Press Release

MANA Vice President John Minto

MANA renews appeal for a Financial Transactions Tax

Tuesday 11th September

“On the back of another 100 jobs to be lost in Kawerau, MANA is renewing its call for the government to put in place a Financial Transactions Tax to dampen the destructive effects of the high New Zealand dollar” says MANA Vice President John Minto.

“Yesterday’s bad news from Kawerau brings to several hundred the number of jobs lost in the past few weeks, (thousands in the past year) with our high dollar being the common denominator”.

“The most effective way to reduce the value of the dollar is via an FTT. Such a tax on speculative buying and selling of our dollar - one of the most highly traded currencies in the world – would reduce speculation significantly and bring down the dollar’s value. This would mean more income for exporters, more jobs in our exporting industries and reduced unemployment. And along the way New Zealand would increase its tax revenue and be able to abolish GST”.

“Another reason for the high dollar is money is flowing into New Zealand because we have higher interest rates than many of our trading partners (New Zealand’s official cash rate is 2.5% while in the US for example it’s just 0.25%). Foreigners bringing their money here are the winners, rewarded with high interest rates, while our country is the loser”.

“Meanwhile John Key and Bill English sit on their hands and tell us they can’t do anything and must have faith in the free market. What craven lunacy! We are being played for suckers by the likes of the US which is keeping the value of its dollar artificially low by simply printing money. In Europe a modest form of FTT on share trading is being introduced (in France this is a 0.2% charge on shares traded in its largest companies) so there is no reason for New Zealand not to head down this road as well”.

“We are pleased to see the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions is also calling for New Zealand to look at a Financial Transactions Tax to save jobs and increase income”.

ENDS

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