The time for a wealth tax is now

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Who does Prime Minister Chris Hipkins think he’s fooling, that a redistribution of wealth in our country is not a priority?

Jordan Walker,Greeen Party candidate for East Coast

Is equity not a priority Chris? What about pulling people out of poverty? It sounds as though you’ve capitalised on the term “wellbeing” for your Budget, but the follow-through doesn’t exist. Perhaps “bread and butter” is better replaced with “crumbs and floods” because that’s all you’re leaving the East Coast with.

Only months ago the Government launched an inquiry into IRD, which revealed that 311 families in our country had a combined net worth of $85 billion. A survey went out asking every day Kiwis what they thought about a wealth tax, with 53.1 percent saying that they were in support of it. Ninety of our country’s wealthiest went on to sign an open letter titled “Sharing wealth by paying more tax” which backed a tax system that asks more from those who can most afford it.

For context, the richest pay a median effective tax rate of 9.4 percent, while the general population pays 20.2 percent — this is inequity, Chris, and the clear solution is a wealth tax.

In our current financial climate, those who will suffer are not just low-income whānau, but also the middle class, now becoming the struggling class. Ignoring this, ignores the struggles of the majority.

What do we do with poverty in Aotearoa? As long as it’s not in our face, we’re quite complacent, and choose to ignore it. However, I’m not sure that we can choose to ignore it for much longer, with supermarket duopolies and the price of fuel pushing up the cost of living.

How can we survive?

The Greens have the solution. Our Income Guarantee Policy is a commitment to every person in Aotearoa that no matter what, your income will never fall below $385 per week, after tax. For couples, our Income Guarantee will be at least $770, and a single parent will always have an income of at least $735.

Under the Income Guarantee we will ensure that 95 percent of people will pay less tax and parents or caregivers will get the support they need with a top-up of up to $215 every week for the first child, and $135 a week for every other child— plus, an additional universal top-up of $140 a week for every child under three.

We also recently announced our Pledge to Renters, which will see a rental WOF to ensure that our whare are warm and dry, as well as a rental cap so that landlords can’t hike their rent up whenever they like, further perpetuating the struggle of the everyday Kiwi.

Both the Income Guarantee and the Pledge to Renters is our commitment to lift everyone out of poverty.

We need transformational change.

Poverty is a political choice.

Ko Tēnei te Wā — The Time is Now.