A petition to take GST off all food items and impose a tax on financial speculation will reach Parliament today, in what the Tax Justice Campaign says is “a really good place to start” addressing food prices.
The petition, signed by 40,000 New Zealanders, aims to make food prices fairer and enable healthier food choices, says Tax Justice Campaign spokesperson Grant Brookes.
Mr Brookes says removing GST from food is a popular option and he hopes Labour will support the petition.
“Every poll that’s been conducted on this question found a majority of New Zealanders in favour of removing GST from food… we would like the Labour Party to come on board.”
The issue of removing GST from food is “a moral argument”, Mr Brookes says, as everyone has to eat and “taxing food is seen by many people as just wrong”.
He says removing taxes would encourage healthier eating choices, and that supermarkets have said people are buying cheaper, less nutritious options as food prices rise.
“One of the most unfair things about food prices is that the more expensive foods tend to be the healthier ones – so removing GST off all foods would actually mean that the healthier foods have bigger price drops, and so I think it would actually lead to more healthy eating,” he says.
The petition suggests the lost revenue from GST on food should be reclaimed from taxing financial speculation, which Mr Brookes says is “an enormous area of our economy which is currently subject to no tax at all”.
“Certainly there needs to be revenue made up – we think the tax should be targeted towards the seriously wealthy, who currently don’t pay any tax on their speculative activities.”
Watch the video for the full interview
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