Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader Rawiri Waititi has submitted his second Member’s Bill, the Goods and Services Tax (Removing GST from Food) Amendment Bill, into the Member’s Ballot. This legislation would amend the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985 to remove GST from all food products and non-alcoholic beverages.

“This Christmas will be one of the toughest for our whānau. The least we can do is lighten the burden so they can feed their families well over the holidays. I am calling on the Labour Party to support my bill that would do just that” said Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi.

“While the rest of Aotearoa is experiencing the worst cost of living crises in generations, corporations and banks are seeing record profits. We have created a generation of renters who live week to week while the wealthy have untaxed wealth accumulating in housing, trusts, and investment funds.

“We can no longer sustain a tax system that has poor and working class subsidising the lifestyles of the wealthy few. We need to shift this tax burden through new taxes on wealth, on land, ghost houses and capital gains, as well as financial services and pollution taxes. That is the bigger picture that inspired my member’s bill.

“Removing GST from kai would be very a small part of the changes needed to fix our broken tax system, but it’s a change that can be made overnight that would have an immediate impact on the grocery bill. The Government proved this when they lowered GST on petrol earlier this year when prices were skyrocketing. The same is now happening with kai” said Waititi.

“Food is a right and a necessity that should never be taxed, especially during a cost a living crisis. GST is a regressive tax that hurts lower income whānau the most.

“Former Māori Party MP Rahui Katene introduced this idea in 2010 with a bill to remove GST from healthy food. My bill extends to all food products and non-alcoholic beverages.

“We are the only party in Parliament whose tax cuts aren’t for the rich” Waititi said.

Removing GST from kai is a longstanding policy for Te Pāti Māori, who also have an active petition calling on Parliament to do just that. The petition can be found here.

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