15% tax on food, zero on financial speculation

“The Budget has left in place the gross injustice at the heart of New Zealand’s tax system,” says Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice campaign coordinator.

“Grassroots Kiwis are still going to be paying tax on their food, while financial speculation goes untaxed. It's disgusting and it has to be changed,” says Gunson.

“Alas, our prime minister, a former currency speculator who thinks it's great that credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s likes the Budget, isn't listening,” says Gunson.

“Standard and Poor’s are part of the global financial elite who’ve run-amok with the economy, enriching themselves at the expense of the rest of us.”

“It’s the orgy of speculation by this financial elite which is causing the systemic crisis in the world economy,” says Gunson. “Speculation needs to be discouraged by being taxed.”

Mr Gunson says a Financial Transaction Tax is internationally recognised as the best mechanism for taxing the speculators.

“With the revenue generated by a tax on financial speculation we could easily remove GST from food and have more money in the pockets of ordinary New Zealanders,” say Gunson.

Tax Justice campaigners are going to be out on the streets over the weekend collecting more signatures for the Tax Justice petition, which calls on parliament to remove GST from Food and tax financial speculation instead.

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