Rawiri Waititi Calls On Labour To Support Member’s Bill To Remove GST From Kai
Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader Rawiri Waititi has submitted his second Member’s Bill, the Goods and Services Tax (Removing GST from Food) Amendment Bill, into the Member’s Ballot. This legislation would amend the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985 to remove GST from all food products and non-alcoholic beverages.
“This Christmas will be one of the toughest for our whānau. The least we can do is lighten the burden so they can feed their families well over the holidays. I am calling on the Labour Party to support my bill that would do just that” said Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi.
“While the rest of Aotearoa is experiencing the worst cost of living crises in generations, corporations and banks are seeing record profits. We have created a generation of renters who live week to week while the wealthy have untaxed wealth accumulating in housing, trusts, and investment funds.
“We can no longer sustain a tax system that has poor and working class subsidising the lifestyles of the wealthy few. We need to shift this tax burden through new taxes on wealth, on land, ghost houses and capital gains, as well as financial services and pollution taxes. That is the bigger picture that inspired my member’s bill.
“Removing GST from kai would be very a small part of the changes needed to fix our broken tax system, but it’s a change that can be made overnight that would have an immediate impact on the grocery bill. The Government proved this when they lowered GST on petrol earlier this year when prices were skyrocketing. The same is now happening with kai” said Waititi.
Food is a right and a necessity that should never be taxed, especially during a cost a living crisis. GST is a regressive tax that hurts lower income whānau the most.
“Former Māori Party MP Rahui Katene introduced this idea in 2010 with a bill to remove GST from healthy food. My bill extends to all food products and non-alcoholic beverages.
“We are the only party in Parliament whose tax cuts aren’t for the rich” Waititi said.
Removing GST from kai is a longstanding policy for Te Pāti Māori, who also have an active petition calling on Parliament to do just that. The petition can be found here.
Excellent. Removing GST from all food also keeps it nice and simple. Let’s do this.
The problem is to define food Does it include processed items /sweets treats /suppliments /imported canned items /caviar .
Who will pay the cost of policing wether the GST has been removed. If the gst is not charged the gst cannot be claimed for getting the food item there so breaks the chain… How would you know there is no gst on an item like bananas which are $3 akg at my green grocery but $ 4 at the supermarket . Governments of both colours understand the simplicity of the current system and it is only the dreaming parties that have no business sense that call for its removal .
The problem is to define food Does it include processed items /sweets treats /suppliments /imported canned items /caviar .
Who will pay the cost of policing wether the GST has been removed. If the gst is not charged the gst cannot be claimed for getting the food item there so breaks the chain… How would you know there is no gst on an item like bananas which are $3 akg at my green grocery but $ 4 at the supermarket . Governments of both colours understand the simplicity of the current system and it is only the dreaming parties that have no business sense that call for its removal .
Trevor. Australia and the UK have no problem not charging GST/ VAT on food stuffs, and nor should we.
Trevor. To work, it would probably have to embrace all foodstuffs. A huge amount of what’s consumed routinely now is processed one way or another, and not necessarily beneficially either, but that’s not likely to change, unless there’s a glitch in the supply chain somewhere. Re-installing old time primary school cooking and nutrition classes might help here, but alas the Educ Dept brain boxes seem to think it more beneficial to teach kiddies to query their gender ID, than the basics.
The situation calls for practical action to remediate the problenms that the imposition of GST at 15% means to food buyers. Restaurants and cafes are suffering hard times as well as private nosh so don’t worry about whether it’s basic food or cafe’ minceur or whatever.
And follow that up with a drop to 12.5% with 2.5% going to regional coffers where it is earned to be spent on keeping up public structures and services, helpful when the cruise ships come and start filling up public transport with possible Covid spreaders. Wait a minute – local terrorism – spread Covid in Parliament and the boorocrats and whuile they are all below par or recovering at home, rush in with a ready-primed bunch to take over. Coo what a great idea, as surprising as Roger Douglas et al’s machinations plucked from Machiavelli; and don’t forget Treasury, the treasures of NZ pass through ther on the way to someone else’s pockets.