National and Labour: The key policy differences
By Compiled by Ruth Berry2 mins to read
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TAX RELIEF
National
* Will soon unveil plans for personal tax cuts.
* Will cut company tax from 33c to 30c.
Labour
* Will introduce a small increase in tax thresholds in 2008.
* Rejects personal tax cuts; says Working for Families tax credit package will assist low- to middle-income
earners by $1.1 billion a year in 2007.
* Will make business tax changes worth $1.42 billion by 2009.
LAW AND ORDER
National
* Will repeal Sentencing and Parole Act to require all but low-level first-term offenders to serve a full sentence with no parole.
* Will reduce the age of criminal responsibility from 14 years to 12.
* Will ensure greater use of preventive detention sentences for violent repeat offenders.
Labour
* Will remove automatic prison release after two-thirds of a sentence with changes to the Sentencing and Parole Act 2002.
* Will create more flexibility for murder sentences, increasing the minimum non-parole period for worst murders from 10 to 17 years.
* Will lower the preventive-detention age to 18.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
National
* Is yet to release policy.
* Brash says he would probably have sent troops to Iraq in 2002, but hasn't said what National would do if asked again while in government.
Labour
* Argues it retains its independence, and cites Iraq and adherence to nuclear-free policy as examples.
TREATY AND MAORI
National
* Would remove all "race-based" funding.
* Would abolish Maori seats and Maori local government wards.
* Wants tighter settlement deadlines, but would give Waitangi Tribunal more funding.
* Will review Maori TV.
Labour
* Will retain appropriate "race-based" funding.
* Will keep Maori seats and Maori TV.
* Wants deadlines on filing settlement claims, but not on negotiations.
EDUCATION
National
* Will introduce compulsory bulk-funding for schools.
* Will introduce childcare tax rebates (maximum $1650) for all working parents.
* Will give tax rebates for interest paid off student loans.
Labour
* Opposes bulk-funding
* Will give 20 hours of free early-childhood education in approved centres for 3 and 4-year-olds.
* Has yet to unveil new tertiary policy.
