Local Focus: To tax or not to tax? Rangitīkei candidates debate a rebate

Local Focus asked Rangitīkei's National, Labour and Green candidates what they think is wrong with taxing the wealthy if it enables raising up the lives of the poor.

Labour candidate Soraya Peke-Mason says Labour are already doing this.

"Our policy is about taxing those who earn over $180,000," she said. "We are looking at collecting about $550 million a year with that policy and we are going to invest that in those critical areas health, education and paying off debt."

National Party candidate and MP Ian McKelvie says the country's growth hasn't been entirely sustainable in the past decade and that the focus should be on growing the economy sustainably.

"That in my view will overcome any of our social issues."

Green Party candidate Ali Hale Tilley says middle salary and wage earners carry more than their fair share of the tax burden and that if we want the country to prosper as a whole, the wealthy need to embrace paying tax instead of finding ways to hide it.

"It's the nation's mindset that needs changing," she said. "It's a privilege to pay taxes. When it gets reinvested, everybody is lifted up."

Also standing in the Rangitīkei electorate:
• Reuben Leung Wai for the New Conservatives
• Ricky Cribb for Advance NZ
• Neil Wilson for Act
• Antony Woollams for NZ First

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