Election 2023: Christopher Luxon apologises for tax policy inaccuracies - immediately repeats error

National leader Christopher Luxon has apologised for not always being accurate in saying who gets what in National’s tax package, but then immediately repeated his error.

The party has been under fire for selling the tax package as delivering “up to $250 a fortnight” for a family with kids on the average income, but sometimes omitting the words “up to”.

Labour says this would have led the average family to think they would be $250 a fortnight richer under National, but that was a “scam” given only a fraction of 1 per cent of families would qualify for that amount.

While campaigning in New Plymouth today, Luxon apologised for when the words “up to” had been missing, which even happened in one of the party’s official press releases.

“If I’ve missed that a couple of times, I apologise for that.”

He then immediately made the same mistake in explaining what the policy meant for certain people.

“If you think about the 130,000 families that actually will be entitled to our family boost tax care rebate to deal with the early childhood costs that they have - that’s another $150 a fortnight. Think about an average median income, single earner, that’s $50 a fortnight.”

Prompted by media about whether he should have said “up to”, Luxon replied: “I said ‘up to’, up to $150.”

It follows an analysis by the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) that found just 3000 or 0.18 per cent of New Zealand 1.63 million households would receive the full tax relief of $250 a fortnight.

National took a full day to respond to media questions about the figures, initially only calling it “gutter politics” and attacking the messenger by pointing out CTU chief economist Craig Renney was a former adviser to Labour’s Grant Robertson and some of the public relations consultants had also worked with Labour.

The party eventually conceded that the substance in the CTU analysis was correct.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins at a roadside human hoarding rally in Wellington. Election 2023. October 6. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Labour leader Chris Hipkins, now out of his Covid-19 isolation and campaigning in Wellington today, said National had misled the public.

“A lot of New Zealand families were under the impression they’d get hundreds of dollars a fortnight. Now they’re seeing it as the scam that it is.”

National countered by saying Labour is misleading the public by saying fruit and vegetables would be 15 per cent cheaper under its GST-free policy, when the Government’s tax working group said it was unclear this would happen, while the health ministry said it wouldn’t happen.

Said Luxon: “There is no way any money is going through to any consumer. It’s going straight through to wealthy supermarket owners.”

Luxon also took a shot at division in Labour after comments by some MPs in support of a wealth tax or capital gains tax, both of which Hipkins has ruled out while he is leader.

“We’ve actually got a Labour Party whose position on tax is more fractured than the [Ranfurly] shield.”

He said he hadn’t been tricky in communicating National’s tax package.

“I think we’ve been incredibly clear with our tax plan. You’ve had a fantastic 32-page document. It lays out very clearly what people are entitled to, and we’ve got a tax calculator online.”

It didn’t bother Luxon that neither Act leader David Seymour nor NZ First leader Winston Peters raised their hands in last night’s minor parties leaders’ debate when asked if they thought National’s tax plan was credible.

“I’m very comfortable in our tax plan.”

Asked if he trusted Peters, Luxon repeated his line from last week’s leaders’ debate that he didn’t know him.

Derek Cheng is a senior journalist who started at the Herald in 2004. He has worked several stints in the press gallery and is a former deputy political editor./