Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said National's infrastructure bank policy was "tricky accounting". Photo / George Novak
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said National's infrastructure bank policy was "tricky accounting". Photo / George Novak
The Prime Minister and the Opposition leader are trading insults over their tax and infrastructure bank policies as they hit the regions on the campaign trail.
Jacinda Ardern is calling National's promised infrastructure bank "tricky accounting" to keep debt off the Government's balance sheet.
While Judith Collins has called Labour'spromise to only increase tax for the wealthiest 2 per cent of Kiwis a "stalking horse".
Labour's tax policy would create a new upper tax bracket of 39 per cent for people earning $180,000 a year or more.
In a steel fabrication workshop in Palmerston North, Collins told reporters the policy was the "stalking horse" used to hide Labour's real intentions.
"It's about calming people down [before] any deals they do with the Greens, if they get a chance to do that."
The Greens' policy is to introduce two new tax rates of 37 per cent for people earning over $100,000 a year and 42 per cent for incomes over $150,000, as well as wealth taxes on some assets over $1 million and $2 million.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has refused to say whether his tax policy was a bottom line in potential coalition negotiations, saying their proposed 39 per cent bracket would be the full extent of tax changes under a Labour government.
National leader Judith Collins viewing a seeding and weeding robot during visit to Greentech Robotics in Palmerston North. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Collins today said she thought Robertson would implement something similar to a capital gains tax - which Labour campaigned on ahead of the last election - but would this time call it a wealth tax.
"I believe they will do that. I think that's exactly what they want to do."
She was also forced to defend National's policy to establish a Crown-owned infrastructure bank which would finance projects, either by borrowing from the Government or the private sector.
Robertson said yesterday National was using the bank to make their goal of reducing net Core crown debt to 30 per cent by 2030 more achievable by keeping the borrowing off the Government's main balance sheet.
National has so far been tight-lipped about how it plans to meet that target, with Collins saying they're waiting until after the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update is released next week.
Ardern, at a power station in Taupō, called National's bank policy "tricky accounting".
"As far as I can see in order to achieve what is a very aggressive debt target, which otherwise would require cuts to health and education, they do seem to be engaging in a form of tricky accounting."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said National's infrastructure bank policy was "tricky accounting". Photo / George Novak
Collins, firing back, slammed Labour's categorisation of their policy as "misinformation".
But admitted the debt for the projects wouldn't "strictly be on the Crown books but it is on government agency books".
Another of National's policies is to spend $31 billion on transport projects over the next decade.
"We obviously will be counting that money," said Collins.
Collins said Wiri Prison, which was built when she was a minister under the National-led government, needed to buy in expertise from overseas. Their proposed infrastructure bank would instead have this in-house.
The bank would also mean there would be less political interference in projects and one-upmanship between government agencies, said Collins.
"If we're going to build the sort of infrastructure we want to build, we've got to have a plan as to how to do it, and how to make sure we do it securely."
Collins committed to continuing increases to the minimum wage, but said National would do it "when it was affordable" and promised to stop the next scheduled increase in April.
