Anne Frankland – 26/11/99
I can’t believe that Kim Hill (on Radio New Zealand) in reply to Winston Peters questioning her
knowledge of the tax policies of Labour and National does not know what they are. Her reply: ‘Labour up, National down ‘ is biased towards National by implying an equal effect for all tax payers in each case.
Helen Clark has said time after time during the election compaign, that Labour would put up tax only on people with an income over $60,000 and that this would simply reverse for those people the tax reduction made by National this year, thus enabling Labour to have more funds to carry out their policies for education, health and income related housing, policies so greatly needed by the great majority of low and middle income earners and beneficiciaries. This policy gets my support.
I agree with Winston Peters that for him to be on the back benches speaking to and voting issue by issue in Parliament and in accordance with his voters’ wishes enhances the democratic processes of Parliament. We need individuals there who challenge and endeavour to expose perceived wrongs and to curb excessive power in the executive.
While in Cabinet he did keep a check on National and Act’s extreme right policies and he did achieve some good things he’d set out to do e.g. free health care for under five year olds. Although usually appreciative of Kim Hill’s knowledgeable, perceptive and challenging interviewing skills, this morning she appeared unbelievably uninformed, as I’ve indicated, and moreover I did not like her unfair, scathing and hectoring approach to Winston Peters.
