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
20 February 2011

The Tax Justice campaign says most New Zealanders support taking GST off all food, and not just fruit and vegetables.

“That’s what we’re picking up on the street when we go out with the Tax Justice petition,” says Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice campaign coordinator.

“The Sunday Star-Times poll showing two-to-one support for taking GST off fruit and vegetables reflects the hardening attitude against food being made more expensive by a tax,” says Gunson. (See Hungry for cheaper food, 20 February 2011.)

Mr Gunson says Labour’s current policy of removing GST from fresh fruit and vegetables is a step in the right direction, but people need more relief from rising food prices.

Removing GST from all food would deliver a much bigger drop in what people are paying at the supermarket. For example, the GST on a $200 weekly food bill is $26.09. Taking the GST off all food would make a noticeable difference to people finding it tough to afford the basics.

“At our campaign stalls we’ve been using a table which shows what people are paying each week in GST on food. Most people are outraged when they see the figures,” says Gunson. (See below ‘How much is GST on food costing you?’)

The Tax Justice campaign is proposing a tax on financial speculation to fund taking GST off food. Financial speculators currently pay no tax at the point where their profits are accumulated.

25,000 New Zealanders have so far signed the Tax Justice petition.

6,650 people have joined the No GST on Food Facebook page, making it one of the most popular New Zealand campaigns on Facebook.

For comment, contact:

Vaughan Gunson
Tax Justice campaign coordinator
(09)433 8897
021-0415 082
svpl@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
25 January 2011

“GST off food will be a defining political issue in 2011,” says Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice campaign coordinator. “How political parties relate to growing anger at rising food prices will be a test of whether or not they’re prepared to put people first.”

“The impact of ballooning global food prices is being felt by New Zealanders at the supermarket, and it’s predicted to get much worse,” says Gunson. “Fast-track legislation to take GST off food would offer some relief.”

The lead story in the Sunday Star Times (23 January), based on an online survey, lists taking GST off food as one of the things survey respondents would most like to see happen in 2011 (see Wealth gap divides nation)

“The Sunday Star Times survey just confirms what we’ve been picking up on the streets and through the ‘No GST on Food’ Facebook page [which has 6,500 members]. People are passionate about GST off food and want the politicians to listen,” says Gunson.

Tax Justice campaigners have collected 25,000 signatures for a petition that calls on parliament to remove GST from food and tax financial speculation instead. The petition will be presented to parliament in August.

Mr Gunson has no doubt that GST off food will be an election issue at the end of the year.

For comment, contact:

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