Green Party’s message clear.

By Pauline Stewart.

Green Party’s message clear

The Green Party is preparing for the Elections, locally. If you know Anna Horne, she has been preparing for a long time. Recently Anna and the local Green Party member standing for this election, Pam Grearly, were out on the footpath on Saturday morning in Albert Street, Whitianga talking to shoppers and passersby and handing out information.

They have a clear message: - some of the following words were spoken by Anna and some by Pam. They were an erudite team with knowledge of their issues.

The Green Party -

· Is making a difference

· Will work with MMP without a firm commitment to just one party. They want to work with all the major parties on issues that we believe will help this country.

· The whole concept of issues being able to be addressed without being single party focussed is missing. Utilising MMP to do this has never been properly used.

· The GP has real strengths in climate issues, in social justice and in the environment. We have to focus on these. We can bring expertise to the table on these very crucial matters.

Wealth Tax: (extract taken form Policy statement)

The Greens’ tax and incomes policy, released on Sunday morning, brings back an adjusted form of the party’s 2020 wealth tax - one of the most hotly-contested policies from the last election.

The 2020 policy had a far lower threshold - assets over $1m - a threshold the party thought would hit the wealthiest 6 per cent of New Zealanders. The higher threshold means only the wealthiest 0.7 per cent of households will be targeted. The $2m threshold is a net figure, meaning people with mortgages and other debts would need $2m of equity before they began paying the tax. The tax plan also included a 1.5 per cent tax on trust assets, and an increase in the top rate of income tax from 39 per cent to 45 per cent paid on income over $180,000.

This is not for everyone. The Greens know that their consistent message is that the Wealth Tax will pay for the infrastructure that will enable the gap between poor and middle-income earners to be narrowed in a realistic way. When it comes to parting with some of your wealth their message does hit a central nerve. But it is a fact that Trusts have been used to avoid paying tax on some real assets and the middle-income earner is more than paying their way and other aspects of society are not paying their way. It will be interesting if any of the .7% of the population who have been targeted in this aspect of the Green Party 2023 election policy will support their important flagship policy.

Caption: Pam Grearly, local Green Party candidate with Anna Horne.