John MacDonald: The tax arguments don't stack up

If I said to you, there was one thing all the political parties need to stop doing straight away, what do you think it would be?

One thing that pretty much every party is doing. The ones on the left. The ones on the right. The ones in the middle. They’re all doing it.

What do you think it would be?

It would be these ridiculous promises that, if they’re part of the next government, we’ll be paying less taxes.

They’re all doing it. We’ve got the Maori Party talking about no GST on fruit and veggies. Apparently, Labour is considering the same thing - it just hasn’t confirmed it yet. A stupid idea.

Pretty much every party is talking about tax-free thresholds of different levels. The Opportunities Party. New Zealand First. National. They’re all saying 'vote for us and you’ll pay less tax’.

In fact, I went past an ACT Party billboard yesterday and it was telling me that they will “cut taxes, not services”. Which is ridiculous, when you think about it.

Because, if we’re honest about it, we need more tax, not less.

Government minister Damien O’Connor said as much the other night at a red meat conference. He was involved in a debate and told the crowd that the Government just doesn’t get enough tax to deal with all the issues facing New Zealand.

He said he thinks more taxes are going to be needed to fix infrastructure. And what he’s talking about there is things like getting our roads up to scratch - not to mention the huge amount of money that’s needed for the cyclone recovery.

And how does the Government get the money for that? And I’m not just talking about the current government. I’m talking about the next government, and then the one after that and then the one after that. All of them. They get the money needed for all of these things from taxes.

Throw into the mix, as well, the news today that the nurses are going to get paid more. This comes on the back of the announcement last week that teachers are going to get paid more too.

Neither of which the Government is going to get any argument from me on. Because who is going to begrudge teachers and nurses getting paid properly for the amazing work they do?

If you’ve been to a hospital anytime recently, you will have seen how it’s the nurses who really keep the place ticking. Yes, the doctors and specialists and surgeons are amazing. But the nurses are worth their weight in gold too.

Teachers as well. Yes, there are some average teachers out there. But, generally, who would want to be a teacher these days? Not me. Which is why I’m more than happy for the people who take that job on to be paid what they should for the work they do.

So we’ve got all of this - the nurses and teachers pay increases, cyclone recovery, big infrastructure projects, new roads, new tunnels etc all happening at the same time as we have pretty much every political party telling us that we’re paying too much tax.

Which, of course, anyone will agree with. Because who likes paying tax? No one likes it. The thing is, though, is it realistic or even responsible for any political party to promise less tax? I don’t think it is. I think it’s nuts.

This is at the same time too, as the Police telling staff that they need to cut costs. And how, over the next few years, they’re going to be focusing on “efficiency and productivity”.

Which is, generally, going to mean a hiring freeze for non-frontline jobs. But, as we know, what that will mean is the frontline staff doing more non-frontline work.

So when I consider all of that, the only conclusion I can come to is that any politician who reckons we should be paying less tax is in La La Land.

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