Corporate Tax Cuts Move Highlights Need For Alliance

Labour’s isolation over corporate tax cuts highlights the importance of the Alliance in the political spectrum.

Incoming Alliance President Jill Ovens says Labour has been left out on a limb by its coalition partner, the Progressives, and Greens leader Rod Donald’s support for cuts in corporate taxes is disappointing.

"We can expect a pro-business leaning from National, Act, NZ First and United Future, but to hear the Greens are leaving Labour on its own in resisting corporate tax cuts is a real worry.

"This shows there is a pressing need for the Alliance to be in Parliament to hold the line on issues like this."

Ms Ovens says the Alliance opposes any cuts in company taxes.

"The extra tax revenue from a healthy economy should be directed into affordable housing for people on low incomes, living allowances for students, and raising benefit levels to ensure that all New Zealanders can fully participate in society."

Ms Ovens says Michael Cullen’s signal that there may be tax breaks for companies in the future reflects Labour’s business-friendly approach.

"There will be pressure from Labour’s right wing for tax cuts for companies to compensate for concessions to workers such as four weeks annual leave and paid parental leave.

"But these gains barely redress the losses sustained by workers during the 1980s and 1990s. The strength of the economy is to a large extent based on casualisation and low wages, which is why a third of New Zealand families with children are living in poverty."

The Alliance favours using taxes as a tool to redistribute wealth and reduce the gap between rich and poor, Ms Ovens says.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>