“Under a Labour-Green-Māori Govt, the Greens and Māori Party would team up with Labour’s Capital Gains Caucus to force Hipkins to introduce a Capital Gains Tax. Only ACT is committed to Real Change on tax,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Hipkins is taking credit for ruling out a Capital Gains Tax and Wealth Tax under his leadership, but Grant Robertson and David Parker have made it clear they desperate want a Capital Gains Tax. With potential coalition partners The Māori Party and Greens also calling for one they will team up and force one on New Zealanders.

“Hipkins’ arm wouldn’t be that hard to twist. He’s on the record wanting a CGT, the only reason he’s saying this now is that he wants to be elected in October more. In 2011, Hipkins tweeted: ‘Husband and wife with rental property approached me today to say they like capital gains tax, they think it's fairer, me too!’ In 2013, Robertson tweeted ‘Capital Gains Tax needed’. Parker is a long-time advocate for a CGT.

“The Labour-Green-Māori coalition can’t be trusted. ACT is the only party with a full-costed tax plan that will really make life more affordable for all New Zealanders. We will cut waste, so we can cut taxes.

“It can’t be right that someone earning $48,000 a year, just above minimum wage, pays 30 per cent tax on every dollar they earn above that. The tax burden on working New Zealanders is mad.

“Under ACT’s simple two-tier tax structure, with a carbon tax refund and lower income offset, everyone will be better off.

“For example:

• A couple with two kids earning the average household income ($110,451) will be $1,540 a year better off.
• If the two parents are teachers both earning $60,000, they’ll be $990 better off – and if they each got the average teaching excellence bonus, it would add about another $7,000 to the family income.
• If the parents work in the health sector, one a GP, one a nurse, they could be $3,490 better off.

“ACT’s approach is fundamentally different to what’s in store under Labour-Green-Māori. ACT will listen to voters, spend their money carefully on the things they want, and give them back the money we save.”

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