Chris Hipkins on tax changes: Nothing’s on or off the table yet in terms of new taxes, PM says

Kiwis will know the Government’s tax policies well before it’s time for them to cast their votes in the next election, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says.

However, with the election campaign still months away, he wasn’t ready to today rule in or rule out any future taxes.

“We haven’t made any announcements around what our election policy on tax yet, so I’m not playing the what’s on the table what’s off the table game yet,” he said.

“I note that none of the other parties have released their tax policies for the forthcoming election yet either.”

He said the election campaign was still five months away and the Government would release its policies at that time so Kiwis know what they are voting for.

In the meantime, he said his Government would not be bringing in major new taxes before the election.

“We set out a very clear tax policy in 2020 and that’s guided the decisions we’ve taken in this budget as well as the decisions we’ve taken in the last two budgets.

“For this term of Government I was really clear yesterday, no capital gains tax, no wealth tax and no significant other tax changes that haven’t previously been canvassed.”

Today’s update comes after Hipkins delivered a pre-Budget speech on Thursday where he said it would be a “no frills Budget” while also ruling out any new taxes.

Hipkins spoke to media today after a public housing announcement in Christchurch, alongside Housing Minister Megan Woods.

They unveiled eight new Kāinga Ora houses today, which are among what the Government claims are 12,000 new public homes and 4000 transitional homes that have now been built across the country since it came to power.

”Here in Christchurch City, there are nearly 1821 additional public homes. That follows a net loss of 341 homes under the previous National Government,” Woods said.

”So, as we turn around the housing crisis we inherited, we can proudly say the public housing sector that was decimated under National, is thriving.”

Among the new homes built, 100 of those in Christchurch have been built by inmates at Rolleston Prison, Woods said.

”These men take great pride in their work and are learning valuable skills to take into employment,” Megan Woods said.

The eight new homes of various sizes include two built to full universal design to cater for those with accessibility needs, and replace three older homes on the site.

Woods said about 1000 more public homes are set to be delivered in the Christchurch region in the next two financial years.

Hipkins earlier met with Christchurch CEOs at a breakfast event hosted by Deloitte and then met with Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger,

Yesterday speaking to the Employers and Manufacturers Association in Auckland, Hipkins also revealed Treasury’s costing of the damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland floods: “between $9 billion and $14.5b”.

“This is more than the Kaikōura earthquake but significantly less than the Canterbury quakes,” Hipkins said.

Hipkins said the Government would not be using a cyclone levy of another kind of tax to pay for this cost.

Instead, the money would be met from reprioritising existing spending, existing funding, and debt.

Hipkins said this approach would help avoid exacerbating inflation pressure, which might be the case were the Government to simply add the rebuild to its current programme.

Hipkins also rejected claims by National that changes to tenancy law were responsible for driving up rents.

“I don’t accept that the tenancy law changes are the only contributing factor to those, we’ve seen interest rates going up, we’ve seen an overall level of inflation that of course is having an impact on the level of rent renters are paying.

“The changes we have made are about giving tenants more security, they’ve been about ensuring landlords are fulfilling their commitments to provide warm, dry, healthy homes.

“I’m really proud of the changes we have made in that area.”