“The Greens have never seen a problem they couldn’t solve by taking other people’s money, the problem is that when you take more and more of peoples’ earnings they have less to invest and everyone loses,” says ACT Leader and Finance spokesperson David Seymour.

“Profits encourage businesses to expand production. Expanding production means more jobs and more economic growth. Can we really afford to take more of New Zealanders’ profits at a time when we so desperately need economic growth?

“People like to think of New Zealand as a first world country but our income figures tell a different story. Until we have a government focussed on economic growth we will continue to see tragedies in our health system and infrastructure that is not up to modern standards.

“Under Labour the median wage gap has gone from Australians earning $17,400 more to $24,000 more. Lithuania, The Czech Republic, and Slovenia have all overtaken us for productivity in the past five years. Estonia looks set to overtake us next. We don’t even compare to Australia, Canada, the U.S. or Britain anymore.

“As I said when launching ACT’s Alternative Budget for Real Change, we risk losing first world status. As we lose competitiveness, we lose skilled people and investment. As we lose skilled people and investment, we become less competitive. This is the spiral we must avoid.

“Unintended consequences of tax changes nearly always outnumber intended consequences. We know from history that over time this will result in fewer highly-skilled people wanting to come here, and more highly skilled people wanting to leave for more attractive jurisdictions.

“But perhaps the greatest tragedy of taxing productivity might well be the message it sends all New Zealanders who strive to get ahead.

“Punishing success is the very opposite of what we try so hard to instil in our young people as they develop through school, go on to further study and enter the workforce.

“ACT’s alternative budget shows how to reduce taxes and reward Kiwis for their hard work by allowing them to keep their money. Under our plan a nurse with one child, for example, earning $70,000 would receive around $2,300 in tax relief.

“ACT has a plan to arrest the decline and grow the economy. It would get the country back into surplus and allows New Zealanders to keep more of their income to invest.

“We need to put the values of aspiration in our tax system, making it fairer, simpler and more competitive. It’s not only possible, it’s essential.”

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