Tax Justice media release
28 October 2011

“The Occupy Movement is protesting the injustice of the world’s 99% having to bear the costs of a financial crisis caused by an elite few,” says Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice spokesperson.

“The best mechanism for making the super-rich 1% pay is a financial transaction tax, or Robin Hood Tax,” says Gunson.  “It’s very exciting to see that the global movement for this tax which targets banks, big corporates and financial speculators is growing.”

The Robin Hood Tax international day of action on Saturday 29 October is timed to put pressure on the leaders of the G20 before their summit meeting in Cannes on 3 November. In New Zealand, actions are being organised in Wellington, Auckland, and Christchurch.

“Tax Justice has been campaigning over the last year for financial speculation to be taxed. It’s criminal that the profits of speculators go untaxed, while ordinary New Zealanders are taxed every which way,” says Gunson.

The Tax Justice petition signed by 40,000 New Zealanders was presented to Parliament on 16 August. The petition calls for GST to be removed from food and a tax placed on financial speculation instead.

“Politicians in New Zealand need to respond to the global movement and start looking at how we can introduce a Robin Hood Tax in New Zealand,” says Gunson.

Tax Justice would like to see the parties of the left come together on tax policy. “A broad coalition that brings together left parties inside and outside of Parliament, along with unions and other grassroots organisations, could achieve a decisive shift towards a more just fairer tax system,” says Gunson.

“The beauty of financial transaction taxes is that they can target the super-rich who aren’t paying enough tax; it’s almost impossible to avoid; and modern technology makes it a simple and low cost form of tax collection,” says Gunson.

Tax Justice has produced a Fact Sheet on Financial Transactions Taxes and their feasibility for New Zealand. To download PDF click here.

For comment, contact:

Vaughan Gunson
Tax Justice spokesperson
021-0415 082
svpl@xtra.co.nz

or

Grant Brookes
Tax Justice spokesperson
021-0532 973
grant_brookes@paradise.net.nz

Grant Brookes will be speaking to the Wellington Occupy movement on the subject of a Robin Hood Tax at 1pm, Saturday 29 October, Civic Square.

Chopping down the speculators!

Tax Justice media release
18 August 2011

In the wake of the ongoing financial crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are prioritising the introduction of a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) in Europe (see Sarkozy, Merkel push new tax, 17 August 2011).

“New Zealand needs to get up to speed with the international debate about Financial Transaction Taxes,” says Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice campaign coordinator.

“FTTs are the best mechanism for forcing financial speculators to pay tax, we need to be looking at them seriously for our financial markets.”

Mr Gunson says it’s criminal that super-rich speculators are getting away with paying no tax on their profits, while ordinary Kiwis are paying 15% GST on their food.

Tax Justice has produced a Fact Sheet on Financial Transactions Taxes and their feasibility for New Zealand. To download PDF click here.

On Tuesday this week, Tax Justice presented 40,000 signatures to Parliament calling for GST to be removed from food and a tax placed on financial speculation. The petition was received by MPs from Labour, Greens, Mana, and the Maori Party.

The latest Tax Justice cartoon, “Chopping down the speculators”, was inspired by Hone Harawira and Mana’s branding of a FTT as the “Hone Heke Tax”.

For comment, contact:

Vaughan Gunson
Tax Justice campaign coordinator
021-0415 082
svpl@xtra.co.nz

Produced by Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice campaign coordinator

This is a working document, please make suggestions to it by emailing vaughangunson@taxjustice.net

Last updated 18 August 2011.

To download PDF version click here.

A hyper-financialised “bubble economy”

1. In 2008, prior to the global financial crisis, world trade in various financial commodities was 74 times higher than global GDP. Daily turnover for global currency trade as of April 2010 was $4 trillion ($1,460 trillion a year). This speculative activity is destablising the world economy and creating speculative bubbles that ultimately hurt grassroots people.

2. The unprecedented level of financial speculation represents the desire of the world’s super-rich to continue reaping super-profits. To achieve this, governments worldwide have removed all barriers to financial speculation and encouraged a supply of cheap credit by banks. A giant financial casino has been created, where everything that fluctuates in price has attracted the speculators.

3. Since 1984 a priority of both Labour and National governments has been deregulation of the financial sector. This has opened up NZ’s financial markets to international and local speculators, resulting in price volatility and inevitable cycles of boom and bust.

4. The Kiwi dollar is one of the ten most traded currencies in the world. Global speculators have created a highly volatile market. It’s a South Pacific roulette table for the world’s high rollers.

5. Many mainstream economists and politicians around the world have recognized that financial speculation is out of control and needs to be curbed.

Taxing the speculators

6. Profits from financial speculation are currently not directly taxed by the NZ government. This is a yawning gap which must be closed to bring fairness to NZ’s tax system.

7. The only mechanism that could make speculators pay tax, particularly overseas ones, is a tax on the financial transaction itself. There is growing momentum worldwide for Financial Transaction Taxes (FTTs) to be introduced to a full range of financial markets, not just currency markets as proposed by James Tobin in 1972 (the Tobin Tax).

8. The percentage rates that are being talked about internationally for Financial Transaction Taxes are very small, ranging from 1% to as low as 0.05%. There’s a growing consensus amongst tax researchers that a FTT would work best if different rates were set for different financial markets and types of transactions.
Read the rest of this entry »

Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice campaign coordinator, was interviewed on Newstalk ZB by Larry Williams. The questioning focused on the introduction of a Financial Transaction Tax to cover the revenue lost to government from removing GST off food. To listen click here. The interview starts roughly one third into the radio segment.

by Vaughan Gunson
Tax Justice campaign coordinator
vaughangunson@taxjustice.net
021-0415 082

There are two demands on the Tax Justice petition. One is to remove GST from food and give immediate relief at the supermarket to grassroots people. If we can win GST off food – an idea supported by a majority of New Zealanders – then we may be able to build the political momentum needed to get rid of GST all together. GST is a horrible regressive tax that hurts low and middle income people the most.

The second demand on the petition is to tax financial speculation. While we pay tax on our kai, filthy rich speculators pay zero tax on their wheeling and dealing. This is a gross injustice.

But the speculators aren’t just getting away with paying no tax, their activity on a global scale has contributed to the world financial crisis which is causing untold economic hardship for grassroots people worldwide.

And, it’s speculators who are responsible for driving up food prices through their speculative investment in food commodity markets. This is resulting in millions and millions of people around the world going hungry. It’s a crime against humanity.

The speculators, who profit at the expense of the rest of us, need to be chopped down. That’s the message of the latest Tax Justice cartoon.

The Tax Justice petition will be presented to Parliament in a few weeks time on Tuesday 16 August. The more signatures we have the stronger the message we’ll be giving to politicians and the media. We hope to reach 50,000 signatures.

Every effort to collect more signatures in these last weeks will help. Contact us now. Or download the petition here.

Post completed petition sheets to: Tax Justice, PO Box 13-685, Auckland 1061.

To sign the online version of the petition go to http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/taxjustice/

Tax Justice media release
21 June 2011

The Tax Justice campaign supports tomorrow’s (22 June) Global Day of Action for a Financial Transaction Tax coordinated by Oxfam in Britain.

“Momentum is building worldwide for financial transaction taxes that target the banks, speculators and big corporates,” says Vaughan Gunson, New Zealand’s Tax Justice campaign coordinator.

“The international money men who caused the global financial crisis must be made to pay the bill,” says Gunson. “Financial transaction taxes are the best way to make that happen.”

It’s widely accepted that financial transaction taxes levied internationally could raise hundreds of billions of dollars, which could then be used to fund programmes that help the world’s poorest. (For more information on financial transaction taxes and the Global Day of Action go to http://www.makefinancework.org/home-english/financial-transaction-tax/)

The Tax Justice campaign in New Zealand is calling on the government to seriously look at how a FTT could be applied here.

“There’s an urgent need to broaden the tax base in this country to maintain public services, protect our people from the effects of the economic crisis, and re-build Christchurch,” says Gunson,

“The beauty of a FTT is that it would not squeeze more tax out of people already paying their fair share.”

“It is a very progressive tax, because those who end up paying the most tax would be those involved in high frequency trading in New Zealand’s financial markets – these mostly overseas speculators are currently paying no tax to the government,” says Gunson.

Mr Gunson says a small percentage tax on the money flows of financial speculators operating in New Zealand markets would raise significant government revenue.

“Here’s a solution to the government’s debt problem that it would be irresponsible for politicians to ignore,” says Gunson.

On Wednesday, Tax Justice supporters will be out on the streets continuing to collect signatures for a petition calling on Parliament to: 1. Remove GST from food; and 2. Tax financial speculation.

40,000 signatures have so far been collected for the Tax Justice petition, which will be presented to Parliament on Tuesday 16 August. Su’a William Sio, Labour MP for Mangere, will be receiving the petition and presenting it to the House.

For more information on the campaign go to www.nogstonfood.org

For comment, contact:

Vaughan Gunson
Tax Justice campaign coordinator
021-0415 082
svpl@xtra.co.nz

Kay Murray
Tax Justice spokesperson and Alliance Party co-leader
021-1672 843
ksimmondsmurray@xtra.co.nz

by Deborah Doane
from NewStatesman
11 January 2011

While inertia continues to define the coalition government’s approach to banking regulation, the bankers are happily enjoying yet another free-for-all spending splurge – and fears are emerging of a new bubble. This time, it’s a commodity bubble, similar to the one that led to food riots around the world in 2007 and 2008.

In case you hadn’t noticed, food prices are at an all-time high: the latest figures show food price inflation at 5.5 per cent, outpacing the overall inflation figure of 3.3 per cent. You’ll be paying as much as 25 per cent more for your regular cuppa as tea prices rise; and we already saw the cost of our Christmas turkey go up by more than £3 before Christmas, due to the doubling in feed costs in 2010.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tax Justice media release
17 December 2010

“Stealing food is nowhere near as bad as what banks and speculators are getting away with,” says Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice campaign coordinator.

“A recent article in my local Whangarei paper referred to people stealing food. This is a crime, so if you’re caught you get locked away.” (See Market fights hunger, Whangarei Leader, 7 Dec)

“Yet the far greater crime is going unpunished,” says Gunson. “Big global banks are fostering an orgy of speculation in world food prices.” (See Bank and Hedge Fund Speculation Causes Food Prices to Soar by Third World Resurgence, 22 Nov).

In 2007-2008, banks and other speculators fled mortgage markets and invested in basic food commodities, driving up prices that flowed through to New Zealanders paying more at the supermarket.

Mr Gunson says the speculators are at it again in 2010. Wheat prices jumped 60% in July because of a rush of speculative investment financed by the banks.

“While a global elite profit from food price speculation, grassroots people around the world are either going hungry or missing out on eating quality food. A massive crime against humanity is being perpetuated by the speculators,” says Gunson.

Statistics NZ recently released figures that show food prices went up 4.8 percent over the last year. While this is bad enough, analysts are predicting worse to come in 2011 as high food prices in commodity markets filter through to the checkout.

The Tax Justice campaign has a two pronged answer to rising food prices: remove GST from food and tax the speculators instead.

“It’s obscene that the government insists on maintaining this horrible tax on food when people are struggling to buy the food they need,” says Gunson.

“And New Zealand must join the global crusade against financial speculation. Introducing a tax on speculative money flows would go along way towards discouraging an economic activity that’s causing so much pain for grassroots people.”

This weekend Tax Justice campaigners are hitting the streets around the country as part of a pre-Xmas signature drive. The aim is to reach 30,000 signatures for the Tax Justice petition by the end of the year.

New Zealanders can sign the Tax Justice petition online at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/taxjustice/

For more information and comment, contact:

Vaughan Gunson
Tax Justice campaign coordinator
(09)433 8897
021-0415 082
svpl@xtra.co.nz

Tax Justice media release
15 December 2010

“Financial speculators should be given the boot, not welcomed into the country with the promise of paying no tax,” says Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice campaign coordinator.

Mr Gunson says prime minister John Key’s plans to fast track a tax haven for the super-rich is the opposite of what the government should be doing. (See Key itching for quick action on financial hub, NZ Herald, 2 Dec)

“Big banks and financial traders have just caused the biggest economic meltdown since the Great Depression. Their financial games have caused a lot of New Zealanders to lose their jobs or get in trouble with the bank,” says Gunson.

“We shouldn’t be rewarding a tiny global elite and encouraging a financial activity that inevitably leads to bust.”

“The ballooning government deficit, made worse by National’s tax cuts for the rich, urgently requires new solutions to tax and the economy,” says Gunson.

The Tax Justice campaign wants a tax on financial speculation and the money flows of banks and big corporates. The introduction of a tax on financial transactions of 1 cent in every dollar would potentially net billions of dollars of tax revenue.

“If we taxed the speculators,” says Gunson, “we could afford to take GST off food and do the things the government must do to build an economy that works for people, such as fund public services properly, lift benefit levels, and create real jobs.”

“The support we’re getting on the street for our Tax Justice petition shows that people are unhappy at the inequities in our tax system and want change.”

A pre-Xmas signature drive for the Tax Justice petition will be taking place around the country on Saturday 18 December and Sunday 19 December.

“We expect to finish the year with over 30,000 signatures collected,” says Gunson. “We plan to present a lot more signatures to parliament in August next year.”

New Zealanders can sign the Tax Justice petition online at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/taxjustice/

For more information and comment on the campaign, contact:

Vaughan Gunson
Tax Justice campaign coordinator
(09)433 8897
021-0415 082
svpl@xtra.co.nz

by Vaughan Gunson
Tax Justice campaign coordinator
from CAFCA’s “Foreign Control Watchdog”, August 2010

The figures are mind blowing. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that the financial crisis cost the world $US11.9 trillion. The human cost is immeasurable. And it ain’t over. The international bailouts of banks and other financial institutions have seen trillions of dollars of private debt off-loaded onto governments. The financial crisis has not been fixed. The problem has just been shifted. The bailouts have created a “sovereign debt crisis”, which is breaking first in Europe. Governments worldwide are scrambling to get debt under control. The “fiscal stimulus” that accompanied the wave of banking bailouts has now passed over to “austerity measures”, which means cuts to public services and higher taxes for grassroots people. Those who had no part, no say, and no responsibility for the financial crisis are being made the victims, many times over.

The leaders of a club of rich countries called the G20 (Group of 20) recently met in Toronto, Canada. The strategy of making us pay for the crisis was clear. G20 leaders issued a joint statement on 27/6/10 committing member countries to halving their budget deficits by 2013 1. As Toronto resident and anti-capitalist campaigner Naomi Klein wrote: “Faced with the effects of a crisis created by the world’s wealthiest and most privileged strata, they decided to stick the poorest and most vulnerable people in their countries with the bill” 2. This is what the world’s elite are trying to get away with, if we let them. Read the rest of this entry »