Election 2020: Josie Pagani - A call I never expected a Labour leader to make

Nicki Goodwin at the Tauranga Community Foodbank. Photo / NZME

OPINION

I never thought I'd hear a Labour Prime Minister promise no tax on wealth while she's in charge, but hold the line of banning cotton buds. In my normal universe, the Green party would be demanding a bottom line on those cotton buds, and Labour would be making no such promise.

They've entered the final week of campaigning implicitly promising to choose more inequality, not less.

Previously Jacinda Ardern ruled out taxing income gained from increases in the value of owning stuff like rental houses, shares or gold and diamonds.

She has also promised to resign if a wealthy, healthy and fit, employed 65 year old receives a cent less superannuation as a 66 year old. And in a low point of the leaders' debates she supported taxpayer subsidies so that the most affluent families in the country could grow crystal gardens at a private fee-paying green school.

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We're one of the few countries in the OECD that places the lion's share of tax on New Zealanders earning a wage, while leaving those who have already made their wealth nearly tax-free. That means the only way to pay for better health care, schools and superannuation is by the poorest working New Zealanders paying a greater share of income tax. That's not politics, as President Obama once said. It's maths.

Most of us have already voted. Tomorrow's election will be the day we count the votes, rather than actually vote. Parties could announce a multitude of OMG policies now and it wouldn't make a difference.

Political commentator Josie Pagani. Photo / file

But if you haven't voted, consider the minor parties. With the exception of the conspiracy-filled fringes, these parties have done the hard work of producing policies in opposition (unlike the two biggest parties). They've proved that MMP is a system worth keeping.

ACT have reached across the political spectrum to get a referendum on euthanasia. The Greens have set the agenda with their comprehensive wealth tax. The Maori party has given a strong voice, missing in this parliament, to working class Maori New Zealanders (although it may have been a mistake to spend their limited budget on ads in the last week after most have voted). New Zealand First have been the champions of the regions. Unfortunately for them, their pitch to be the 'hand break on Labour' hasn't resonated. What was there to put the hand breaks on?

These parties deserve to be in parliament.

Ardern could have ruled out the Green's wealth tax, but made no apology that she intends to make the tax system fairer.

Three years ago, the election campaign was dominated by New Zealanders' concerns over child poverty, housing and inequality. We've spent this campaign avoiding them.

• Josie Pagani is executive director of the Council for International Development.