Labour’s tax agenda starting to appear

Labour’s true tax agenda is starting to appear with comments by senior Labour MPs Phil Twyford and David Parker in the last eighteen hours, National Party Campaign Chair Steven Joyce says.

“This morning on TV3’s ‘The Nation’ programme Labour’s Housing Spokesperson Mr Twyford once again refused to answer whether Labour would introduce a comprehensive capital gains tax in the next three years if elected. However he spent some time saying how much they really wanted to,” Mr Joyce says.

“He also gave a sense of the scale of it – saying Labour wanted to use a capital gains tax to reduce house price to income ratios to about three to four – which would mean a halving of Auckland house prices.

“That would take a punitive capital gains tax and a massive increase in interest rates. It would be massively disruptive to the New Zealand economy.

“Mr Twyford’s language is the same as the Greens’ on housing last year with their talk of cutting house prices in half.

“Meanwhile last night Water Spokesperson David Parker was threatening farmers at a meeting in Ashburton with a much higher water tax rate if they didn’t toe the line.

“A number of people at the meeting reported Parker saying ‘don’t push us on the numbers or we will take the tax higher’ and ‘I’m not here to negotiate – don’t push me’ or it will be doubled.

“And it’s apparent this threat was not a one-off – with another group reporting the same threat being made by Parker earlier last week.”

“A regional fuel tax, a massive capital gains tax, and a bullying water tax,” Mr Joyce says.

“It’s becoming clearer why Labour wants to hide its true tax plans.

“They need to be upfront with New Zealanders on tax.”

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