Nats seek 10% tax cut

Press, 31 August 1985, Page 1

Nats seek 10% tax cut

The National Party will introduce a private member’s bill aiming to provide an across-the-board 10 per cent tax cut, when Parliament resumes its session next month.

The Leader of the Opposition, Mr McLay, said in Christchurch yesterday that the National Party believed families were in urgent need of some relief. Such relief was not being pro-

At 16 years of age, a Christchurch youth, Paul Robinson, a pupil of Papanui High School, is a world champion stamp-licker. Pau] licked and stuck a record-breaking 175 stamps in four Y minutes on envelopes during yesterday’s final at the Stampex exhibition in the Horticultural Hall. The previous record of 149 was set by Rob Hunt during Thursday’s heats. Two came close to Paul Robinson’s total in the final:

vided by the Government’s financial statement of two weeks ago. The National Party decided on the bill to provide that relief from December, at its three-day caucus meeting in Christchurch. At a press conference to end the meeting yesterday, Mr McLay said the 14 months delay in the introduction of the Labour Government’s tax measures

would not help people now.

He rejected an allegation by an Associate Minister of Finance, Mr Prebble, that the 14-month delay in introducing the goods and services tax and the tax measures linked to it was caused by National Party opposition. “If it wanted to, the Government could introduce the tax by the end of the year,

method. Competitors were allowed to separate their stamps before the attempt. “You rip the sheets into strips, fold them back and forward and then rip them half-way,” he said. Licking in strips was much quicker than individual stamps. Paul has no immediate plans to better his sticky record but the stamp collector of five years has another chance to win acclaim — his two Stampex entries have both qualified for international exhibitions.

even with National opposition,” Mr McLay said. The Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas, has determined that the key to GST would be the accompanying tax cuts. He had also decided not to introduce this until next year.

“It was the Labour Party, on the eve of the Timaru by-election, that deferred GST for six months,” Mr McLay said. Money for a 10 per cent tax cut for everyone was available from the 30 per cent increase in personal tax paid. “That is money that should have been handed back to the taxpayer anyway. It is certainly there, because of fiscal drag,” Mr McLay said. An interim tax cut, to run until GST and the Government’s tax cuts were in effect in October, 1986, was the way to provide relief. There was another way — the coming wage round — but if the wage round went above 12 per cent the Government’s economic policy would be “in tatters.” National’s caucus meeting had decided on the private member’s bill because of the economic plight of many New Zealand wage-earners, Mr McLay said. The bill would be introduced by one of the party’s economic spokesmen. Asked whether he thought the Government would support the bill, Mr McLay said that was a matter for the Labour Party. Mr McLay said the threeday Christchurch meeting had provided a valuable time for “in-depth discussion preparatory to detailed policy-making” by the party.