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Jack Tame on Q+A yesterday pushed Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer on how the Māori Party GST off food would work.
He asked would GST come off Coke, the insinuation being that a policy driven to lower the price of food would also end up allowing unhealthy choices to be cheaper.
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer countered that the Māori Party didn’t want to food shame or judge hungry people, which is a righteous position to take, but the question remains, how will a problem like fizzy sugary drinks be fixed because this isn’t about food shaming, it is about stopping Big Sugar being able to sell their addictive product directly to hungry people.
Food inflation hit 12% last month, and global geopolitical tensions alongside cyclone damage to our agricultural cycle will see that inflation push even higher.
Taking GST off food is one way to tackle that cost of living crisis directly.
One way the Māori Party could bypass making unhealthy sugary drinks cheaper by removing 15% GST would be to slap a 15% sugary tax on right after taking the GST off!
That way the price of a sugary fizzy drink would stay the same for consumers, (so as to not punish or incentivise consumption) WHILE taxing sugary drinks to pay for free dental.
Because the Māori Party are focused on solutions, they are open to new ideas that can generate multiple benefits.
Removing 15% GST off food and then slapping a 15% tax on sugary drinks is a solution.
Martyn Bradbury
Editor – TheDailyBlog.nz
twitter.com/CitizenBomber
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