Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters has said he will not be opting out of the Government's winter energy payment, saying he is against means testing.
Mr Peters, who currently earns $334,734 a year plus super, which is worth around $300 a week, will be using the payment to heat his home in the wealthy Auckland suburb of St Mary's Bay.
The winter energy payment is a temporary top-up for low-income earners and superannuants. However, people can choose to opt of the payment.
It will last from July until September 2018, but will extend to run from May until October from 2019 onwards.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Mr Peters said he wasn't going to opt out of the payment as he is against the idea of means testing.
Referring to the process of taxing superannuation Mr Peters said he instead believes in universality.
"I'm the person more than anybody else in this country who opposed the surtax which was a means test imposed by the Labour Party," he said.
"The National Party promised to remove it. They didn't. They put it up to at its highest instance of 92c in a dollar. I don't believe in a means test in this context. I believe in universality."
Newshub.
