Protests from Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson do nothing to change the fact that higher taxes are inevitable under Labour, National’s Finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says.

“Labour’s fiscal pamphlet, which already includes higher income taxes, proposes $2.6 billion of extra spending every year, very high debt levels and never ending deficits.

“History shows, however, that Labour cannot keep to its spending commitments.

“When Labour came to office they said they would increase spending by $2.4 billion in their first Budget and $1.875 billion in each Budget after that. Yet in their first Budget they blew their allowance by $200 million and by their second Budget they had blown it by nearly $2 billion.

“$1.9 billion in new spending in Budget 2019 turned into $3.8 billion. Labour doubled what they said they would spend. This was before Covid-19 came along.

“They’ll do it again, if they get the chance. Today’s $2.6 billion will turn into $5 billion – and they’ll start to run out of money.

“A Government that can’t control its spending will inevitably come after New Zealanders for more tax.

“New Zealanders are right to fear that the Greens’ desire for a wealth tax would give Labour the excuse to come after more Kiwis.

“We need to stop the waste, stimulate the economy with short term tax relief, and trust Kiwis to grow their businesses and create jobs.”

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