Collins back on tax attack after remark

WELLINGTON: Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins stepped up their war of words yesterday over tax after Green Party coleader James Shaw said it was not credible to avoid having conversations about tax in any postelection talks.

National’s single day of action on Sunday to try to convince voters Labour will bow to pressure from the Greens over a wealth tax after the election now appears to have been extended.

‘‘I don’t think that it is credible not to have a conversation both about the fairness within the tax system, and the amount of revenue that government needs to raise in order to be able to get ourselves through this crisis and then to be able to pay back the debt that’s associated with that,’’ Mr Shaw told RNZ yesterday

‘‘You need to have an election and then you need to sit down and talk in the formationofgovernment stage and say what might be possible here.

‘‘I don’t know how those negotiations are going to go, of course.

‘‘That depends on the election on Saturday . . . You’ve got to give voters a chance to have their say.’’

Labour leader Ms Ardern and finance spokesman Grant Robertson have repeatedly ruled out a wealth tax but National leader Ms Collins, who was in Christchurch yesterday, said Labour could buckle under bullying from the Greens, as it had previously.

‘‘Don’t forget it was a Labour Government that unilaterally decided to ban oil and gas exploration in Taranaki — a fact they didn’t tell the electorate about before the 2017 election.

‘‘This election, Ms Ardern needs to come clean with voters on her real agenda before they enter the ballot box.’’

Ms Ardern, campaigning in Hamilton, said she wished National would debate the facts.

‘‘My only frustration is that the National Party continues to use misinformation in their campaign.

‘‘My view is that they should be courageous enough to debate real issues and fact, not fiction.’’

National’s policy is for acrosstheboard tax cuts for 16 months.

Labour’s is to introduce a new top personal tax rate, now 33c on income over $70,000, of 39c on income more than $180,000.

The Greens want to introduce a 1% tax on net wealth over $1 million and of 2% on net wealth over $2 million.

Ms Ardern described National’s ‘‘stop the wealth tax day’’ on Sunday as ‘‘the last throw of the misinformation dice’’.

Ms Collins seized on Mr Shaw’s comments yesterday, saying it was the Greens who had brought it up — as Mr Shaw had last week when he said the wealth tax was another version of a capital gains tax, also ruled out by Labour.

‘‘We are not the ones bringing it up . . . They are bringing it up and I don’t believe for a moment that these guys aren’t going to come after everyone’s money, come after New Zealanders’ money that has been hard worked for and they want to take if off them.

‘‘The Greens had been able to bully Labour in the past.’’ — The New Zealand Herald