29 Aug 2017

Know your policy: Economy

From Election17 - Policy Comparisons, 1:04 pm on 29 August 2017

How do the parties plan to collect revenue and what do they plan to do with it - and how much sway should government have over the economy?

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Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox

National

  • Continue to negotiate a free trade deal with the European Union and work closely with the United Kingdom on trade matters
  • Continue to negotiate on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
  • Increase the $14,000 income tax threshold to $22,000, and the $48,000 threshold to $52,000
  • Reduce compliance costs and make tax simpler for small businesses by implementing a pay-as-you-go option for provisional tax
  • Roll out faster broadband across New Zealand
  • Contractors would be able to choose a withholding tax rate that suits their needs

Labour

People on Auckland's Queen Street

Photo: RNZ/Diego Opatowski

  • Invest $8 billion more in health, $4 billion in education and increase police funding to recruit 1000 additional officers
  • Reduce net core Crown debt to 20 percent of gross domestic product within five years of taking office
  • Abolish secondary tax and establish a tax working group to create a better balanced tax system
  • Introduce flexible approach to withholding tax
  • Raise the threshold for individuals and businesses to pay provisional tax from $2500 to $5000
  • Remove late payment penalties on provisional tax
  • Crack down on speculators by banning overseas speculators from buying existing houses and tightening the tax rules that speculators exploit
  • Boost Working for Families to all those who currently receive it and extend it to 30,000 more families
  • Introduce a Best Start payment to help families and introduce a Winter Energy Payment for people receiving superannuation or a main benefit 
  • Reinstate the Independent Earners' Tax Credit
  • Implement the accommodation supplement increases announced in Budget 2017
  • Restart contributions to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund
  • Establish a new Forestry Service in Rotorua to encourage more investment in wood processing and manufacturing.

Greens

  • Introduce a tax-free threshold at the bottom of the income tax scale and then reduce and simplify rates in the middle bands
  • Pass tax cuts on to beneficiaries
  • Introduce a comprehensive capital gains tax 
  • Introduce a commercial levy on the bottling of plain water
  • Begin a phased process of ecological tax reform 
  • Incentivise businesses to choose clean transport options for staff by exempting electric vehicles and public transport passes from fringe benefit tax
  • Establish a Minister for Manufacturing in Cabinet
  • Make electricity more affordable with winter energy payments for more than 500,000 lower-income households
  • Make the $220 per week parental tax credit available to all families who don't get paid parental leave
  • Better coordination of monetary and fiscal policy 
  • Introduce measures to limit house price inflation
  • Consider a more actively managed exchange rate 
  • Require all international treaties to be voted on in Parliament before being signed

New Zealand First

The construction industry has boosted the economy and employment rates

Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson

  • Reform the Reserve Bank Act to reflect that New Zealand has an export-dependent economy 
  • Introduce a 20 percent business tax rate for exporters
  • Give a high priority to maintaining and building the manufacturing sector
  • Introduce a government procurement policy that gives preference for New Zealand firms
  • Provide tax incentives for businesses to engage in research and development
  • A state-owned saving scheme, KiwiFund, so New Zealanders can invest in New Zealand assets and infrastructure
  • Establish priorities for foreign investment in New Zealand that require such investment to bring new technology and lead to employment and export growth or import substitution
  • Impose strict controls over foreign ownership and create a register of overseas ownership of land and property
  • Restrict ownership of houses and land, including farmland, to New Zealand citizens and permanent residents 
  • Ensure that 25 percent of the royalties paid on extraction of minerals is placed in a fund for use in regional development in the region of extraction
  • Stop further state asset sales and commit to buying back the state asset shares that were sold

ACT

  • Cut company tax to 25 percent, and lower personal income tax to between 10 and 25 percent
  • Start raising the age of superannuation entitlement in 2020, lifting it by two months per year
  • Scrap the 'charitable purpose' tax loophole 
  • Champion free trade agreements 
  • Reform the Resource Management Act to make it easier for New Zealand businesses to operate and grow
  • Maintain spending on core services such as health, police, welfare and education

Māori Party

  • Transfer NZ rail assets to iwi to develop a national railway network
  • Set up a consortium of iwi, Māori land trusts and corporations to invest in major economic development opportunities
  • Set up a Māori bank to administer housing, land development and business start-up loans
  • Invest further in supporting Māori tourism business opportunities
  • Lead a government-subsidised solar energy installation scheme for all low income families and rurally isolated communities

United Future

To be confirmed
 

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