Their policy would end the ban on non-residents being able to buy houses in New Zealand – but only if they paid $2 million or more and paid a fee of 15 percent of the sale to the government.<\/p>\n
“I respect the fact that economists have their opinions, but I stand by our costings,” Willis said.<\/p>\n
Seymour noted an irony in National and Labour’s positions.<\/p>\n
“I’m just astonished that we’re in a debate where National says they will tax more and Labour is saying they will tax less.<\/p>\n
![\"Four](\"https:\/\/rnz-ressh.cloudinary.com\/image\/upload\/s--YJUDKqkL--\/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050\/v1694676042\/4L2OGXK_MicrosoftTeams_image_2_png\")
<\/p>\nPhoto:\u00a0RNZ \/ Tess Brunton<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n “This government doesn’t have a tax problem, it has a spending problem,” he said, to heavy applause from what sounded like a lot of ACT supporters in the house.<\/p>\n “Introducing new taxes is not the path to prosperity for New Zealand,” Seymour said, attacking what he called wasteful spending.<\/p>\n Asked by Tame how many government jobs ACT’s spending reduction plans would cut, Seymour said it would go from 62,000 full-time workers to 47,000, the same number there were in 2017.<\/p>\n “To be clear, you are going to make 15,000 people redundant immediately?” Tame asked.<\/p>\n “Yes,” Seymour said.<\/p>\n Photo:\u00a0RNZ \/ Tess Brunton<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tame noted the Greens are proposing a wealth tax, the very mention of which got the Queenstown crowd booing.<\/p>\n “The Green Party is actually proposing more income tax cuts than National at this election,” Shaw said.<\/p>\n Everybody who was earning $125,000 or less would see their income tax go down under the Greens plan, he said.<\/p>\n Climate change was also a strong part of the discussion, including debates about whether the Emissions Trading Scheme is working effectively and if New Zealand is properly promoting innovation.<\/p>\n “We are going to make sure we invest in adaptation,” Willis said, noting that “climate change is upon us.”<\/p>\n Shaw said green energy development would give a big boost to the economy.<\/p>\n “When it comes to climate change, the ACT party are more deadly than serious,” Shaw said, claiming ACT wanted to unwind all of New Zealand’s progress.<\/p>\n Seymour called for less regulation.<\/p>\n “This country should be a superpower of agricultural genetics,” Seymour said, but “because we let the superstitious loony tunes” set the agenda it had not happened, he claimed.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/rnz-ressh.cloudinary.com\/image\/upload\/s--FV0YVAu0--\/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050\/v1694678882\/4L2OEQN_MicrosoftTeams_image_5_png\")