GST exemption promise

Press, 22 April 1986, Page 6

GST exemption promise

PA Wellington A National Government would not levy the goods and services tax on local body rates, the Opposition spokesman on local government, Mr Warren Cooper, has promised. He vowed amalgamation would not be done with a pistol at the heads of small authorities. Revenue-sharing would be an agenda item only. Mr Cooper was speaking in Wellington before leaving to address the Municipal Association conference in Dunedin today. He will fully outline the National Party’s attitude to GST on rates, revenue-sharing and amalgamation there. He said he would tell delegates of the Opposition’s disgust at the Local Government Commission and the frivolous way the Government treated revenue sharing.

For every $3 paid in GST, local authorities would get only $1 back and the Government had not outlined its attitude to subsidies such as sewerage and water. “Local authorities are dealing with a Government interested only in metropolitan areas,” he said. The National Party would not be doing its duty if it stood by and

watched strong local government be abolished by the “iniquitous legislation” of the Government. The system of counties and boroughs, and provincial and rural areas, was something he admired. In his electorate, Otago, there were at least a dozen local authorities and 95 per cent were doing a good job. Mr Cooper said that in the United States, local

government was part and parcel of daily life but in New Zealand people were trying to get rid of it. The Opposition would look at polling provisions in relation to amalgamation. He considered the present provisions - undemocratic. Territorial authorities were dealing with a Minister, Dr Bassett who did not like local government, Mr Cooper said.