New take on old jingle to push tax message

The National Party has produced nearly 1 million of these brochures.

Remember the old Telethon jingle "Thank you very much for your kind donation"?

National has taken the song from the successful television fundraisers and twisted it into "Thank you very much for your high taxation" in nearly a million pamphlets.
They follow National's slick billboard campaign, which is widely acknowledged as having been a success.

The pamphlets, which will arrive in mailboxes over the next week, attack Labour for its "Clark Cullen Taxathon". They call Finance Minister Michael Cullen the "Wastemaster-General" and Prime Minister Helen Clark the "Prime Moneywaster".

The pamphlets list the increases taxpayers have coped with since 1999 and point out the "reward" is 67c a week in three years' time - a reference to Dr Cullen's small increase in tax thresholds in 2008.

The pamphlet says $279 billion has been raised by Labour, and lists "charities" as including 25 per cent more bureaucrats ($700 million), 33 per cent more sickness benefits ($125 million), 39 per cent more invalids benefits ($266 million), Te Wananga o Aotearoa ($239 million), hip hop tours ($26,000) and Working for Families adverts ($15 million).

There will be "serious tax relief in National's first year in office" - but the pamphlets give no details.

National has yet to announce it tax cut plan. Leader Don Brash has said the plan will be released in mid-August to give voters plenty of time to absorb it.

Labour has been goading National into releasing the details, as it claims the cuts are unaffordable without increasing Government debt and cutting into core public services such as healthcare and education.

National's campaign manager, Steven Joyce, said the party was "putting tax back on the election agenda" with the pamphlets.

"Like National's successful billboard campaign, funding for the brochures has come from the growing number of supporters who want a change in government.

"National knows taxpayers are suffering from donor fatigue and we're making sure mainstream New Zealanders know there is a way to change that at this election."