Finance Minister Michael Cullen, National Party finance spokesman Bill English, Revenue Minister and United Future leader Peter Dunne, Act New Zealand founder and candidate Sir Roger Douglas and Green Party co-leader Russel Norman all favoured some sort of tax reduction programme when speaking yesterday at the Business New Zealand 2008 Election Conference.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters sent his apologies, saying he had other pressing business to deal with.
Mr Dunne gave the clearest answer to the first question posed by Business NZ: Would you cut company and personal tax; by how much and when?
United Future proposed further tax reforms to include a streamlined personal tax scale.
They would be 10% up to $12,000; 20% from $12,001 to $38,000; and 30% above $38,000.
The party would align the top personal, business and trust rates, abolish gift duty and introduce voluntary income splitting for parents with dependent children.
Dr Cullen pointed back to his budget announcement and the planned programme of ongoing tax cuts.
Mr English said National would cut tax rates but details would be released later, during the election campaign.
Sir Roger, a former Labour finance minister, was vague about how Act would introduce a flat tax of 20% but it revolved around keeping government spending at 3.6% annually the rate of inflation averaged over 10 years and property growth.
Dr Norman favoured cutting tax on income and enterprise but introducing "environmental tax shifting" which mean rewarding people for good environmental behaviour and punishing those who polluted.
The second question on whether any of the parties favoured capping government expenditure as a percentage of GDP elicited a wider range of answers but with a similar theme.
Mr Dunne did not favour a cap, saying GDP was not the sole measure of the health of the economy.
He wanted a better quality and direction of spending.
Mr English did not favour a cap as it did not relate to growth patterns.
A government should be as careful with its money as businesses were with their money and he, too, favoured better quality spending.
Sir Roger wanted to hold government spending growth to 3.6% annually for the next 10 years and make savings through efficiency.
Dr Norman also wanted a more efficient use of government spending.
Dr Cullen favoured no cap, emphasising that government spending as a percentage of GDP was the same now as it was in 1999.
A government had to manage through economic cycles and the Labour-led Government had shifted spending away from benefits and debt servicing to spending on education, infrastructure and health.
All of the MPs favoured some sort of labour and environmental regulations being included in free trade agreements.
A free trade agreement with the United States would be impossible to achieve with a Democratic-controlled Congress without that sort of protection, Dr Cullen said.
