Eager petition signers in Auckland

The tax petition to remove GST from food and tax financial speculation was well received at the campaign launch on Saturday. The numbers tell the story, with nearly 900 signatures collected at the seven petition stalls organised around the country.

The stall in Auckland outside the Onehunga supermarket was particularly successful, with nearly 300 signatures collected over three hours. Some people took away bundles of the petition to collect signatures themselves. A dozen people helped out on the stall.

A steady stream of positive feedback on the campaign, and evidence from Saturday’s stalls, suggests that the petition and its demands are going to connect with the majority of people. Especially after the reality of National’s budget starts to sink in. Factor in inflation, on top on the GST hike, and most people will either be no better off or receive only a tiny benefit from the income tax cuts. National’s budget delivered to the rich, not grassroots New Zealanders.

That’s why a broad campaign for tax justice is needed. Removing GST from food would provide an instant and lasting benefit to ordinary people struggling to pay the bills. This common sense tax cut could easily be funded by taxing financial speculation.

How can you help?

Over the next few weeks and months what’s going to matter most, is numbers. The more signatures we collect the more support we’ll attract from individuals and groups. And if we start to record really good numbers of signatures, we’ll be more likely to get local and national media attention, essential for growing the campaign.

You can help by collecting signatures from friends, family and workmates. Every little effort will count.

You can download copies of the tax petition from the respective websites of the Alliance Party and Socialist Worker. Or if you want to be sent copies of the petition directly, email Vaughan Gunson (Socialist Worker), svpl@xtra.co.nz or Victor Billot (Alliance Party), victor@victorbillot.com.

If you would like to help out at tax petition stalls – like the one in Auckland above – in any centre where we have organisers, get in touch with us. If we don’t have a local organiser in your centre, you can become the organiser. We can give you some advice and other assistance.  Contact campaign coordinator, Vaughan Gunson email svpl@xtra.co.nz or ph/txt 021-0415 082.

“The 15% GST hike announced in the budget today is unjust,” says Vaughan Gunson, coordinator of a new campaign for tax justice.

“Grassroots people who spend most of their income on the basics of life are now going to be paying more of this horrible tax, while it’s the rich and big corporates who reap the benefits of the tax cuts,” says Gunson.

“The GST hike will increase the pain at the supermarket for grassroots New Zealanders. The weekly budgets of people on low-to-middle incomes are going to be blown to bits,” says Gunson.

“In these tough economic times we need to urgently shift the tax burden off grassroots people,” says Gunson. “Removing GST from food would deliver instant and lasting benefits to the majority of us.”

This Saturday 22 May, tax justice campaigners will be out on the streets launching a nationwide tax petition which requests parliament to:

1. Remove GST from food; and
2. Tax financial speculation.

The petition is jointly sponsored by the Alliance Party and Socialist Worker.

Gunson says the two demands address the core injustice in the current tax system. “Why should we have to pay tax on one of life’s necessities, food, while financial speculation goes untaxed?”

“The one-two counterpunch contained in the tax petition, to (1) remove GST from food, and (2) tax financial speculation, hits back at the pro-corporate and pro-rich tax policies National is pursuing,” says Gunson.

“If we taxed financial speculation by introducing a modest Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) we could easily afford to remove GST from food,” says Gunson. “A FTT would help discourage financial speculation, which destabilises the economy and causes untold harm to ordinary people, as the global financial crisis has proven.”

We expect the response to the petition to be overwhelmingly positive when we hit the streets this weekend. There will be petition stalls in these cities on Saturday 22 May:

Whangarei
8am-10am, Whangarei Growers’ Market, Water Street.

Auckland
12noon-3pm, outside Onehunga Supermarket, cnr Church Street & Selwyn Street, Onehunga.

Rotorua
9am-3pm, Rotorua City Focus, Tutanekai Street.

Tauranga
9am-12noon, Chadwick Road (opposite the post office), Greerton.

Wellington
11am-12noon, Lower Hutt Markets, Riverbank carpark.

Christchurch
11am, The Square (next to the chalice).

Dunedin
10am-12noon, The Octagon.

Regional media spokespeople will available for comment at the tax petition stalls in each centre.

For more information and comment on the national campaign, contact:

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

or

Victor Billot
Media spokesperson
021-482 219
victor@victorbillot.com

Organisers of a petition to parliament to have GST removed from food say increasing GST to 15% will be bad for most New Zealanders.

The campaign to remove GST from food and tax financial speculation is being launched on Saturday 22 May, two days after National’s 2010 Budget, when a GST hike is widely expected to be announced.

The campaign for tax justice will be built around a petition sponsored by both the Socialist Worker (http://www.UNITYblogNZ.com) and the Alliance Party (http://www.alliance.org.nz), which requests parliament to:

1. Remove GST from food; and
2. Tax financial speculation.

Media spokesperson Victor Billot says soaring food prices, combined with a GST hike, will be devastating to New Zealanders already finding it hard to make ends meet. 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 »