11 February 2008 Media Statement

Anderton rejects lobby groups’ call for return to failed policies of the past

Will National support the Business Roundtable policy? Special interests are still pushing for the discredited and failed policies of the past, Progressive leader Jim Anderton says in response to a Business Roundtable campaign for tax cuts for the affluent.

The Progressive leader is challenging National to distance itself from the Business Roundtable policy.

“This looks like the National Party policy. National should distance itself from the proposal or come clean. Will National endorse the idea of the biggest tax cuts going for those who need them least?

“The activities of the Business Roundtable show the extreme danger to New Zealand’s economy of a Key-led National government. John Key and National would take their advice, and return New Zealand to the failed policies of the past.

“Tax cuts for middle income earners, reducing student debt and more housing affordability are higher priorities for this coalition government and will grow the economy faster than tax cuts for the most affluent New Zealanders.

“The priority for tax cuts and other assistance has to be people who can best use the help. If you are likely to spend your next dollar buying your first home, you will add more to the economy than if you are weighing up whether or not to purchase your fourth home. If we spend our next dollar on sending a kid to school with a full tummy and a nutritious lunch, that is better for the overall economy than spending the next dollar on an overseas holiday.

“A more equal New Zealand and a more caring New Zealand is a stronger New Zealand. That is why our economy is enjoying the strongest continuous sequence of growth in decades.

“In the 80s and 90s, under policies proposed by the Business Roundtable, the economy went backwards. We are now undoing the damage. Everything the Business Roundtable has ever advocated turned out to be wrong,” Jim Anderton said. “When the government of New Zealand stopped doing the work of privileged special interests, and began governing for all New Zealand, New Zealand started to turn around.”

ENDS

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