The final finance debate of the election campaign was another fiery clash between Grant Robertson and Nicola Willis over government spending and National's tax plan
Nicola Willis and Grant Robertson went head-to-head for one last debate in Wellington on Monday evening.
The Post finance debate, moderated by Luke Malpass and Andrea Vance, canvassed tax policy, climate change, infrastructure, education and more.
The exchanges over the respective parties' tax plans were the most heated, though Robertson and Willis butted heads multiple times throughout the debate.
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Robertson felt he had discovered another hole in National's foreign buyer tax. He asked whether the tax would apply to people without residence-class visas in New Zealand or to people who aren't tax residents in New Zealand.
Willis was unable to provide a satisfactory answer to the question.
"It applies to people who today are banned from buying a home," she began, before Robertson cut in.
"No, no, no, no, I'm reading off your document," he said, holding up a copy of National's tax plan.
In the document, an example suggests the tax would apply to people living in New Zealand but who aren't residents for immigration purposes, but Robertson said National's subsequent comments had suggested it would apply to people who aren't tax residents (meaning they spend less than half the year in the country).
If it were the latter, Robertson said, that would raise issues with New Zealand's double taxation agreement with China.
"I want to know whether Nicola can give a cast-iron guarantee that Chinese buyers will be captured by this, because if they're not, there ain't no way it adds up," he said.
"Yes, Chinese buyers will be captured, Grant, and thank you for acknowledging that we're going to win the election," Willis replied.
"I think we're a long way from that, Nicola," Robertson fired back.
After the debate, Willis was unable to answer the same question from reporters.
"We've made the intention of our tax plan very clear, which is that at the moment, foreigners wishing to buy homes in New Zealand are banned from doing so. What we want to achieve is that so long as a home is worth more than $2 million, if a foreign buyer wishes to buy it, they can by paying 15 percent tax," she said. "Our intention is to capture all of those people who currently are banned."
However, during the debate, Willis also scored a big hit on Robertson.
Vance asked the finance minister about his newfound support for removing GST from fruit and vegetables, after having earlier opposed the policy and calling it a "boondoggle". He responded that the creation of a Grocery Commissioner meant his concerns about the discount not being passed on had resolved.
"Grant's made this argument about the Grocery Commissioner a few times," Willis said. "The problem is, Labour announced the Grocery Commissioner in July 2022 and it was in March this year that you said you did not support taking GST off fruit and vegetables because supermarkets would get most of the benefit. Actually, Grant, just be honest. You're among friends. What actually happened was you got rolled by the Prime Minister."
As Willis tried to go on, Robertson interrupted, "If we're talking about people getting rolled on their policies, shall we talk about medium-density housing rules? Shall we talk about those?"
That was a reference to Christopher Luxon's decision to withdraw National's support for the bipartisan housing policy negotiated with Labour by Willis under Judith Collins' leadership.
"If you want to play tit-for-tat, how was that seven months working on the wealth tax?" Willis responded.
"Well, I don't know, were you in Bill English's office when they spent six months working on taxes on housing as well that didn't come through?" Robertson shot back.
Willis also repeatedly attacked Robertson on the Government's spending record, which he rebutted by defending it as part of the Covid-19 response.
"What happened was, we printed more money relative to the size of our economy than just about any other country in the world. And at the same time, Grant was borrowing and spending at an enormous rate – the second fastest in the world," she said.
"Do you think, maybe, Nicola, that the thing that that spending did was save about 20,000 lives, and thousands of businesses, and hundreds of thousands of jobs? Because that is actually what happened," Robertson argued.
Willis pushed back, saying significant spending continued in the 2022 Budget well after the beginning of the Omicron outbreak.
