The Council of Trade Unions is calling on National to re-jig its tax package to give it more balance. And fair enough too – despite the media narrative about National’s ‘moderate’, ‘centrist’ policies the figures show its tax package is actually incredibly regressive.
In fact, you could argue it’s been explicitly designed to divert money out of the pockets of working families and into the pockets of the already very wealthy.
According to the CTU’s economist Peter Conway:
‘under the Government’s proposals a worker on $20,000 a year will pay $300 a year more tax in 2010 than what is set out in current legislation whereas someone on $500,000 a year will pay $9,202 less tax. This is unfair’.
‘A two-child low income family where the parents work 50 hours a week to earn $50,000 will also pay more tax of around $300 a year by 2010 whereas the high income family earning $120,000 in the same circumstances will pay $900 a year less tax.’
Yep, you read correctly. Under National’s tax plan 40% of the cash goes to the top 10% of income earners, and it’s being paid for by gutting your retirement savings and taking money off low-middle income families.
If National really were the moderate, sensible centrists the media keep telling us they are then they might consider the CTU’s advice and introduce fairer, more progressive tax cuts like Gordon Brown is in the UK. Somehow, I don’t see that happening.
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