Little, Robertson confirm Labour's ditched policies and reveal some new ones

The Labour party has reaffirmed a capital gains tax and regulation of power prices won’t be on its campaign agenda in 2017.

Speaking on TV3’s The Nation today, leader Andrew Little and finance spokesman Grant Robertson outlined the policies that had gone and outlined some new ones.

Both were attending Labour’s annual conference in Palmerston North along with other MPs and delegates.

Mr Little says a Labour government won’t bring in a capital gains tax if it wins the election.

“We won’t introduce it in our first term, and we won’t introduce any change that significant to the tax system, any material change to the tax system, without going to the people first and getting a mandate to do so,” he says.

The joint Labour-Greens New Zealand Power proposal to control electricity prices is another policy that is on hold because it’s too complex for voters to understand.

“We know what the objective is. We want to reduce power prices, and let’s look at the best way of doing that and doing it in a way that we can explain to New Zealanders.”

In his interview, Mr Robertson says the variable savings rate policy using KiwiSaver to influence monetary policy it also under review, admitting it’s another “complicated policy” that voters didn’t understand.

“I think it’s important that as well as controlling inflation, we also get a focus for the Reserve Bank on jobs, on making sure that they’re thinking about the impact of their policy changes on employment," he says.

“Whether or not the Variable Savings Rate ends up being part of that or not, we’re looking at as whether that will be a tool in the future.”

'Flexicurity' in work policy
Mr Robertson says Labour is looking at a Danish-style “flexicurity” programme that gives income security to people while they are being retrained for new jobs.

“Essentially, it’s a scheme where if you lose your job, you’ll have income security and you’ll automatically go into the kind of training that’s going to get you another job straight away.

“This is commonplace in countries like Denmark, and as we go into a future of work where we hear that 45% of jobs in the New Zealand economy might be gone in 10 to 15 years, we need a policy that gives people the chance to get the new skills they need for the jobs of the future and have income security while that happens.

“Technology is completely changing work, and we have to make sure that New Zealanders are in a position to take the opportunity of that change, not fear it."

Mr Robertson says Labour is also considering other support programmes such as a universal benefit to cater for people who may have six or eight different careers during their working life.

New Zealanders need to feel security going into a big period of change, he says.

“In that situation, as a government, to be responsible, we need to provide secure income, and we’re looking at a range of options for that. The universal basic income has only really been tried once or twice. There’s a couple of trials under way at the moment. We want to look at how they go.”

Mr Robertson says Labour wants secondary schools to do more to prepare students for work and is considering adding drivers’ licence training, computer coding, financial literacy and citizenship classes to the curriculum.

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