March 22, 2024
Gst plan loyalty test for Opposition
Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa Packer says Māori can’t rely on the other Opposition parties.
She upset Rawiri Waititi’s bill to remove GST on food failed at first reading 117 to 6, with no support from Labour or the Greens.
While the Bill was never going to fly with the coalition government, she expected opposition parties to stand in solidarity.
“Our focus is holding and growing our own movement so we never ever have to rely on allies that aren’t as tuturu to te ao Maori and to us as whanaunga first and foremost,” Ms Ngarewa-Packer says.Green MP Teanau Tuiono says the maths didn’t stack up in the Maori Party bill to remove gst from food.
He says the Greens couldn’t support it because it would take more than $3 billion from the tax take.
“That’s a lot of money to take out of the tax take, money that would be better spent on free lunches in schools, making sure we are doing all this other stuff. We have a government that is obsessively focused on tax cuts so taking more money out of what we actually need to pay for all this stuff, and public services are being under-funded and under-resourced, so making sure that tax putea is there to do all the things we need to do is very important,” Mr Tuiono says.
and support the Bill at least to select committee.
IN WE dont get (3.50)OUT….and foremost (4.20)
Debbie Ngarewa Packer says Maori have their own indigenous political views and nowhere was this seen more than last night.