2020 Election: Heather Du Plessis-Allan’s The Front Bench: Does National Play Dirty With Estate Tax?

See: Newstalk ZB’s Heather Du Plessis-Allan, political commentator Trish Sherson, former Labor MP Chris Carter and ZB political editor Barry Soper discuss National’s attacks on Labor over the wealth tax.

COMMENT FROM HEATHER DU PLESSIS-ALLAN:

It’s no wonder National is using the Green Party wealth tax to attack Labor.

In retaliation, Jacinda Ardern has accused National of spreading disinformation.

So is he right? Is this misinformation? Well not really.

National is probably going a bit too far in framing the estate tax as if it’s definitely going to happen, but they’re not wrong in raising the ghost.

Because it remains a possibility, albeit a small one, as long as we have contradictory positions from the Labor and Green parties.

Even this morning, we saw him play again.

Here at Newstalk ZB, Ardern ruled out a wealth tax.

“We have said all the time that this is not our policy, and even if we were in the position where we had to negotiate with the Greens, we would be part of the negotiations,” said the prime minister.

But on another radio station, Green Party co-leader James Shaw was told what Ardern had said and he responded like this: “Let’s find out after the election.”

When asked to explain more details, Shaw pointed to the fact that the government is collecting less taxes right now, but spending much more.

“I don’t think it’s credible in that situation not to have a conversation about the fairness of the tax system, the distortions within the tax system, and the amount of revenue that the government needs to collect in order to get ourselves through this crisis and then pay the bill. debt associated with that. It’s just not credible. “

As long as the Greens maintain the position that they will push for a wealth tax, it will remain a credible attack on a possible left-wing bloc government.

Actually, as I said, there is only a small possibility of a wealth tax. The Labor Party has now dismissed it so often and so vehemently that it would destroy their credibility if they changed that.

And if I had to choose which party is most likely to back down in the negotiations, it would surely be the Greens. After all, the lure of power is strong and there will be many other winning policies to mitigate the pain.

So no, it’s not disinformation from the Nats. It’s just politics.