David Seymour talks tax relief, public service savings, free school lunches and media cuts - The Front Page

Act Party leader and Associate Finance Minister David Seymour is committed to tax cuts - but doesn't think disabled people should lose their government support. Photo / Dean Purcell

Associate Finance Minister David Seymour remains committed to cutting back on public spending to fund tax cuts.

The Government has faced pressure in the past week over the promise of tax relief in this year’s Budget, amid reports of a $3.3 billion fiscal hole over the next four years.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) this week also urged the Government to ensure it can pay for its promised tax cuts without borrowing more.

The IMF again called for introducing a comprehensive capital gains tax, combined with a land value tax, and changes to corporate income tax.

However, two out of three coalition partners have promised no new taxes - with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon ruling it out earlier this week and Seymour committing to it today in a conversation with The Front Page.

“I think we need to be really clear here - the Government doesn’t have a problem with not enough tax. It’s taxing more than any time in history, taxing about 140 billion a year, that is enough.

“The Government is now having to actually tighten its belt. Long overdue, but we believe we can do it and that’s more important than adding new taxes,” Seymour said.

“I see the IMF again saying, ‘oh, you need a capital gains tax. Every country has one. The only countries that don’t have one are New Zealand and Switzerland’. But, I say, let’s be more like Switzerland.”

Seymour has been a champion for the Government to find savings. However, there has been one area of belt-tightening that Seymour agrees went too far.

The Ministry of Disabled People announced this week new limits on what disabled people could purchase with their funding. It also said there would be changes to how equipment like wheelchairs and home modifications were prioritised.

It prompted a “please explain” from Finance Minister Nicola Willis - and clarification from Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds about Budget caps and the fact that order reductions have nothing to do with the Government’s call for cuts.

“I think the Minister for Disabilities already said that was a mistake,” Seymour told The Front Page.

“While I’m all in favour of reducing government spending, cutting taxes, putting stuff over to private enterprise and households and businesses making choices, you know, I’m that guy - I’d like to think more than anyone - we do have a responsibility in our society to help people who genuinely have no other source of help and have no other way of changing their situation,” he said.

“And a person who is living with a disability, whether they were born with it, whether they have had some sort of accident or event in their life, you know, I think we all have an obligation to help them.”

Listen to the full episode for more from David Seymour on:

• Why the Government isn’t anti-media
• Why there’s no such thing as a free lunch
• His thoughts on Winston Peters comparing the previous government to Nazi Germany
• The public’s response to the new government
• His e-bike accident - and why he’s not happy with Herald’s Simon Wilson

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.

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