Launch Of Campaign To Remove GST From Food And Tax Financial Speculation

The Alliance Party (www.alliance.org.nz) and Socialist Worker (www.UNITYblogNZ.com) are jointly launching a nationwide tax campaign on Saturday 22 May. The campaign will champion tax changes that will benefit grassroots New Zealanders.

The campaign will be built around a petition sponsored by both the Alliance Party and Socialist Worker, which requests parliament to:

1. Remove GST from food; and
2. Tax financial speculation.

“These two demands will address injustices in the current tax system, which sees grassroots people having to pay tax on one of life’s necessities, food, while financial speculation goes untaxed,” says campaign coordinator Vaughan Gunson.

“This injustice will be made worse when the National government delivers the 2010 budget, where GST will almost certainly be increased to 15%,” says Gunson.

“Our campaign will be launched at street petition stalls around the country just two days after the budget announcement, we can expect a lot of support,” says Gunson. “The majority of New Zealanders believe taxing food is wrong.”

“Taxing financial speculation through the introduction of a small percentage Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) would easily fund the removal of GST on food,” says Gunson. “At the same time an FTT would help discourage financial speculation, which destabilises the economy and causes untold harm to ordinary people, as the global financial crisis has proven.”

ENDS

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