New Zealand First Leader

Member of Parliament for Northland
10 AUGUST 2017

Labour’s Water Tax Means $18 Cabbages

New Zealand First says it has information proving how hard working Kiwi families will be seriously affected by Labour’s proposed tax on ‘commercial water use’.

“Labour has simply not done its homework on the issue of water,” says the Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First and Member of Parliament for Northland.

“This policy is so badly conceived that it is like a speed camera on healthy food. One large vegetable grower has estimated that a one cent tax per litre of water adds up to a 300% increase in supermarket prices.

“Potatoes could go from just under $3 a kilogram to just under $9, meanwhile, the price of a single cabbage could soar from just under $6, to just under $18.

“The grower is questioning who Labour thinks will foot the bill because from his perspective, it will mean a $25m annual tax bill. That’s just one producer of vegetables let alone what it means for the price of milk and bread, showing how this is seriously playing with fire.

“This has got to be a policy mistake.

“Those least able to afford higher food prices like people on the breadline will be badly stung. The working families of New Zealand are already hard up against it without this kind of tax being loaded onto them,” says Mr Peters.

ENDS

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