PRESS RELEASE

MANA Vice President John Minto

MANA Applauds EU Financial Transaction Tax

Friday 26th October 2012

Ten countries of the European Union have this week taken the momentous step of agreeing to implement a Financial Transactions Tax.

MANA applauds them and we are calling on New Zealand to follow suit immediately.

The ten countries are France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Slovakia and Slovenia.

They have agreed to a tax on transactions of currencies, bonds and shares traded at banks and financial institutions.

“New Zealand is a tax haven for the rich who grow fat on the hunger and homelessness of the poor” says MANA Vice President John Minto. “The New Zealand dollar was the tenth most traded currency in the world last year and a 0.5% tax on that trade alone would bring in more than enough to abolish GST”.

“What’s Finance Minister Bill English doing? Still following the tired old neo-liberal polices which tax the poor to death while most of the super-rich don’t even declare enough income to reach our top tax bracket of just 33% (from $70,000)”.

“We must shift the tax burden from low-income families. The poorest 10% spend 14% of their income on GST while the top 10% of income earners spend less than 5% of their income on GST. GST is a tax on the poor – it has to go”.

“As well as allowing us to abolish GST, an FTT on currency trading would also reduce the value of the New Zealand dollar by dampening speculation which in turn would bring in more income from exports. New Zealand must follow the European Union lead”.

“EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso puts it politely when he says - "This is about fairness - we need to ensure the costs of the crisis are shared by the financial sector instead of shouldered by ordinary citizens”.

“Heaven knows New Zealand needs a huge dose of fairness and an FTT would be a significant first step”.

ENDS

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