Judith Collins says the Government's tax working group is a smokescreen it can hide behind when it's time to introduce new taxes.
The tax working group is tasked with coming up with a "fair and balanced" tax system, says new Finance Minister Grant Robertson. Headed by former Finance Minister Sir Michael Cullen, the group is constrained by the fact it won't be allowed to recommend increasing income tax or GST, nor suggest the introduction of inheritance and family home taxes.
"It's not okay that the 1 percent are making their money out of assets and paying very little tax, while ordinary Kiwis go to work to pay their tax every day," Labour MP Phil Twyford told The AM Show on Friday. "We have to change that."
- Sir Michael Cullen to chair Government's tax working group
- Labour - no new taxes in first term
- Government releases tax working group details
But according to Ms Collins it's a "load of bollocks", set up to deliver the Government a reason to introduce capital gains taxes.
"There's only two reasons to have a working group," she told AM Show host Duncan Garner.
"The first is because you don't have a clue what you're doing; the second is because you know exactly what you're doing, and you want someone else to take the cover for you. I think it's the second case - I'll give them the benefit of the doubt."
Asked which of those rationales former Prime Minister John Key used when he set up a tax working group in 2009, Ms Collins said "both". Mr Twyford said that working group was a waste of time.
"[Mr Key] didn't listen to all the good ideas that his tax working group came up with, but what he did do was give a massive tax cut to the rich and hiked GST for everybody else."
Ms Collins said as a minister, she never set up any working groups because "I've always known exactly what I was going to do".
She added that Sir Michael is a "skilled political operator, but he is not a tax expert" nor non-partisan.
Mr Robertson said the point of the tax working group was to rid the tax system of "unfairnesses", and he wasn't committing Labour to a capital gains tax - despite it being Labour Party policy heading into the election.
"I'm not going to commit to one tax or another today. What I want is a fairer tax system."
And one that'll continue to deliver surpluses. Sir Michael ran three terms' worth of them, and Mr Robertson does too - assuming there's no global financial shock or massive natural disaster.
Former Finance Minister Steven Joyce on Thursday said he still believed there was an $11 billion hole in Labour's budgeting, despite economists unanimously saying he was wrong. Mr Robertson says Mr Joyce needs to give it up.
"No one accepted what he said during the election campaign. I've moved on from that, and I certainly hope Steven will soon too."
Labour plans to pay off debt more slowly than National had promised, so it can borrow more to build housing.
Any changes recommended by the tax working group won't be implemented unless Labour wins the 2020 election, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has promised.
Newshub.
