Tax Justice media release
17 May 2011

The Tax Justice campaign welcomes the active support of three campaigning unions. The Service and Food Workers Union (SFWU), National Distribution Union (NDU), and Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) have officially endorsed the Tax Justice petition and are helping to collect signatures.

“Unions have long played a progressive role in New Zealand society. These three unions are backing the Tax Justice campaign because removing GST from food and taxing financial speculation would help shift the tax burden off working people and onto the big corporates and super-rich,” says Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice campaign coordinator.

Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says workers should get in behind the Tax Justice campaign in 2011: “National’s tax cuts for millionaires were unaffordable and irresponsible. Instead of giving income tax cuts to people on high incomes like John Key, we should remove GST on food to help those struggling with the weekly bills.”

“A Financial Transactions Tax would ensure we could pay for vital public services including health and education, by taxing unproductive financial speculation. It’s time to give a break to working people who create the wealth of our society and start taxing those whose activities have no benefit,” says Joe Fleetwood.

John Ryall, Service and Food Workers Union National Secretary says: “The SFWU has always been opposed to regressive taxes such as GST, which penalises New Zealanders on the lowest incomes. The introduction of GST and the corresponding tax cuts for the rich in the 1980s had a big impact on the growth of economic inequality in this country. The increase in GST last year furthered this trend.”

“The SFWU supports the demands of the Tax Justice campaign for GST to be removed from food and the lost government revenue to be replaced with a tax on financial speculators.”

“It’s time inequality in this country was addressed. The measures promoted by the Tax Justice campaign are a good step in this direction,” says John Ryall.

“ GST has always been an anti-worker, anti-poor tax,” says Robert Reid, General Secretary of the National Distribution Union.  “Because low income workers spend most of their pay each week, they pay a much greater proportion of their income on GST than the rich who are able to save money or spend it abroad.”

“A Financial Transaction Tax is a good tax.  It not only raises revenue that the country needs but taxes the moneymen and speculators who are the ones that have got New Zealand and the rest of the world into the financial mess we’re in.  If enough money is brought in through a Financial Transaction Tax then we can take not only GST off food, but get rid of the entire anti-worker GST system.”

The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions also supports the phasing out of GST and the introduction of a Financial Transaction Tax. It is one of the specific policy recommendations in the CTU’s Alternative Economic Strategy.

Mr Gunson hopes other unions will endorse the Tax Justice petition and mobilise their members to collect signatures over next couple of months prior to the petition being presented to parliament in August.

For comment, contact:

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

Joe Fleetwood
MUNZ General Secretary
(04)801 7614
021-364 649
joe.fleetwood@munz.org.nz

John Ryall
SFWU National Secretary
(04)566 8274
0275-210 380
john.ryall@sfwu.org.nz

Robert Reid
NDU General Secretary
(09)622 8351
021-5535 933
robert.reid@ndu.org.nz

Tax Justice media release
15 May 2011

Tax Justice campaigners are mobilising for a post-Budget push to collect 10,000 more signatures for the Tax Justice petition, Fri-Sun 20-22 May.

“We’re protesting a Budget that will be terrible for working people,” says Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice campaign coordinator.

“Budget 2011 – like last year’s one, which let’s remember hiked up GST and gave billions of dollars of tax cuts to the rich – is about putting the burden of the economic slump onto ordinary Kiwis,” says Gunson.

“National is delivering what the big corporates want,” says Gunson, “lower taxes and higher profits for them, more tax and less income for the rest of us.”

Tax Justice is campaigning for the opposite to happen: “Our message to Sheriff John Key is a simple one,” says Gunson, “To help the majority of New Zealanders in these tough economic times we need to tax the super-rich.”

“We can do that by introducing a Financial Transaction Tax, or Robin Hood Tax as it’s been dubbed by a popular campaign in the UK.”

Mr Gunson says a small percentage tax on financial transactions would force banks, financial speculators, big corporates, and mega-wealthy individuals to pay a lot more tax.

“We’re aiming to collect 10,000 signatures in the days after the Budget, which will take our national total to 40,000 signatures,” says Gunson.

People wishing to help collect signatures for the Tax Justice petition can contact Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice campaign coordinator, email svpl@xtra.co.nzor ph/txt 021-0415 082.

The Tax Justice petition requests parliament to: 1. Remove GST from Food; and 2. Tax Financial Speculation. The petition is being presented to parliament in August.

The new Tax Justice cartoon attached to this media release is reproducible in print and online publications. We can send a higher quality image file.

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

Tax Justice media release
3 March 2011

“Now more than ever New Zealand needs Tax Justice,” says Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice campaign coordinator. “We must place a tax on financial speculation to help pay for the rebuilding of Christchurch, rather than cut government spending on essential public services.”

Taxing financial speculation is one of the demands on the Tax Justice petition, along with removing GST from food, which has been signed by over 25,000 New Zealanders.

“The Christchurch earthquake is a devastating blow to the people of that city,” says Gunson, “but that suffering must not be spread to the rest of the country. How we fund the rebuilding of Christchurch will have a long term impact on the well-being of millions of ordinary New Zealanders.”

The Tax Justice campaign calls on all political parties represented in parliament to put serious consideration into the implementation of a tax on financial speculation.

“A Financial Transaction Tax on speculative money flows could potentially raise billions from banks, overseas hedge funds and wealthy corporates operating in New Zealand,” says Gunson. “Treasury officials with access to the relevant information need to be told to investigate how much a Financial Transaction Tax could raise.”

“Financial speculation adds nothing to the New Zealand economy, and is carried out by mega-wealthy individuals and institutions whose only goal is windfall profits – tax them to rebuild Christchurch,” says Gunson.

The tax agenda of John Key’s National government has been to shift the tax burden on to grassroots people, by putting GST up to 15% and giving tax cuts to the rich, including lowering company tax from 30% to 28%, one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the world.

Mr Gunson says that National’s tax agenda, if continued in the wake of the Christchurch earthquake, will heap pain on top of pain for ordinary people.

The Tax Justice campaign supports calls for National’s 2010 tax cuts, which overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy, to be reversed. Removing GST from food would deliver immediate budget relief to struggling low and middle income earners.

For comment, contact:

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

Kay Murray
Tax Justice spokesperson
021-1672 843
ksimmondsmurray@xtra.co.nz

Tax Justice media release
1 February 2011

“Increasing GST to 17.5% would make it even harder for ordinary Kiwis to make ends meet,” says Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice campaign coordinator. “It will be sickening thought to most people.”

“The recommendation of the Savings Working Group to hike GST up again shows there’s an agenda within government to pile more of the tax burden onto grassroots New Zealanders,” says Gunson.

GST is a horrible regressive tax. Low and middle income earners spend all their money each week, while the rich can save their money, invest it, or go on overseas holidays. The wealthy pay less GST as a percentage of their income.

“Increasing GST while lowering the tax paid by the rich and big corporates will increase income inequalities in New Zealand still further.”

“The tax changes of the last 25 years have been all about allowing the rich to grow their wealth, while the rest of us get taxed every which way,” says Gunson. “GST, rates, user charges, petrol taxes, student loans – all these things impact on grassroots people disproportionately.”

Tax Justice was set up to promote solutions that will shift the tax burden off ordinary Kiwis and onto the super-rich.

A petition calling for GST to be removed from food and a tax placed on financial speculation instead has received 25,000 signatures.

“Even by the Savings Working Group’s own terms of reference their recommendations are wrong,” says Gunson. “New Zealanders are  suffering from high debt levels because wages are low and many people are struggling with massive mortgage debt, thanks to the housing bubble encouraged by greedy banks.”

Tax Justice is calling for a Financial Transaction Tax that targets the money flows of financial speculators and banks. This would discourage a damaging economic activity and generate government income which could be used to create jobs for New Zealanders.

For more information and comment, contact

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

Tax Justice media release
28 January 2011

The Tax Justice Campaign says changes to the tax system could be the key to stopping privatization of New Zealand’s public assets.

Tax Justice Campaign spokesperson Kay Murray says the solution to the so-called debt crisis is not to sell the few remaining public assets but to change the tax system.

She says the Prime Minister’s claim that New Zealand has to sell assets because we are in debt is nonsense when the National Government has just handed out tax cuts that benefited the very wealthy – making debt worse.

“The National Government has contributed to this so-called debt problem by its tax changes which were both unaffordable and unfair.”

The very wealthy had received large tax cuts whereas low to middle income earners had been hit by GST increases, inflation and low or no wage increases.

A Financial Transactions Tax could provide income to roll back unfair taxes like GST, pay for social spending, or pay off debt.

The Tax Justice Campaign is running a successful petition to remove GST off food and introduce a Financial Transactions Tax.

The goal is to take the tax burden off the hard working majority of low to middle income New Zealanders and tax the unproductive profiteering of financial speculation instead.

The Financial Transactions Tax is gaining support around the world.

A “Robin Hood Tax” campaign in the UK has gained massive support for a Financial Transactions Tax, and even the conservative French President Sarkozy has recently proposed a modest version of the Financial Transactions Tax.

For comment, contact

Kay Murray
Tax Justice spokesperson
021-1672 843
ksimmondsmurray@xtra.co.nz

or

Vaughan Gunson
Tax Justice campaign coordinator
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 »

The Alliance Party and Socialist Worker are jointly launching a nationwide tax campaign on Saturday 22 May.

The campaign will champion tax changes that will benefit grassroots New Zealanders.

The campaign will be built around a petition sponsored by both the Alliance Party and Socialist Worker, which requests parliament to:

1. Remove GST from food; and

2. Tax financial speculation. Read the rest of this entry »