Let’s break that down. There are around 5 million people in New Zealand. Maybe 2.3 million of them are actually working. That’s an extra $38,000 in tax per working Kiwi — every year.
And once again, they’re targeting landlords. Why don’t they just come clean and say it? They want private Kiwi landlords gone. They want to hand over rental housing to foreign build-to-rent funds. Whole neighbourhoods owned offshore. Every rent payment sent overseas.
We’ll own nothing. And apparently, we’re meant to be happy about it.
Meanwhile, I’m sitting in Granada, Spain. Beautiful city. Walkable. Alive. Full of culture, art, food, history. I could live here tomorrow. Wealthy people have choices — they’re not queueing to move to New Zealand where travel is inconvenient, restaurants are limited, towns are quiet and empty, and there’s no cultural vibrancy. We think we’re the centre of the world. We’re not.
So if we think loading up working people with $88 billion in extra taxes is going to build a better country — we’re dreaming. These policies punish the people actually doing the work. The ones building, investing, creating jobs, and housing other Kiwis.
It’s not fairness. It’s not reform.
It’s an attack on aspiration, disguised as equity.
And if this is the vision, count me out.

Read the full article here from NZ Herald