2020 election: ‘Labor cannot rule alone’

The Greens warn their supporters that the Labor Party “cannot rule alone”, and their party is the only one bold enough to face the challenges New Zealand faces.

And, despite repeated pushbacks from Labor leader Jacinda Ardern, party co-leaders Marama Davidson and James Shaw say a wealth tax is still firmly on the table if the Greens negotiate with Labor after the election.

“They can say what they need in a [election] campaign, “Davidson said when asked about Ardern’s repeated outright rejection of the plan.

The couple made the comments after a campaign rally on Auckland’s K Rd tonight.
It is their last rally of the 2020 election period.

It comes after a week of attacks by National, which has been critical of the Greens’ proposed wealth tax: a 1% tax on net worth above $ 1 million and 2% on net worth above. to 2 million dollars.

That’s a tax Ardern has waived multiple times this week.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB on Monday, Ardern said the proposal for such a tax would not even make it to the negotiating table if Labor can form a government.

And today, Ardern went even further, saying there would never be a wealth tax as long as she’s Prime Minister.

Despite this, Shaw told the media after tonight’s speech that politics was something the Greens would bring up in any post-election conversation.

“Let’s have elections and then let’s sit around the negotiating table and see what happens,” he said.

He added that once the votes are counted, it will be the Greens who will decide what will be brought to the negotiating table.

Davidson said that the fact that National has been hammering this policy so hard is a “sign of their desperation.”

“It has become alarmingly clear that the priority of National, and the other smaller parties, is not to keep us safe … but to divide and scare us in the pursuit of power,” he said during his speech.

The rally occurs just three days before the polls close.

The Greens are hovering around a little over 5 percent, but so far they haven’t fallen below that threshold in any poll.

In his speech, Shaw made a kind of call to action for his followers.

“In this election, I can confidently say that the Green Party is the only party that comes up with proposals that are bold enough to meet the scale of the challenges we face.”

And Davidson took it further: “Work cannot rule alone.”

“Unquestioned decisions can mean bad decisions, and with the Greens at the decision-making table, we will make sure we really meet the challenges that we have been ignoring for too long.”