Amy Adams - Finance

11 February 2019

Confidence among New Zealand investors has dropped significantly and the Government must accept part of the blame because its bad policies and increased taxes are creating risk and uncertainty, National’s Finance spokesperson Amy Adams says.

“This Government has gone out of its way to make any investment outside of the family home more risky and less attractive. It is discouraging Kiwis from putting their money in more productive parts of the economy for fear the Government will take a bigger share.

“Investor confidence has dropped to the lowest level in more than two years and the only investments seen as more attractive are the family home and bank term deposits. Global uncertainty is clearly part of this but the Government is making it harder for New Zealanders to weather a downturn.

“Its catalogue of poor decisions includes restrictions on landlords which are driving up rents and curbs on foreign investment which are making it harder to do things like build houses.

“The Government’s obsession with finding new ways to tax New Zealanders is adding to the uncertainty and there is much more to come, with the prospect of a Capital Gains Tax on Kiwis’ retirement savings, the family bach, farms and direct investments.

“The increased uncertainty and risk has seen a record number of Kiwis view their own home as their best investment in ASB’s latest survey.

“It clearly rankles with ordinary New Zealanders to see the Government take more money out of their back pockets through taxes only to waste billions of dollars on failed policies such as KiwiBuild and fees-free tertiary education and to watch Shane Jones irresponsibly

doling out his $3 billion Provincial Growth Fund.

“New Zealand already has relatively shallow capital markets and low levels of investment compared to other countries. Nothing the Government is doing is encouraging investment and that’s bad for New Zealand.

“National understands that improving the lives of New Zealanders is ultimately about letting Kiwis keep more of what they earn, encouraging investment and keeping the cost of living low.”

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