Mr Anderton questions tax-free gains

Press, 13 March 1986, Page 9

Mr Anderton questions tax-free gains

Wellington reporter A broadening of the income tax base structure to include capital gains has been called for by the member of Parliament for Sydenham, Mr Jim Anderton.

He drew attention to massive tax-free windfalls received by Brierley Investment shareholders recently.

Tax equity and social justice demanded that such gains be taxed if the tax base was also going to be expanded to cover food and clothing, said Mr Anderton, during the Ad-dress-in-Reply debate.

He told Parliament he was anguished by a contradiction between an average $40,000 gain by Brierley shareholders resulting from a cash issue of new shares and the plight of productive workers struggling to improve their hourly rate of

$4.83. Mr Anderton said he had attended an unpaid stop-work meeting of such workers in Christchurch on Tuesday at the same time as Brierley shareholders received an effective total gain in their wealth of $l5OO million to $2OOO million.

"Surely it is time we tackled the thorny question of broadening the base for tax on capital gains,” he said.

Mr Anderton also touched on interest rates and employment in an address vaguely critical of the thrust of Government economic policies.

There should not always be artifical agreement on all areas of policy nor would it be a sign of politicial health if there were, he said. Mr Anderton said he expected “maturity from the Parliamentary pro-

cess” in a reference to past criticism of him for expressing concerns at the impact of Government policies. High interest rates were not in the best interests of the productive or household sectors, he said. “I urge the Government to use the variety of means at its disposal to ease the pressure which the funding programme it has adopted has put on them (interest rates).” Mr Anderton said full employment at wages which enabled a reasonable quality of life had to be one of New Zealand’s main goals. “Any other objective fails both the nation and its people,” he said. His speech included an appeal for politicians to lift the credibility of Parliament in the eyes of the public by raising the quality of debate and de-

sisting from “political propaganda” and mudslinging. “What I, and I presume other members, have to grapple with is the awesome question of ‘What, when you had the chance, did you do or at least say about the problems of the day as you saw them’?” Mr Anderton said.

The impact of economic policies on some sectors of New Zealand showed “signs of being significant,” and he saw regional development programmes as part of the solution to “inevitable results of market-led economic strategies.”

Mr Anderton was recently moved to chairmanship of the Government’s caucus committee on regional development from his previous chairmanship of the caucus industrial relations committee.