MANA Vice President John Minto

Hone Heke is waiting in the wings...

Tuesday 9th October 2012

MANA welcomes the Green Party announcement of three specific proposals to begin tackling the high New Zealand dollar.

Along with changes to the Reserve Bank Act and measures to curb another housing bubble, the Green Party are suggesting “quantatitive easing” as a way to reduce our over-valued dollar.

“We are prepared to look at these proposals and given they have been attacked so vociferously by Economic Development Minister Stephen Joyce, then they must have real merit” says MANA Vice President John Minto.

“The glaring omission from the Green Party proposals however is a Financial Transaction Tax which would address the high dollar directly without the problems of other proposals. MANA’s Hone Heke Financial Transaction Tax would target speculative buying and selling of the New Zealand dollar which is the main reason for its high value”.

“Our dollar is the eleventh most traded currency in the world despite the fact we are a miniscule part of the global economy”.

A financial transactions tax on currency speculation would :

1. Reduce the value of the dollar by directly reducing speculation.

2. Stem the loss of jobs (several hundred lost in the last few weeks alone) caused by the high dollar.

3. Increase government income to allow us to abolish GST.

“Stephen Joyce is right to say those on low incomes would be hurt with increased prices for imports such as petrol if the dollar reduces in value but this is covered in our policy by using the income to abolish GST which is a tax on the poorest New Zealanders. The lowest 10% of income earners pay 14% of their income on GST while the top 10% pay less than 5% on GST”.

“MANA’s proposal is a win-win-win for New Zealand”.

“We are delighted our “Feed the Kids” policy has now been adopted across the board by all political parties(except for ACT) and we look forward to Hone Heke making an historic reappearance – this time to cut taxes on the poor rather than cut down flagpoles”.

ENDS

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