10 MAY 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Council of Trade Unions’ poll purporting to show a majority of New Zealanders favouring higher tax rates is a dishonest attempt to inflate support for tax hikes, says the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union.

The poll, conducted by Labour pollsters UMR, provided two options:
a) the government should increase tax to at least maintain public services at their current levels into the future, or,
b) tax collected should stay the same while reducing public services.

Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “It’s no surprise that a poll would show support for more tax when that’s framed as the only way to improve core services. However, the real world offers more options than the CTU’s loaded poll does.”

“We can always increase funding for core services by cutting waste and spending on the nice-to-haves. Obvious examples include cutting corporate welfare, cancelling free tertiary education, and better targeting welfare payments.”

“Further, a growing economy means increased tax revenue without the need for tax hikes. We could just resist wasting this revenue on non-essential election bribes every three years.”

“If the CTU’s poll had included these options, we can assume support for tax hikes would be far, far lower.”
ENDS

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