Rumours substituted for policy — Mr Douglas

Press, 16 July 1987, Page 15

Rumours substituted for policy — Mr Douglas

PA Wellington The Opposition spokesman on finance, Mr George Gair, was substituting “irresponsible third-hand rumourmongering” for policy, said the Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas. Mr Gair said that Inland Revenue Department officers had been told to do an exercise calculating how GST would work at 15 per cent. The information came from someone

with a close relative in the department, and this source had previously proved reliable, he said. Mr Douglas denied asking the Inland Revenue Department to work on such an exercise “or anything else of that kind.” “Mr Gair says he has this rumour from somebody who heard It from somebody who has a relative somewhere in some unnamed district office of the IRD.

"That’s just pathetic,” Mr Douglas said. “I have heard a rumour myself from the finance sector that National intends to promise a bonanza for the wealthy by exempting their mortgage payments from tax. “But that would be so costly and so unfair — the ordinary taxpayer ends up helping to pay for the homes of the rich — that I did not think it worth the bother of mention," he said.