Greens Advocating Tax Cuts?

"It's true. Greens 'co-leader' Rod Donald has offered an amendment to the Taxation Bill creating a $5,000 income tax-free threshold," notes an astounded Libertarianz Finance spokesman Stephen Berry, who commends the Green position, saying, "It makes perfect sense to remove the theft burden from those who can least afford to be constricted by the state."

"The Government's surplus is currently over $5 billion, which makes a $5,000 tax-free threshold easily affordable for this Government, even if they aren't motivated by a desire to repudiate the act of theft" Berry says. "Something costing less than $2 billion could mean $750 a year in every person's pocket. This is very valuable for low income people, and doesn't come via a state handout."

Berry does, however, question the Greens' motives behind this tax cut. "While they rightly talk about hard-working families, we can't be sure that this will result in any real reduction of the tax burden should the Greens have their way." As an example, Berry highlights one Green party pamphlet that states the Greens wish to:

• Shift taxes from work and enterprise to waste and pollution (e.g. toxics, CO2, packaging) so that conserving our resources is its own reward

• Use some of this 'eco-tax' revenue to cut tax on the first $5000 of income so everyone benefits

"Working families would find their tax cut eaten up by plastic bag levies and breathing tax," Berry says.

One of the first steps that Libertarianz would take in their transitional tax reduction plan is the creation of a $15,000 income tax-free threshold. Berry says, "A $15,000 threshold would mean over $2,200 each year in every person's pocket. The benefit to working class families, the growth of the economy, and the increase in economic freedom would be enormous. What's more, it is affordable now. Such a move would cost just $4.6 billion. If Labour has any real commitment to working families, they must take such a step."

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