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Winston Peters: NZ First leader calls for overseas tech giants to pay more taxes · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: Now, as we've discussed, there's been a bit of chat
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  Speaker 2: again about how little tax big tech pays in New Zealand. Google,
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  Speaker 2: for example, one year should have paid, judging by their revenue,
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  Speaker 2: about three hundred and twenty million dollars in tax, but
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  Speaker 2: of course they sent it off show as a service
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  Speaker 2: fee and only ended up paying about eight million dollars
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  Speaker 2: in tax. Winston Peters says this is not enough, So
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  Speaker 2: let's talk to him high Winston, Hello, what are you
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  Speaker 2: going to do about it?
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  Speaker 3: Well? With healthy In twenty fifteen work was being considered
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  Speaker 3: at the time by the then National Party, and then
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  Speaker 3: also came in twenty twenty four. The problem of twenty
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  Speaker 3: twenty four was at the time some was threatening taris
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  Speaker 3: of up to fifty percent. It was no time to
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  Speaker 3: push the beer then. When it's appropriate now and so
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  Speaker 3: the underlying principle which we have always believed in, we
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  Speaker 3: think it's now the time to do it.
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  Speaker 2: How do you do it?
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  Speaker 3: But it's still but it's still complicated, it requires a
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  Speaker 3: lot of work.
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  Speaker 2: What's the mechanism.
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  Speaker 3: Well, again, that's what we've got to construct, and we
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  Speaker 3: start out with the onlying principle, But we've got to
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  Speaker 3: construct a mechanism and to make sure it will stack
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  Speaker 3: up and it is enforceable if.
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  Speaker 2: You do that. If you put an extra tax or
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  Speaker 2: whatever it is on the likes of Google and Meta,
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  Speaker 2: will we not simply be retaliated against with an extra
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  Speaker 2: tax on the likes of zero and Fonterra.
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  Speaker 3: Well they have heath the reality they have been as
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  Speaker 3: the American has been applying the same thing against other
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  Speaker 3: countries all round the world. So why can't we be
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  Speaker 3: a case of tip to tat here?
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  Speaker 2: But you know I'm right right, you do this to
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  Speaker 2: them and we'll be done to us.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know you're right because you haven't I don't
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  Speaker 3: know you're right because you haven't looked at the construct
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  Speaker 3: and well which we will establish it. But other countries
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  Speaker 3: are looking at the heart of this as well, in
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  Speaker 3: European Union, in putting countries like France. So we should
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  Speaker 3: be part of the process and try and get ourselves
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  Speaker 3: on board even when we can apply it.
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  Speaker 2: When your mate Stuart Nash looked at this when he
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  Speaker 2: was the Revenue Minister for the Labor Party. He came
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  Speaker 2: on my show and he said to me, we cannot
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  Speaker 2: do it because we will be retaliating. They will retaliate
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  Speaker 2: against Fonterra. We try to do it, as you say,
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  Speaker 2: in twenty fifteen, and we dropped the idea. We try
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  Speaker 2: to do it in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen and we
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  Speaker 2: dropped the idea. Simon Watts tried to do it last
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  Speaker 2: year and drop the idea. You can't do it, Winston.
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  Speaker 2: And you know this because you're the Foreign Minister. You're
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  Speaker 2: sitting there hearing this stuff.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know this because I don't take the defeatist
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  Speaker 3: attitude that you don't keep on trying and trying until
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  Speaker 3: you're fine the right avenue and the right way of
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  Speaker 3: accessing it. That's the point I'd like to see us
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  Speaker 3: do because other countries doing exactly that with respect.
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  Speaker 2: I reckon what you're doing here is you're just politicing
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  Speaker 2: and you know full well this is not going to happen.
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  Speaker 3: BG. You pardoned.
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  Speaker 1: HM.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, Now tell me.
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  Speaker 3: When I first made these dablements. There was no election
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  Speaker 3: at the time.
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  Speaker 2: Well, there haven't an election in four and a half months.
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  Speaker 2: So I think that's what you're at.
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  Speaker 3: I know that's just serendipitous, but it's not and that's
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  Speaker 3: the fact.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, all right, we'll see how it goes.
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  Speaker 3: Hang on, hang on, hang on. If you're going to
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  Speaker 3: make that claim, you bill have a con logical certainly
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  Speaker 3: about it, and the chronologically certainly does not go help
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  Speaker 3: your are going to help mine?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, Well, we'll see, we'll see. Well, I'm I'm in
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  Speaker 2: it for the long haul, as are you, So we'll see.
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  Speaker 2: We'll talk again in a few years time. I'm sure
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  Speaker 2: we'll wanna PACIFICA. Now this is if this so, this
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  Speaker 2: is obviously dead for next year, but not so much
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  Speaker 2: maybe for twenty twenty eight. If that the Tongue and
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  Speaker 2: Salmoran governments get up again managed to make this work,
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  Speaker 2: Are we going to have to fund it?
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  Speaker 3: No? If Look, here's the point here. I want another
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  Speaker 3: month because I only had three weeks. Actually, don't get
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  Speaker 3: these things done. For example, I do honestly believe that
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  Speaker 3: there are future state stakeholder partners in say Japan, in
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  Speaker 3: say the UK, in save France. Why because so many
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  Speaker 3: PACIFICA players have played there and it's so differently talking
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  Speaker 3: to people, you know, like the head of the Japanese
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  Speaker 3: the Japanese government or others, to say, look all we
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  Speaker 3: want them healthier. How about can you join us? Will
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  Speaker 3: be a group of countries with stakeholders, will have private
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  Speaker 3: investment as well. But let's tack this up. I just
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  Speaker 3: want the chance to do that and try it. Because
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  Speaker 3: when it comes to the Pacific, if you're gonna have Pacific, right,
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  Speaker 3: but you've got to have PACIFICA in it. And the
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  Speaker 3: second thing is in Tomra and Sama. This is about
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  Speaker 3: This is about economics as well. It's not just about
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  Speaker 3: that's fraught. But I know we were putting together a
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  Speaker 3: business proposition and we didn't have a chance to We
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  Speaker 3: just didn't have enough time.
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  Speaker 2: But what's the rush, Winston? I mean, if what you're
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  Speaker 2: doing it for is some sort of geopolitical strategy to
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  Speaker 2: hug the Pacific and closer, the fact that that you're
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  Speaker 2: still trying for twenty twenty eight will do the same
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  Speaker 2: thing as doing it for next year, won't it?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, But here comes a great pity and a team
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  Speaker 3: that gets totally disbanded for one year, you got to
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  Speaker 3: start all over again. If you could care it kept
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  Speaker 3: it going bad another month, I thought there was a
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  Speaker 3: chance of pulling it off. Why look, and as a
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  Speaker 3: Minister of Foreign Affairs has proven this that the answer
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  Speaker 3: if you don't ask the question, the answer is always know.
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  Speaker 3: When you ask, you might be astonished by the countries
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  Speaker 3: that understand that this is the Blue Continent, that's our
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  Speaker 3: front yard and it's just not about sport here. It's
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  Speaker 3: about our geo strategic standing in the place, and that's
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  Speaker 3: pretty critical.
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  Speaker 2: Hey are they going to roll luxon?
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  Speaker 3: Who's they?
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  Speaker 2: The National Party?
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  Speaker 3: Now? You know I can't toss you answered that question.
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  Speaker 3: I mean I was asked the question as as Starma
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  Speaker 3: going on day scam and my tolerance the world tour,
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  Speaker 3: and yes, he's got he's a goal. But I'm not
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  Speaker 3: going to answer this question. Otherwise, what would you do?
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  Speaker 3: A headline it?
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  Speaker 2: And what would you do? You know, of course I'm
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  Speaker 2: going to do that, but what would you do? Let's
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  Speaker 2: say this is nineteen ninety, but I don't know nineteen
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  Speaker 2: ninety Bulger is sitting there on eighteen percent popularity and
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  Speaker 2: you're in the caucus and nationals on twenty nine and
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  Speaker 2: you're about to ooh, take a spanking at the election.
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  Speaker 2: What would you do. No.
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  Speaker 3: I was sitting in the carcus when I was thirty
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  Speaker 3: eight percent and bold it was five. I know, but
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  Speaker 3: I knew that if Bibor can leave the National Player,
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  Speaker 3: I wouldn't be wouldn't be free government company the way
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  Speaker 3: I wanted. I'd have to push these stupid neoliberal ideas
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  Speaker 3: that were pristons. I was not going to have that.
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  Speaker 3: Thirty two of the caucus came to my officer to
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  Speaker 3: ask me, evere time I.
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  Speaker 2: Ask you a question, you go back to the nineteen nineties.
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  Speaker 2: To be fair, I took it back there, didn't I
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  Speaker 2: This is my fault.
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  Speaker 3: No, it's not. It wasn't your fault. But I'm not
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  Speaker 3: going to tell them Massify what they should do, because
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  Speaker 3: you would just invited me to invade another partist territory
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  Speaker 3: and I'm not going to do that.
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  Speaker 2: No. Okay, and Winston, thank you as always appreciate having
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  Speaker 2: a chat to you. That was my fault, wasn't it?
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  Speaker 2: Winston Peter's New Zealand First.
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