Brownlee’s Facebook ad deleted

The National Party has been forced to remove a social media ad which used misleading figures to attack the Government.

A recent Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) decision said the National Party Facebook post consisted of a video featuring MP Gerry Brownlee talking about a recent National Party announcement regarding proposed changes to National’s tax policy.

Brownlee said: ‘‘Bracket creep as it’s called is a big problem and this Government is going to take an extra $17.7 billion over the next years out to 2020/2021 out of the pay packets of New Zealanders.’’

Tax bracket creep happens when inflation results in people’s incomes being pushed into higher tax brackets.

The National Party has proposed to link income tax rates to inflation by adjusting income taxes every three years to stop tax bracket creep.

The ASA ruling said the National Party later acknowledged that the number quoted in the ad equated to the overall amount of tax increases the Labour-led Government would be ‘‘taking out of the back pockets of taxpayers in New Zealand’’ as opposed to just the cost component of bracket creep.

The complaint to the ASA said the ad contained misleading figures which contradicted National’s own published figures.

The party removed the ad and the matter was settled, the ASA said.