near enough) and rather more nattily dressed too in his new grey pinstripes.
Cullen knows - just as much as Paul - that he needs to get broad audience approval for his KiwiSaver number to push Labour up the voting charts at next year's electoral dance-off.
He makes no apologies for his decision to ambush the bosses by compelling employers to match their employees' contributions to KiwiSaver.
Nor is he particularly concerned at the design problems critics say are inherent with the scheme, and the calls for greater consultation with employers before the Mark II version is implemented next April.
At the Herald's annual Mood of the Boardroom breakfast yesterday, the Finance Minister made the point that if he had embarked upon a long period of consultation, what would have come out the other end would be less coherent.
Cullen's own mood will have been buoyed by the survey's finding that 82 per cent of the CEO respondents believed that New Zealand should introduce compulsory superannuation, and some 56 per cent agreed with the Budget decision to make compulsory superannuation contributions for employees who join KiwiSaver.
This suggests that as design issues are ironed out - and business gets used to the idea of the April 1 changes - they will begin to see another side to Cullen's strategy.
The upside the Finance Minister wants the chief executives to focus on include:
* Longer-term lower structural interest rates.
* Stronger capital markets.
* Greater employee loyalty.
* A much higher probability that skilled New Zealand workers will stay in New Zealand rather than go elsewhere in the world.
Cullen is correct to suggest that business will gradually warm to the bigger picture once design hurdles are surmounted.
The primary hurdle remains a planning one.
How to get round the planning nightmare where employers will basically be hit up with a payroll tax to match their employees' KiwiSaver contributions (starting from 1 per cent next April and rising to 4 per cent by 2011-12).
Many chief executives whom I canvassed during the survey process said it would have been "much simpler" to have introduced compulsory super right across the board.
But judging by comments from National's Bill English, they will have to wait a considerable period to find out how much of KiwiSaver Mark II will survive if there is a change of Government.
English is concerned at the hidden costs involved with the project. But he needs to take care before making KiwiSaver a hot political issue.
For several years the business sector has called on the Government to "show some leadership" and "courage" on critical issues facing New Zealand.
Cullen has done that by tackling compulsory superannuation - if rather imperfectly. No other Finance Minister or Prime Minister for more than 30 years has had the guts to go down this track.
It is high time there was broad policy consensus on superannuation. If enough good will is displayed - and National ultimately comes to the party - New Zealand will end up with a rare common accord that is far more important to its future than the anti-smacking legislation.
Cullen has also placed some discipline on employees to start gearing up their own savings patterns rather than just expecting the employers to do all the work.
It might not seem so at first blush, but this is playing to the individualism that National usually applauds.
The Herald's Mood of the Boardroom breakfast - now in its fourth year - is a must for the nation's leading chief executives.
It's one of the rare events where the CEOs get a chance to see the Finance Minister and his National Party opponent square off together - in public - on major issues affecting the nation's economic future and outlook for business.
Cullen and English can get quite visceral in their parliamentary clashes.
But yesterday's performance was reassuring.
English applauded several of Labour's policies.
If National gets in at the next election, we should not expect any big swings in direction - more a lift in ambition.
