“The Greens have never seen a problem they couldn’t
solve by taking other people’s money, the problem is that
when you take more and more of peoples’ earnings they have
less to invest and everyone loses,” says ACT Leader and
Finance spokesperson David Seymour.
“Profits
encourage businesses to expand production. Expanding
production means more jobs and more economic growth. Can we
really afford to take more of New Zealanders’ profits at a
time when we so desperately need economic
growth?
“People like to think of New Zealand as a
first world country but our income figures tell a different
story. Until we have a government focussed on economic
growth we will continue to see tragedies in our health
system and infrastructure that is not up to modern
standards.
“Under Labour the median wage gap has
gone from Australians earning $17,400 more to $24,000 more.
Lithuania, The Czech Republic, and Slovenia have all
overtaken us for productivity in the past five years.
Estonia looks set to overtake us next. We don’t even
compare to Australia, Canada, the U.S. or Britain
anymore.
“As I said when launching ACT’s Alternative
Budget for Real Change, we risk losing first world
status. As we lose competitiveness, we lose skilled people
and investment. As we lose skilled people and investment, we
become less competitive. This is the spiral we must
avoid.
“Unintended consequences of tax changes
nearly always outnumber intended consequences. We know from
history that over time this will result in fewer
highly-skilled people wanting to come here, and more highly
skilled people wanting to leave for more attractive
jurisdictions.
“But perhaps the greatest tragedy of
taxing productivity might well be the message it sends all
New Zealanders who strive to get ahead.
“Punishing
success is the very opposite of what we try so hard to
instil in our young people as they develop through school,
go on to further study and enter the
workforce.
“ACT’s alternative budget shows how to
reduce taxes and reward Kiwis for their hard work by
allowing them to keep their money. Under our plan a nurse
with one child, for example, earning $70,000 would receive
around $2,300 in tax relief.
“ACT has a plan to
arrest the decline and grow the economy. It would get the
country back into surplus and allows New Zealanders to keep
more of their income to invest.
“We need to put the
values of aspiration in our tax system, making it fairer,
simpler and more competitive. It’s not only possible,
it’s
essential.”
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