Minto's Forced Equality Would Destroy Ambition

Libertarianz Party leader Richard McGrath today backed John Minto's call for GST to be abolished.

"But don't just lift the GST on lentils and cumquats, as Phil Goff suggests - take it off all goods and services, and instantly make them 15% cheaper," he said.

"John Minto is quite correct in calling for 'dramatic, revolutionary change in economic policy' - but the change New Zealand needs is not the poverty and slavery of communism that he advocates, but the motivation and life-enhancing opportunities offered by free market capitalism."

Dr McGrath also backed John Minto's calls for a tax-free income band, but says the Mana Party are "wimps" for suggesting a figure of $27,000 whereas Libertarianz have always held that the first $50,000 of income should be exempt from molestation by the IRD.

He described the Mana Party's backing of Labour's $15 a week minimum wage, and fixing it at two-thirds of the average wage, as "a cynical method of ensuring there would always be an underclass of jobless New Zealanders that the hard left could manipulate."

"If minimum wage laws worked, then all the left-leaning political parties, including National, would be calling for $100 an hour as the bottom line. The fact is that minimum wage laws cause unemployment, particularly for the young and vulnerable who need jobs the most. That's why Libertarianz wants such laws struck out."

Dr McGrath described the rest of the Mana Party tax policy as "lifted straight from the Communist manifesto - which I'm sure comprises Mr Minto's bedtime reading."

For more information, see www.libertarianz.orgnz

ENDS

© Scoop Media