5. RAHUI KATENE (Māori Party—Te Tai Tonga) Link to this
to the Minister of Revenue
How was he able to make any estimate of the cost of taking GST off healthy foods when in his view defining what those healthy foods are is a real problem?
Hon PETER DUNNE (Minister of Revenue) Link to this
On the face of it the member’s question may appear reasonable, except that I did not make any such estimate. The estimate that I made was of the cost of removing GST from fresh fruit and vegetables, which is a lesser figure. That estimate was made on the basis of figures used by Statistics New Zealand in calculating the rising costs of those items in the Consumers Price Index.
Has he read my bill, which defines “healthy foods” as including fruit and vegetables, breads and cereals, milk products but not cream, lean meats, and legumes; if so, does he still stand by his statement that taking the GST off healthy foods is not viable, due to the problem of defining healthy foods?
Yes, and yes. The reality of the member’s bill is that it introduces a number of terms that will be difficult to quantify in practice. For example, what is “lean meat” as opposed to “non - lean meat”?
What analysis have his officials undertaken of the computerised model introduced in December 2009 by the Australian Taxation Office, and does he agree that such a model makes GST food and beverage compliance extremely easy to manage; if not, why not?
The Inland Revenue Department has not spent a great deal of time analysing the ways in which other countries remove certain items from the GST net, simply because it is not New Zealand’s policy to have a non-universal GST. When one looks at the experiences of defining some of these items in the Australian and the British context, one sees that we would be extremely unwise to follow suit.
Hon Phil GoffWhy is the Minister prepared to push up taxes and prices on goods that the Government does not want people to consume, like tobacco, but not prepared to drop taxes and therefore prices on healthy foods like fresh fruit and vegetables, when recent studies prove that this action leads to higher consumption of things that are good for people and is a very effective means of addressing the big obesity problem in New Zealand?