Christopher Luxon says talk about a wealth tax is not scaremongering after he made comments earlier this week suggesting Jacinda Ardern could implement one.
On Monday the National Party leader said the Prime Minister was "foreshadowing" a wealth tax, while ACT leader David Seymour accused Ardern of "readying herself for the mother of all flip-flops" on wealth tax.
Ardern later on Monday ruled out the Government implementing a wealth tax this parliamentary term.
"We are not doing any work on any additional tax policy. We have no other plans. Our policy has not changed, we are not doing any additional work and I stand by all the statements I've made to date," Ardern said.
National and ACT's accusations came after Revenue Minister David Parker took aim at the lack of data the country holds on the rate of tax paid by the richest New Zealanders.
The Prime Minister was asked about Labour's plans after it collects data on what the wealthy are actually paying in tax. (Source: 1News)
Luxon appeared on Breakfast on Wednesday morning and was asked by host Matty McLean whether talk about a wealth tax was "scaremongering". Luxon said "no, not at all".
He went on to criticise the amount of spending by the Labour Government.
"Because you're spending so much money as a Labour government, you have to increase taxes. We are a party that believes in lower taxes and that's because we think the money's better in your pocket, where you get to make the choices about how you spend or save that, rather than giving it to Grant Robertson to spend on your behalf."
He said he thinks the Government's messaging around wealth tax is confusing.
"David Parker's gone off talking about wealth taxes, spending $5 million looking into it and the prime minister's saying she's not going to do it," Luxon said.
READ MORE: Jacinda Ardern rules out wealth tax this term
Asked if a wealth tax would be bad for the country, Luxon said: "I don't believe a wealth tax is good for New Zealand, we wouldn't do it ourselves so the answer is to create more fairness in the system."
He said many wealthy people: "Pay much higher levels of income tax, just remember the top 3% pay for about a quarter of all income tax in New Zealand.
"They have corporate tax to pay for on their businesses, they pay tax on their investments either here in New Zealand or overseas."
READ MORE: Labour down, National up in new political poll
Luxon said the bottom line is: "If you want to improve the fairness of the tax system, just do two things, introduce tax indexation and secondly remove the bright line test and the interest deductibility laws so that renters get $50 lower rent per week.
"Those are things that would really help people in the squeezed middle and the people that are doing it tough."
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