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Greens call for capital gains tax, end to fuel subsidy

Glenn McConnell

Green Party co-leader James Shaw has vented his frustration with the Labour Government, while urging supporters to rally behind him to avert ‘‘the worst possible outcome’’ of an ACT-National coalition.

Shaw said ‘‘frustrated’’ eight times during his ‘‘State of the Planet’’ speech yesterday, as well as repeatedly declaring he was ‘‘fed up’’ with the Government’s ‘‘slow progress’’ on climate change – but also on the wealth gap.

These ‘‘State of the Nation’’ (or in the case of the Greens, the ‘‘State of the Planet’’) speeches are a chance for political parties to set their direction with supporters ahead of the election campaign.

Shaw used it to push a dual-focus for the Green Party, promising there would be less ‘‘compromise’’ when it came to climate policy beside a major focus on inequality issues. He took aim at some of Labour’s ‘‘cost of living’’ supports, such as cuts to fuel taxes, saying he had been unhappy with their recent policy focus. ‘‘It frustrates me also.

‘‘I know you are fed up with this. In the middle of a climate emergency, that we declared, the Government has extended a fossil fuel subsidy that will increase emissions and benefit the highest income earners,’’ he said. He told Green Party faithful at Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter that he had been forced to make many compromises while climate minister. ‘‘We cannot compromise any further on the future of our planet.’’ He also admitted he had not got everything right while in Government but avoided going into detail about what he had done wrong. Asked about his regrets, he said it was wrong for former prime minister Jacinda Ardern to rule out a capital gains tax. He said the Greens would push hard at the election, and in coalition talks, for a capital gains tax. ‘‘I think that was probably the best moment and opportunity that we had to finally introduce some fairness into the tax system and to start taxing wealth, not just work.’’ While his speech started with a focus on climate change, drawing on the destruction Cyclone Gabrielle wrought across the North Island, it was Shaw’s comments on the wealth gap and the Opposition which earned the most energetic responses from the Green crowd.

He joked that Christopher Luxon, facing a drop in favourability ratings, might soon be ousted as National’s leader.

‘‘The only way that Christopher Luxon – or who follows him – will be prime minister is with the support of David Seymour,’’ Shaw said. This would be a dire result, he warned. ‘‘They have promised to ditch climate targets, tear up Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and pledged to cut taxes for the wealthiest few.

‘‘The ACT Party said, of climate change just a few years ago, that the threat of extreme weather events was ‘unproven conjecture’.

‘‘Well, tell that to the people of Tai Tokerau, Auckland, the Coromandel, Tairā whiti and Hawke’s Bay.’’

National News

en-nz

2023-03-20T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-20T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281702618952779

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