ACHIEVING A FAIR SOCIETY

Political parties have different ideas of how to create a better New Zealand. National: Seeks to provide ‘‘opportunities’’ for all, rather than fairness in outcomes. It will ‘‘reduce taxes when there is room to do so’’, but it’s big aim is to use surpluses to pay down crown debt, create jobs and economic growth. Labour: Labour’s ‘‘vision’’ is that ‘‘New Zealand should be the fairest, most decent society in the world’’. Labour would introduce a capital gains tax (excluding the family home), increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour in the first 100 days in office, and raise it again to $16.25 in 2015, in the long run indexing it to two-thirds of the average wage. It plans a top tax rate of 36 per cent on income over $150,000. Greens: Policy detail is to come, but the Green Party has previously said it would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and work towards ‘‘a living wage for all workers’’. It would introduce child tax credits and create a new top tax rate of 40 per cent above $140,000. ACT: The party is focused not on fairness, but on economic growth. Government spending, including welfare spending would drop. Personal tax rates would reduce by 2018/19 to 12.5 per cent on up to $20,000 income, and 15 per cent over that. Company tax rates and petrol tax would also fall. GST would be 10 per cent by 2018/19. NZ First: Aims to narrow widening income gaps. Would raise the minimum wage to $16, take GST off food (funded by a ‘‘clamp-down’’ on tax dodging) and rates, instead only taxing ‘‘those activities which are appropriate for income taxation’’. It would ‘‘replace the existing tax system with a fair and equitable system’’, reduce taxes for lower earners and review ‘‘Working for Families’’. Mana: Would increase the minimum wage to $18.80 per hour, eventually indexing it to 66 per cent of the average wage, introduce a capital gains tax (except on family homes and Maori land), and reintroduce inheritance tax. It would also work towards a ‘‘Universal Basic Income’’ so everyone aged 18 and over would receive a ‘‘minimum, liveable, tax-free income after which progressive tax would kick in.’’ It would abolish GST, and ‘‘significantly increase’’ the tax take with a tax on financial speculation.