30 September 2010 Media Statement

Low-paid do the bulk of the work for October 1 – but will come out worse off

Labour Leader Phil Goff says thousands of supermarket workers around the country will tonight be getting New Zealand’s shops ready for tomorrow’s great tax switch from which they will fail to benefit.

“Low-paid workers receive the least out of National’s tax changes, but ironically many of them will work through the night, putting in place new tickets showing price increases that will negatively affect their own families,” Phil Goff said.

“It’s a sad irony,” Phil Goff said. "Low-paid workers will increasingly feel the effects of not only supermarket prices increases, but also increases in power, petrol, childcare and rent," Phil Goff said.

"National's tax switch will do nothing to help these people. John Key and Bill English do not understand the pressure families are under with rising costs and stalling wages.

“This week I spent time with the Salvation Army who are seeing more and more families who are in full-time work struggling to make ends meet, and having to, some for the first time in their lives, ask for help.

"This is the worst time to increase GST because the economy is already struggling. The reality is that John Key’s promise that New Zealand would aggressively come out of the recession has not eventuated.

“New Zealand has high unemployment, low wage growth and the Government’s answer to these problems is to increase the cost of living.

"Labour's policy to axe 15 percent of GST off fresh fruit and vegetables is just one way Labour will help Kiwi families get ahead. I am extremely pleased that this week we have seen organisations like Grey Power and the New Zealand Nurses Organisation come out and support this policy, because they know it makes sense.

"For a whole lot of families, the saving of $300-$400 a year will give them a little more money in their pockets and make up some of the ground they are losing under National," Phil Goff said.

“Bill English says the country can’t afford Labour’s GST plan. He says we can’t afford to allow hard-working families a saving of $300 to $400 as year, but apparently we can afford to give his family and others like it an extra $300 a week in tax cuts.”

ENDS

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