Jim Bolger entered the New Zealand political scene in 1972.

A self-taught son of Irish Immigrants, the King Country farmer lead the National party to victory in 1990 and became the 35^th Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Then came three-terms as head of Government, a business leader and New Zealand ambassador to the United States.

Jim Bolger is a familiar public face, but a couple of years ago, it occurred to journalist and author David Cohen that we didn’t know that much about Jim Bolger the man.

There came about Fridays with Jim, a book based on conversations between the pair about our country.

In it, he speaks about his childhood and love for 'living on the land'.

Bolger told Francesca Rudkin it's something that's driven his view on climate change which he says New Zealand is wonderful at talking about, but not doing anything about it.

"You know, we will get a vaccine to control coronavirus, but there is no vaccine to control climate change."

He also says there needs to be some radical rethinking when it comes to New Zealand's economy.

Bolger says one thing that needs to be dealt with is raising the retirement age. He says his Government lifted the age to 65 because they couldn't afford to give retirement income at 60.

He says it's a challenge facing this Government too.

"We have to address the issue, it won't go away.

"The number of people in the aged 65 bracket is going to double in the next 20 years."