Latest / The SME Stream / Kerre Woodham: Just introduce a capital gains tax and be done with it

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Kerre Woodham: Just introduce a capital gains tax and be done with it · The SME Stream

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  Speaker 1: For the love of all that is holy, can we
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  Speaker 1: just introduce a capital gains tax and be done with it?
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I am so sick of it dominating the headlines. The
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: issue was never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever ever going
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: to go away, despite two labor prime ministers ruling it out,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: despite Christopher Luxen ruling it out, still that comes up.
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  Speaker 1: It's like a nagging child, like I want a capital
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  Speaker 1: gains tax. I want to capital gains. I want to capital,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: I want to capital. And then in the endine given
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  Speaker 1: this time, it's because A and z's chief executive and
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  Speaker 1: Tonia Watson said in an interview yesterday, the time has
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  Speaker 1: arrived for a capital gains tax. Well, the time actually
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: arrived with the Tax Working Group's recommendation in recent times.
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  Speaker 1: But nonetheless, she says, look, there might be compliance costs
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  Speaker 1: introducing a tax. She also made it very clear she
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  Speaker 1: was opposed to any tax on un realized gains, but
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  Speaker 1: she says a capital gains tax should be introduced, and
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  Speaker 1: it should be introduced now. And her intervention adds another
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  Speaker 1: voice and a growing group of New Zealanders, influential and
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  Speaker 1: otherwise who are calling for a capital gains or wealth
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  Speaker 1: tax as I say, the issue really came to the
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  Speaker 1: fore when the Tax Working Group, chaired by Sir Michael
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  Speaker 1: Cullen and convened by the Adurn government recommended a CGT
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  Speaker 1: be introduced. But then New Zealand first dug in their
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  Speaker 1: toes and refused to budge. So just cindera adun ruled
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  Speaker 1: it out. And she didn't just rule it out, she
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  Speaker 1: said it would never happen on her watch as Prime Minister,
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  Speaker 1: and it didn't. Then Chris Hipkins became Prime Minister leading
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  Speaker 1: a labor government and he ruled it out too. But
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  Speaker 1: that was then and this is now. Now he's singing
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  Speaker 1: a different song as he was to write for a
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: John Early edition this morning.
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  Speaker 2: I think what we've got to acknowledge is at the
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  Speaker 2: moment the New Zealand tax system is loaded against working people.
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  Speaker 2: Working people end up paying more tax because we're not
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  Speaker 2: kept taxing or other forms of income. And as our
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  Speaker 2: other comparable countries do. There's capital gain stacks here in
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  Speaker 2: the UK, there's capital gain stacks in Australia and so
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  Speaker 2: many other countries that there isn't in New Zealand. And
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  Speaker 2: what does that mean. It means that salary and wager
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  Speaker 2: and is the people who work hard every day for
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  Speaker 2: a living end up paying a disproportionate share of the
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  Speaker 2: tax because we're not texting other forms.
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  Speaker 1: Of Oh, Chris Hipkins, champion of the working man, where
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  Speaker 1: were you when you had a government that had a
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  Speaker 1: mandate to do anything that jolly well liked? Oh that's right,
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  Speaker 1: you were there and you ruled it out. This is
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  Speaker 1: the same Chris Hipkins who had the best opportunity of
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  Speaker 1: any government since MMP was introduced to reform the tax system.
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  Speaker 1: He had a cabinet that was champing at the bit
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  Speaker 1: to reform the tax system. This is the Chris Hipkins
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  Speaker 1: who said no to a capital gains tax. David Parker
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  Speaker 1: resigned over the fact he said no to a capital
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  Speaker 1: gains tax. Resigned as portfolio untenable for me to continue.
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  Speaker 1: Grant Robertson admitted he had had to swallow a dead
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  Speaker 1: rat by standing by as Prime Minister when he wanted
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  Speaker 1: to introduce a capital gains tax. This is the Chris
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  Speaker 1: Hipkins who released a statement saying I am confirming today
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  Speaker 1: that under a government I lead, there will be no
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  Speaker 1: wealthful capital gains tax after the election. End of story.
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  Speaker 1: So this is why You cannot have former prime ministers
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  Speaker 1: leading an opposition because they have absolutely no credibility when
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  Speaker 1: their statements from only a few months back come back
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  Speaker 1: to haunt them. His credibility on his capital gains tax
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  Speaker 1: is shot. Barbara Edmonds. Get her up there talking about
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  Speaker 1: it untainted. She doesn't have the ghost of Chris Hipkins
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  Speaker 1: from yesteryear, well, yester month coming back to haunt her.
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  Speaker 1: Carmel Sepalone hell Jim, the guy who serves the drinks
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  Speaker 1: at three point two, get him up there to say,
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  Speaker 1: I think a capital gains tax would be fabulous. You
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  Speaker 1: cannot have Chris Hipkins calling for a capital gains tax.
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  Speaker 1: He has absolutely no credibility. But the issue is simply
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  Speaker 1: not going to go away, and I think sooner rather
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  Speaker 1: than later we need to adopt. I even think Sir
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  Speaker 1: Michael Cullen's recommendations were not unreasonable. There will come a
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  Speaker 1: time where it will be introduced and we need to
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  Speaker 1: do it credibly and not in the knee jerk reaction,
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  Speaker 1: and with the best interests of the entire country at heart.