It was a big weekend in politics, with major policy announcements from National and the Greens dominating headlines (along with ongoing questions over RNZ’s promotion of “pro-Kremlin” talking points).
Let’s start this week by looking at the Greens. The Bulletin has a detailed wrap of the new tax policy unveiled by the party, which included a 45% tax rate on income over $180,000 and a 2.5% wealth tax on assets over $2m per individual. On Newstalk ZB this morning, co-leader James Shaw told Mike Hosking that this was a subtly different policy to what had been campaigned on in the past. And, he said, society’s tolerance for wealth inequality had also shifted since 2020. While he wouldn’t go so far as to label this a “bottom line” policy, he said the party would bring it to the negotiating table after October’s election.
But what about the response from the other side? National and Act have both criticised the policy as a tax grab. Nicola Willis, National’s finance spokesperson, said the proposed wealth tax was “fairytale economics” and would “gut the country of investment and opportunity”.
She added: “New Zealand already has a benefit system that provides a safety net for people who fall on hard times. Marama Davidson’s policy simply increases benefits by up to 31 per cent – to be paid for by a massive tax grab on productive assets.”
The Act Party was on a similar page, but sent out a significantly lengthier press release. Party leader David Seymour said the Greens’ policy would make everybody “equally poor”.
“Their envy-fuelled series of tax hikes will make New Zealand a poorer nation. There is no law saying New Zealand must remain first world and the Greens appear to be hellbent on speeding up the decline,” said Seymour.
“By making it harder to accumulate and protect your assets The Greens seem to want a more primitive society. The great irony is poorer countries struggle to invest in environmental protection, but you’ll notice the Greens are barely about the environment anymore anyway.”
Labour has so far remained fairly quiet on the proposal. A short statement from the finance minister Grant Robertson noted that all parties, Labour included, would have tax policies in time for the election. “I would note that Budget 2023 included aligning the trustee rate with the top 39 percent personal tax rate to make the tax system fairer,” said Robertson.
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