John Key MP

National Party Finance Spokesman

22 August 2005

National's tax plan given the nod by experts

National Party Finance spokesman John Key says Michael Cullen and Helen Clark can no longer credibly claim National's plan for fair tax and family assistance will lead to an increase in interest rates.

"Their argument simply doesn't stack up."

Mr Key is commenting in the wake of independent analysis of the National Party's broad fiscal strategy by Deutsche Bank chief economist Ulf Schoefisch, Westpac chief economist Brendan O'Donovan and Bank of New Zealand research head Stephen Toplis.

"These three agree that our package is unlikely to trigger further interest rate hikes from the Reserve Bank, and I welcome their analysis.

"Workers throughout New Zealand deserve to be rewarded for hard work and enterprise. They should be given the right incentives, and they should be taxed as lightly as possible.

"National's plan for fair tax and family assistance announced today meets those standards."

ENDS

To see the comments from Deutsche Bank chief economist Ulf Schoefisch, Westpac chief economist Brendan O'Donovan and Bank of New Zealand research head Stephen Toplis, visit:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10341664

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