Capital Gains Tax A Bad Idea

A capital gains tax is an inefficient envy tax that will do nothing to improve housing affordability, ACT Leader John Banks said today.

“Only Labour and the Greens would try to make something cheaper by adding a tax to it,” Mr Banks said.

“Australia, Canada, and the United States all have nationwide capital gains taxes and all have had bigger national or regional housing bubbles than ours.

“The biggest factor driving up the cost of housing – especially in Auckland - is the lack of land available for new residential housing. As long as councils continue to artificially restrict the supply of land via urban limits, land, and therefore houses, will always be more expensive than they otherwise would. A capital gains tax won’t change this.

“Government should focus on making it easier to build more houses by preventing artificial restrictions on land and removing red tape around building permits, rather than taxing the houses we already have,” Mr Banks said.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On Failures Of Care For Those With Mental Disabilities

Hard to imagine a more disturbing insight into the treatment of the vulnerable than the Health Ministry report on Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau. The Ministry has found that the country’s only kaupapa Maori intellectual disability residential care provider has been “seriously dysfunctional.”

The ministry says the business has failed to recruit and retain quality staff – and says the kaimahi (caregivers) that have been employed are seriously unsuitable for the job, lacking basic knowledge. But Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau doesn’t get all the blame. The report says there’s a significant gap under disability laws to ensure there’s oversight by qualified clinical professionals. More>>