ENVIRONMENT TAX
National
90 per cent of lakes and rivers to meet swimmable water quality standards by 2040 (compared to current standard of 72 per cent). Require councils to improve the swimmability of rivers and lakes.
Over 50,000 kilometres of waterways improved for swimming.
Expand recycling infrastructure to minimise waste to landfill.
Invest $4 million in new technology to recycle more than 200 million plastic drinks bottles a year.
Ban microbeads to safeguard our aquatic environment.
Work with farmers, not against them.
Shift the bottom two tax thresholds to put more money in the pockets of New Zealanders.
A $2 billion-a-year Family Incomes Package, in effect on April 1, 2018.
Increase $14,000 income tax threshold to $22,000, and the $48,000 tax threshold to $52,000. Tax changes to have a flow-on effect for 750,000 superannuitants, providing an extra $13 a week for a married couple.
Family Incomes Package combining tax threshold changes with changes to Working for Families and the Accommodation Supplement to help low and middle-income earners with young families and higher housing costs.
Reduce the number of children whose families receive less than half the median income by around 50,000.
Aim to have a second Family Incomes Package in 2020, which would lift another 50,000 children out of poverty.
Labour
Restore rivers and lakes to a swimmable standard within a generation. Give regional councils resources to clean up the waterways with a water royalty.
Help farmers and other owners of waterways with fencing and riparian planting through a Ready for Work programme.
Restore the Emissions Trading Scheme including bringing agriculture into the scheme by the end of Labour’s first term. Set a target of net zero for greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, with legally binding emissions reduction targets and carbon budgets.
Establish a $75m a year Tourism and Conservation Infrastructure Fund, paid for by a levy on international visitors.
Stabilise and increase indigenous wildlife population.
Retain the Resource Management Act, improve processes and ensure local communities can have a say.
Tax Working Group for a fairer balance between the taxation of income and assets.
No new taxes or levies, beyond those already announced, before the 2021 tax year.
End secondary tax.
A diverted profits tax – collect an extra $200m a year from multinationals avoiding their tax obligations by properly resourcing IRD.
Boost Working for Families for current recipients, and extend it to 30,000 more families. Introduce a Best Start payment to help families with costs in a child’s early years. Reinstate the Independent Earners Tax Credit.
Introduce 26 weeks paid parental leave.
Never put a tax on the family home.
Not increase income tax.
Greens
Clean up rivers and tackle climate change.
A 10 cent/litre levy on water bottling and exports.
Nitrate pollution levy at $2 per kilogram of nitrate that is lost to land and water per hectare of farm, per year.
Use levy revenue to fund sustainable and transformational farming schemes.
Found a Good Food Aotearoa NZ scheme to promote sustainably produced food. Climate Protection Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. Replace the Emissions Trading Scheme with a carbon tax, and incentives for native tree planting.
Reduce bottom tax rate from 10.5pc to 9pc on income under $14,000.
Introduce a new top tax rate of 40pc on income over $150,000 a year.
Family Incomes package. (A family of two parents who both earn the median income and have three children will be $130 better off every week. A family of two parents, one working for $70,000 a year, with two children will be $88 better off every week. A single parent who is studying and receiving the Student Allowance, with two children and part time, low wage work will be $176 better off every week.)
Introduce capital gains tax, excluding the ‘‘family home’’.
Targeted levies on waste, carbon pollution and commercial water use.
Revenue from the levies to go towards cleaning up rivers and lakes, or returned to under 18s in the form of a $250 a year climate dividend.
NZ First
Establish New Zealand FreshWater Strategy.
Restrict water rights to citizens and permanent residents. No taxes or levies, except charges for monitoring and research, and a royalty on pure water exported.
Advance the target of rivers and lakes swimmable to 90 per cent by 2030. Regulate for the fencing off of waterways for stock, with substantial government financial assistance.
Assist councils to eliminate sewage overflows, and to divert domestic and commercial stormwater and road run-off for treatment.
Support the Paris targets, be carbon zero by 2050.
Replace ETS with a form of internal carbon pricing, not requiring foreign carbon credits. A Climate Change Act establishing a Parliamentary Commission for Climate Change, to set three-yearly ‘‘carbon budgets’’.
Review of Resource Management Act.
Supermarkets to phase out use of non-biodegadable plastic carry-bags within five years.
Reduce taxes for businesses to enable employers to increase the minimum wage to $20 an hour.
Revamp secondary tax rules and processes, so people do not have to pay secondary tax on their second or third job.
Reduce company tax rates to 25 per cent over three years.
An export tax rate of 20 per cent on export-generated income.
Research and Development Tax Credits, starting at 125 per cent in the second year when a company invests 2 per cent of its revenue on research.
Change Capital Limitation rules in the Income Tax Act to treat seismic strengthening as ‘‘repairs and maintenance’’.
Oppose new capital gains tax, especially on the family home.
Oppose the ‘‘bright-line’’ test.
Stop foreign speculation and place constraints on immigration to correct the housing market.
Ma¯ori
Give freshwater the status of ta¯onga.
Create a Minister for Freshwater.
Annual Te Mana o TeWai funding for community projects.
Make the freshwater standard ‘‘drinkable’’.
Levy on all tourists to improve infrastructure.
Research and develop a natural alternative to 1080.
Enhance marine biodiversity.
Prevent the extinction of the Ma¯ui dolphin, and other marine life.
Establish wha¯nau-friendly cities, encourage young people to design and plan their city. Grant-funded mentors to support wha¯nau to develop alternative energy sources. Close all coal-fired power plants by 2025.
Ensure Mana whenua are consulted on all oil and mineral exploration permits.
Remove GST from fresh fruit, vegetables and milk.
Introduce tax breaks for renewable energy research and projects.
Lower the tax bracket for low and middle income New Zealanders.
Introduce a tourism tax dedicated to preserving Ma¯ori heritage, language and culture. A capital gains tax for rental properties, to be offset by tax credits for landlords who rent homes that meet a minimum WOF standard for warm, safe and affordable housing. Explore tax credits for more low to middle income families.
Explore student loans write-offs for graduates who stay in NZ and work for longer than five years in a role relevant to the qualification that they have attained.
Harder on large multinationals that don’t pay tax in New Zealand.
ACT
Clean water, fresh air, efficient disposal of water.
Preservation of natural and historical features.
Water pricing scheme, making water rights tradeable to encourage water conservation and oppose the pollution of water.
Sell Landcorp.
Set up more inland wildlife sanctuaries for native wildlife, aiming for one in every town. Introduce road pricing to reduce congestion and emissions.
Spending restraint.
Cut every income and corporate tax rate so no one pays more than 25 per cent of their income in taxes.
Cut corporate welfare.
Fund company tax cuts so that businesses can grow and create new jobs.
TOP
Swimmable rivers and lakes.
Polluters to pay for damage, and environmentally friendly businesses to benefit from that levy.
All business users of water pay a market price for it.
Each catchment to set an allowable rate of nitrogen leaching into fresh water. Land owners who leach more than that level to pay, and anyone leaching less to receive the money. Levy on tourists upon entry, to protect natural capital.
Embed the rights of endemic ecosystems in the constitution.
Wean off fossil fuels by 2050.
A tax reform policy which would not return one cent in extra tax, as the revenue gained would go straight back into income tax cuts, reducing them by a third.
Make 80 per cent of New Zealanders financially better off.
Tax cuts to favour those on below-average incomes and reduce inequality.
Ensure all assets pay their fair share of tax, thus improving housing affordability, encourage house building and free up capital for business and economic growth.