Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese announced the date for his country’s Voice referendum: October 14, the same day as the New Zealand general election.

“On that day, every Australian will have a once in a generation chance to bring our country together and change it for the better,” said Albanese, who supports the change.

“I ask all Australians to vote Yes.”

The Voice referendum asks Australian voters to give a Yes or No response to whether an Indigenous Voice to Parliament should be enshrined in the country’s constitution.

The Voice to Parliament would act as an independent advisory body for First Nations people.

Labour has attacked National’s tax plan as “dodgy”, with Minister for Finance Grant Robertson accusing the opposition of “voodoo costings”.

Robertson said the plan would mean cuts to early childhood education, canceling cheaper public transport and public services.

“National’s costings of the revenue from their new taxes look dodgy. It appears they have overestimated revenue from a number of sources. The more analysis there is the bigger the hole in National’s fiscal plan gets,” he said.

Robertson claimed National’s proposed cuts to public services would mean worse frontline services – something Nicola Willis denied this morning.

“National will be asking for 8 percent cuts in many agencies and therefore they will not be able to protect frontline services. Despite what they say, the fine print of their document says health and education will be cut to find savings,” he said. 

He also claimed there was a hole in the projected $740 million per year revenue figure of the foreign buyers tax.

“The plan relies on more and more foreign buyers coming into the New Zealand market every year, despite putting a tax on them. It also beggars belief that there are that number of homes available every year to be bought up by foreigners to fund National’s tax cuts.”

Greens: “Crumbs from the property speculator’s table”

Green Party co-leader James Shaw labelled National’s tax  plans “a cynical ploy to do the absolute least for middle income earners in order to get away with tax cuts for the wealthiest few”.

“The plan to roll back the bright line test to two years from 10 years and reverse the removal of landlords’ ability to deduct interest costs from their tax bill is a blatant handout for property speculators.

“The Green Party is clear that we must urgently stop handouts to property speculators so we can support everyone.”

The Greens offered alternative figures showing lower-and-middle income earners would be better of under their own tax plan.

• A retired couple who would receive an additional $13 a week under National, would receive $32 more per week under the Green Party’s plan
• A family with two children and combined income of $120k would see $50 more per week under National’s plan, and be $188 better off per week under the Green Party plan.
• Students who get no additional support under National’s plan would get support of $385 a week under the Green Party’s plan

ACT: “This policy could have been announced by Labour”

ACT leader David Seymour attacked National’s plan for not cutting enough spending.

“National criticises Labour for spending an extra billion dollars a week, but they are promising to spend an extra $980 million a week,” he said.

“Their tax cuts promise about half as much as Labour’s Michael Cullen promised 15 years ago, this policy could easily have been announced by Labour,” he said.

ACT is campaigning on two-rate tax system where the top company, trust, and individual income tax rates are aligned at 28%.

NZ First: “Rehashing past failures”

NZ First leader Winston Peters took aim at National’s policies to introduce immigration levies and a foreign buyer tax for houses over $2 million.

“They are clearly relying on mass immigration and a mass foreign buy up of kiwi homes to fund its tax cuts – and their ‘squeezed middle’ will be squeezed further,” Peters said.

“Mass immigration will only put pressure on our failing infrastructure, push house prices up, living costs up, and drive wages down. Low wages and high costs means we will see a flight of mainly young kiwis out of our country.”

National has released its full tax policy, which would introduce four new revenue measures:

• A 15 per cent foreign buyer tax on purchase of houses worth over $2 million, which it projects to bring in $740 million on average per year (excluding Australian and Singaporean buyers due to free trade obligations)
• Ending the commercial building depreciation tax break, which would bring in an estimated $525 million on average per year.
• Closing the online gambling loophole, requiring offshore gambling operators to register in New Zealand. The party estimates this will bring in $179 million on average per year from GST and other company taxes.  It would introduce IP “geo-blocking” for companies that don’t register in New Zealand.
• Immigration levies: National would shift the immigration system from state-funded to user-pays immigration levies. This would not apply to tourist visas or immigration from Pacific islands. It estimates $123 million in cost savings.

Speaking from parliament today, leader Christopher Luxon and finance spokesperson Nicola Willis introduced the new measures as a means of paying for the lifting of income tax brackets to compensate for inflation. Luxon said this morning that all income tax cuts would be applied at once, on July 1 2024, rather than staggered over several years.

The bracket shifts are:

• The $14,000 threshold will rise to $15,600;
• the $48,000 threshold will rise to $53,500;
• $70,000 threshold will rise to $78,100.

National also says it will reinstate interest deductability for landlords by mid-2026 and bring the brightline test back from 10 years to two. One of National’s revenue measures (ending the commercial building depreciation tax break) is also in Labour’s tax plan.

National’s plan also introduces a number of “spending reprioritisations” to reduce costs, including cutting spending on consultants and contractors, and requiring spending reductions from selected Government agencies.

A number of frontline agencies are excluded from the cut requirements, including: The Ministry of Health, Te Whatu Ora, the Ministry of Education, the Education Review Office, the Department of
Corrections, and Oranga Tamariki, Police, Defence Force, Waka Kotahi, and Kāinga Ora.

More clues about National’s tax plan from breakfast radio this morning – Christopher Luxon told Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB the tax savings would kick in immediately, not be spaced over four years.

“I take it this also going to be rolled out over 4 years?” Hosking asked.

“We will talk about timing for, that but it will kick off next year,” Luxon repled

Hosking then clairified whether they cuts would be introduced in chunks – for examples, a $25 per fortnight reduction each year over four years.

“No, it will be 100 [dollars] from when we are launching it, from day one,” Luxon said.

When asked about the idea of removing tax exemptions for churches and charities, Luxon was open to the idea.

“I’m not averse to it, I wouldn’t rule it out and could definitely look at  it down the road,” he said.

 

Christopher Luxon hinted today’s policy announcement would include some further relief for minimum wage earners during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report.

Details released so far this morning showed a minimum wage earner would see a tax saving of $10 a week under the plan.

When asked by Corin Dann if that was fair compared to the greater savings for middle-income earners, Luxon suggested there was more to come.

“People on the minimum wage will do much better under National than Labour. It’s better than a few cents off carrots and a couple of beans,” he said, referring to Labour’s policy of removing GST from fruit and vegetables. “They will also benefit from other tax reductions that we will announce today.”

But when asked whether National would keep minimum wage increases at the same rate as Labour, Luxon side-stepped. “We’ve got a great history of previous governments under National of steady increases of the minimum wage.

“I can tell minimum wage earners that they’re going to do better under our National plan than under Labour, because they’re going to be $20 a fortnight better off.”

The first details of National’s tax plan have emerged this morning, with a full release expected for 10:30am.

The NZ Herald reported details this morning based on a slide from a presentation which claimed the plan would cut tax by up to $50 a week for a household earning $120,000 a year with no children and as much as $124 a week for an “average” household with children .

An individual earning $60,000 would see an additional $25 a week, and someone who works full time on the minimum wage will get up to $10.

National’s finance spokesperson Nicola Willis said yesterday the party would be announcing four new taxes.

There was speculation this could include scrapping the tax exemption for religious organisations and businesses – such as Sanitarium, which is owned by the Seventh Day Adventist church. However, Chris Luxon later denied that this would be in the plan.

As reported in The Bulletin this morning, Attorney-General David Parker has assessed the legislation at the centre of the government’s plan to target ram raid offending and said it violates the rights of children.

The Ram Raid Offending and Related Measures Amendment Bill is an omnibus bill that amends several others to allow for the measures announced by the government in July. It includes amending the Oranga Tamariki Act to allow for 12 and 13-year-olds who commit a ram raid and are charged with a ram raid offence, to be escalated to the Youth Court.

As the Herald’s Derek Cheng reports, Parker vetted the bill against the protections in the Bill of Rights Act and said it appeared to be inconsistent on three grounds: the right of a child to be dealt with in an age-appropriate way, the right to be free from unreasonable search or seizure, and the right to freedom of expression.

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