Cut Corporate Welfare Before Going After ‘Rich Pricks’

“The Government should be focussed on reducing wasteful spending before introducing new taxes", says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“$1.6 billion of corporate welfare is doled out to politically-connected businesses each year. If Grant Robertson was able to do away with this expenditure, he would be able to cut the corporate tax rate by 6 percentage points - boosting wages, jobs, and growth - rather than increasing it as he intends.

“The outcome of this Tax Working Group will be to increase the complexity of the tax system and the burden faced by hardworking New Zealanders. This will do nothing to boost our economic fortunes.

“National's criticism of the Tax Working Group is particularly hypocritical for two reasons. One, the Nats didn’t cut taxes when they had the chance. Two, they couldn’t control wasteful spending which would have taken the pressure off for new taxes to be introduced.

“What Mr Robertson should do is glance at the International Monetary Fund’s recent study on the best way for countries to reduce their level of debt. It found cutting spending is less harmful to economic growth than raising taxes.

“In other words, the Labour-NZ First-Greens recipe of higher taxes and higher spending will deliver lower economic growth and wages, and fewer jobs.

"Mr Robertson can start cutting waste by sacking Michael Cullen”, says Mr Seymour.

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