Source: New Zealand Labour Party
Figures showing National needs to find another $900 million for landlords highlights the mess this coalition Government is in less than a week into the job.
This comes on top of National’s tax plan already not adding up and the coalition needing more people to pick up gambling or smoking to help pay for tax cuts.
“Since the moment Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis announced their tax plans, we’ve seen right through all the holes in them,” Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said.
“Bringing back foreign buyers was a terrible idea that we all knew didn’t add up – so it’s not surprising it fell at the first hurdle: coalition negotiations with Winston Peters.
“However it appears National are sticking with their plan, which not only includes getting more people gambling in order to raise revenue; they now want more young people to pick up smoking for the same reason.
“It’s not just shocking, but incredibly concerning that people’s health and wellbeing is worth less than a few extra dollars to National’s coalition.
“And it gets worse – with numbers out this morning from the Council of Trade Unions showing the interest deductibility in the coalition agreement between National and ACT is retrospective.
“It’s not just a tax oddity but means they’ll need to find hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for retrospective tax cuts for landlords who will do nothing to ease the pressure Kiwi tenants are facing from rising rental costs.
“It puts even more pressure on a budget that is already billions short.
“That revenue has to come from somewhere – if Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis are already comfortable increasing the number of people gambling and smoking, I loathe to think what they will come up with next.
“The Coalition of Chaos has had a shocking start with a growing fiscal hole, negative international media on the tobacco tax grab and Winston Peters extraordinary and baseless attacks on the media. Christopher Luxon needs to step up and sort it out,” Chris Hipkins said.
