United New Zealand leader, Hon Peter Dunne, says National has oversold its tax cuts promise once again.
He says many middle income earners will be disappointed at the modest level of tax cuts announced by Treasurer Bill
English, and he doubts consequently that National will gain the mileage it expects from the package.
“People’s hopes will have been built up to expect more, and they will not feel Mr English’s plan goes far enough.”
“I would prefer to see this next round of tax cuts as one more step along the way, not just an end in themselves.”
“We still need to be aiming to reduce the top personal rate and the company tax rate,” he says.
However, while critical of National’s plans, Mr Dunne has slated Labour’s plans to repeal these tax cuts.
“Labour’s obsession with high taxes to appease the Alliance shows it is completely out of step with the aspirations of
the middle classes.”
“Not only does it want to penalise success by increasing taxes for higher income earners, it now wants to deny the
struggling middle classes the benefit of even these miserly tax cuts.”
“Labour seems determined to cling to the paternalistic lie that governments know best when it comes to spending people’s
taxes.”
“It will soon learn that thumbing its nose at the middle classes is hardly the way to win their support,” he says.
ENDS