National ‘party of lower taxes’

Press, 2 July 1985, Page 8

National ‘party of lower taxes’

A claim that National was “the lower tax party” was made by the leader of the National Party, Mr McLay, in Christchurch yesterday. He told a Canterbury businessmen’s lunch that the public opposed giving politicians any extra means of taking more tax. “To put it very simply, the public does not trust politicians and they are not lightly prepared to give them an extra power to impose taxes,” Mr McLay said. The Labour Government had already taken such a power with its so-called “perks tax” which, as well as adding to costs, would yield an estimated $2OO million in extra tax this year. This had simply added to

New Zealanders’ total tax bill, he said. The proposed goods and services tax would give a similar power as an easy means of raising extra taxes.

This year Labour was planning to gather an extra 30 per cent in personal income tax, Mr McLay said. National was a lower-tax party, and the only way to achieve lower taxes was by reducing Government spending through genuine reductions in expenditure, he said. “That also means reducing the number of people who are dependent on the State, who need the taxpayers’ dollar to survive,” he said.

What Labour was proposing was not tax reform but a tax grab, Mr McLay said.