Chris Hipkins: Tax reform is back on the table
Sunday, 24 March 2024
The Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins made his first major address as Opposition leader in south Auckland on Sunday.
MPs and the Labour Party faithful heard his vision for the coming years, as well as a pitch for the values of empathy, in a wide-ranging 30-minute speech.
He also said Labour would have a refreshed tax policy ahead of the next election, promising tax reform as a “necessity”, and reopening the debate over taxes on the wealthy.
Chris Hipkins is promising tax reform “is back on the table” and will be a key part of policy the Labour Party will take to the 2026 general election in his first major speech as Opposition leader.
Hipkins promised to use the coming years in Opposition to carefully consider a tax policy. “We will use our time in opposition to listen, to build relationships, to research and to develop new ideas and new policies,” he said.
“When the 2026 general election rolls around we will be more prepared for government than any opposition in our country’s history.”
Public polling suggests more people are in favour of levying a wealth tax on the rich, and a capital gains tax on rental properties, however Hipkins dumped plans from his former Finance Minister, Grant Robertson, for a “tax switch” last year.
Robertson wanted to create a $10,000 tax-free zone, which would save people $20 a week, to be paid for by a new 1.5% tax for individuals with a net worth of more than $5 million. About 46,000 people fell into this category, according to the Treasury.
But Hipkins ruled a wealth tax ahead of the election last year under political pressure from National and ACT.
However, in a 30-minute, wide-ranging address to the Labour Party faithful and MPs in Manukau, Hipkins reignited discussion on the issue as an “economic necessity” and increasingly less a “matter for the idealists”.
“We lost the election. That means that we do have to take the opportunity to go back and to reflect and to come up with something different for next time,' he said.
Hipkins would not be drawn on what the policy may look like. 'But I do think we need to recognise that our tax system relies heavily on salary and wage earners contributing a greater share of the overall tax revenue that the government receives … so I think we need to make sure that we're addressing that.'
He also laid out some of the key dividing lines where Labour will attack the National-led coalition government which he also deplored as “taking us backwards” on race relations.
“They’re putting landlords ahead of hungry kids, smoking revenue ahead of people’s health, and tax cuts ahead of supporting the most vulnerable among us like people living with disabilities,” he said.
“For the first time in my life, we currently have a government that is taking us backwards when it comes to outcomes for Māori, ignoring and in some cases reversing the huge progress we have made as a nation to right the wrongs of the past. That’s not just bad for Māori, it’s bad for all of us.”