2018

The current Government and the Finance Minister has said that there is an intention to base Budget 2019 on a Living Standards Framework. We welcome the political championing by the new Government of basing policy and Budgets on wellbeing and improving living standards. It requires an acceleration of work on the Living Standards Framework. Given… Read more »

It is essential that the state is sufficiently resourced to carry out its functions and to perform its important redistributive role. Taxation is the means to achieve a better society and needs to be promoted as such. The Government will need significantly more revenue in the coming decade to address New Zealand’s social deficits, inequality… Read more »

In April 2018 the NZCTU commissioned UMR Research to conduct an online survey of New Zealanders about their views around taxation. We shared the results of that survey in our feedback on the Tax Working Group’s “Future of Tax” background paper in May1. In response to the Working Group’s Interim Report, the NZCTU has conducted a further online survey of Together.org.nz supporters to re-test our initial findings and provide specific feedback to a number of particular issues raised by the Interim Report.

The tightly-constrained current level of government spending is not consistent with the aspirations of the New Zealand public for health, education, infrastructure, housing affordability, progress towards the carbon-zero goal, reducing inequality, and provision of quality public services in general. Both the 30%-of-GDP target in the Group’s Terms of Reference and the “revenue neutral” suggestion in the Ministers’ letter of 20 September 2018 place higher priority on arbitrary fiscal bright-lines than on the well-being of our people, society and environment.