Listen: Simon Bridges - Why I'm fighting the capital gains tax

National Party leader SImon Bridges. Photo / Mark Mitchell

National leader Simon Bridges may find the Government's reaction to the capital gains tax confusing, but he is very clear about one thing.

"My view is pretty simple. I have to, for New Zealanders, fight it."

Bridges spoke to The Country's Jamie Mackay about the CGT, and how he felt the Government's reaction to it's own proposal "very strange."

"The Government's got this Cullen tax working group report, because it is Cullen's baby - he's pushing it for all it's worth - they sat on it ... they thought about it clearly and then they dropped it out and then they tried not to say anything."

"I think they're realising that's wrong."

Bridges told Mackay he believed the Government has since started to talk more about the CGT, but mainly to defend it.

Listen below:

"Michael Cullen now is acting much more like a Labour Party politician than a tax working group expert and he's out there defending it, and even Grant Robertson sort of is."

"So I think they're backing away from not saying anything, [and] they're trying to defend it."

Bridges said he is prepared to fight the Government on the CGT "because it's so wrong," especially towards young people and small businesses.

"We all agree we need a more productive innovative economy. Why would you get in the way [of] that with a third tax on the gain of a small business ... it just doesn't make any sense."

"It's just about killing the incentive to get ahead."

Also in today's interview: Bridges talks about whether once being labelled the 'new Winston Peters' is now a compliment or an insult.