Lower Taxes Answer To Ending Child Poverty

ACT New Zealand Deputy Leader and Social Welfare Spokesman Dr Muriel Newman today said that the best way to eradicate child poverty in New Zealand would be to lower taxes.

"The only way to eradicate child poverty is to raise our standard of living into the top half of the OECD through lower taxes, so that working families are better off, and families on welfare have better job prospects," Dr Newman said.

"By lowering taxes so people can keep more of what they earn, families are able to better provide for their children.

"ACT is committed to reducing the top personal and company tax rate to 20 percent. This would create more jobs, more growth, and a higher standard of living for every New Zealander.

"But lower taxes is only part of the story. With the Government's own research showing that children do better if their family is working, it's imperative it requires beneficiaries who are able to work to get a job. It's criminal that the Government lets parents with children choose to be on a benefit when there are so many jobs available, and when they know welfare damages children.

"Lowering taxes would ensure that working families would be better off, while those on welfare could see the benefits of getting a job and improving the future of their children," Dr Newman said.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>