Organise Aotearoa, a new socialist group, hung a large banner reading “Tax the Rich” over the Main Highway bridge in Ellerslie, early this morning.

“The banner is a response to Labour’s rejection of a Capital Gains Tax and our disappointment in the Wellbeing Budget. Many people on the left were hopeful about the Wellbeing Budget. However, all we saw was yet another austerity budget that places the interests of the few over the many,” says Organise Aotearoa spokesperson Justine Sachs.

“A true Wellbeing Budget would have prioritised housing over prisons. It would have been willing to tax the wealthy in order to properly fund our starved education, healthcare, and welfare sectors.”

Organise Aotearoa is critical of regressive tax policies such as the fuel tax. “These taxes disproportionately affect working-class and low-income families. We need to tax things like profit which is collectively created - not hard-earned wages.”

“Profit is created through the work of many, not just a company’s shareholders. Wages only reflect a small amount of the value an employee’s work creates. We are calling for the Labour-led government to tax profit and the wealthy few for the benefit of the many.”

According to Sachs, New Zealand has the resources to adequately fund public services, as well as pay nurses and teachers fair wages. “However, those resources are being hoarded by the top one percent.”

“It’s a matter of political will. The Labour-led government could introduce legislation tomorrow that would fix these problems. They won’t introduce the changes working-class people desperately need unless we put pressure on them.”

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