ACT leader David Seymour is being praised by former Prime Minister Sir John Key's son for sticking to his pledge to slash taxes despite recession forecasts.
Seymour on Wednesday reiterated ACT would stick to its tax cut plan after Sir John's former party National said its tax cuts policy was under review.
National leader Christopher Luxon told reporters his party was reviewing its plan to ditch the 39 percent top tax rate after Wednesday's official cash rate rise - during which the Reserve Bank said it was now forecasting a recession next year.
"As National does a U-turn on removing the 39 percent tax rate, ACT says this envy tax needs to go," Seymour said on social media in response to National's announcement.
"We will reverse the 39 percent tax rate, we will cut the 30 percent tax rate to 17.5 percent, we will repeal the capital gains tax/bright-line test and we will reverse the interest deductibility change.
"ACT stands for real change. We will steer New Zealand away from its current path of high tax, high debt nonsense that makes life harder for hardworking New Zealanders."
Seymour's comments attracted praise from Sir John's son Max, a property developer, who responded to the ACT Party leader on the employment website LinkedIn.
"This is fantastic David! Keep it up," Max Key said.
The National Party's tax cut plan had long been under fire from Labour and some economists. However, National Finance spokesperson and deputy leader Nicola Willis on Thursday denied the policy review was a U-turn.
"We've always said we will be careful managers of the economy and we will respond to the fiscal and economic conditions," Willis told RNZ.
The policy review came after forecasts released by the RBNZ on Wednesday pointed to interest rates peaking at 5.5 percent and the economy starting to contract in the second quarter of next year until early 2024.
