Green’s New Tax is Short-sighted and Unfair

10 JULY 2017 - The Green Party’s water tax on exports is a cheap vote grab without any apparent consideration for the practical implications.

Responding to the policy announcement, Jordan Williams, Executive Director of the Taxpayers’ Union, said: “Too often, politicians think they can solve a problem with a new tax and downplay or ignore the costs and negative spillovers the tax will have.”

“New Zealand has the tenth highest freshwater capacity per capita in the world – there is no shortage. A million times more water is used for irrigation, town supply, and industry, than exports. Taxing only one use is nothing more than political opportunism. Even for the Greens, it makes no economic sense."

"On the one hand, the Greens say that using water for dairying is bad, but on the other, they want to tax a far cleaner industry for use of the same water.”

“Rather than taxing the current political whipping boy, why don’t the politicians get to work and create an equitable water pricing regime so that everyone pays a fair price for water. A market for water would also make this sort of political opportunism far more transparent.”

ENDS

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