Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins says there is "no way" the party will support Opportunity's tax policy, but will make a call on who he would be willing to work with closer to the election.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon appeared to rule out working with Opportunity, and said National didn't want to "do business" with anyone seeking to impose new taxes.
Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong responded to Luxon’s comments and said the party remained “willing to work with parties across the political spectrum”.
Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Hipkins said he “wasn’t sure” Luxon intended to rule out working with Opportunity yesterday.
“He subsequently sort of dialled it back and then ultimately his office made the decision for him in confirming they wouldn’t work with the Opportunity Party.
“I’ve said we’re going to set that out after Parliament finishes before the election, who we can [work] with, who we can’t work with. But I will be very clear, we don’t support the Opportunity Party’s tax proposal, there’s no way we would support that.”
When asked if Hipkins would support Opportunity’s policy on universal basic income Hipkins said: “The two things are linked and we clearly don’t support that.”
Opportunity's tax policy includes a universal basic income of up to $370 per week, a land value tax of 1.75% on urban land and 0.5% on rural land, and compulsory KiwiSaver which would gradually rise to 6% both for employers and employees.
Hipkins was then asked if Luxon was correct in suggesting Opportunity was more aligned with left leaning political parties rather than working with those on the right.
“I think they have a bit of an identity crisis, I’m not sure they really know whether they’re on the left or on the right.
“But ultimately campaigns are getting underway parties are rolling out their policies, we’re going to take a principled position around where we’ve got common ground with other parties, we’ll be really clear about that, but we’ll also be really clear on where we don’t have common ground, the things we won’t support.
“We won’t support the tax policy put forward by Opportunity, we also won’t support the wealth taxes, land taxes and other things put forward by the Greens either. We’ve got one simple tax policy which is a simple targeted capital gains tax, that’s as far as we’re going to go.”
Hipkins added Labour would share more information about who it can and cannot work with before Parliament is dissolved on October 1.
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