A skin cancer expert is calling for sunscreen to be made cheaper – either by removing GST or offering it on prescription – to reduce New Zealand’s sky-high melanoma rate.
University of Otago skin cancer prevention researcher Dr Bronwen McNoe told Midday Report’s Charlotte Cook that sunscreen was significantly more expensive in New Zealand than in Australia.
The two countries shared the world’s highest melanoma rate, and New Zealand had the unenviable record of the world’s highest death rate from skin cancer.
McNoe said she supported any initiative that reduced the cost of sunscreen for consumers, including the current petition demanding the removal of GST.
No, no, no, no, no. The moment you start treating the GST as a way to decrease prices on things you approve of, and increase prices on things you disapprove of, you destroy the simplicity of the system and massively increase compliance costs.
If the barrier to sunscreen use is price (of which I am not aware of any quality research), then you deal with that through Pharmac, or subsidies. You do not wreck the GST system.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
10 comments:
You are absolutely right, once again, David.
It would be very simple to make sunscreens free through Pharmac, or even free directly through pharmacies.
Your posts are always accurate, succinct and clear.
What has been the value to NZ of the University research? What has been the cumulative cost of salary , commercial office , conference & meetings , share of University expences etc etc ? Is the researcher a qualified doctor or a university doctorate trawling chemist shops for price comparison. We have to focus on productive employment not salaried induced employment. Solution - Wear a hat.
Its not even clear that sunscreen is the key issue.
Vit D3 deficiency is as strongly linked to all cancers and sunscreen reduces D3 levels.
And yes GST in NZ is the best simple tax do not fiddle with it.
Having read this article, I now await for "An expert"(commonly referred to as a drip under pressure) - most commonly found in the Academic tea room of "any" University, who having read all the magazines on summer clothing now being released for sale over the next few weeks, decides (after considerable research of the Ginger Nuts on the plate in front of them) - that as the Coalition Govt is failing to "get the message about sunscreen
(my APA reference this article)", that they will launch a campaign to have our dress codes returned to the 18th Century, when everyone wore clothing that covered every exposed part of the body. Yup, that should -
1. reduce sunburn
2. reduce any skin melanomas
3. reduce the need to buy any sunscreen
4. reduce the need for fashionable clothing, one size fits all
5. reduce the need for any Academic research - again cost savings
6. finally reduce the constant "braying by Academics about what the world, Govts and people should do".
Way to go David. You only have to look at the absurdities that arise from fiddling with the way GST/VAT is applied around the world. Only this week we saw the new UK Government adding VAT to private school fees. Presumably the original thought that education was too important to tax now doesn't apply to a good education. My favorite was the imposition of VAT on restaurant meals where you ate in-house, but exempting the same food when you took it away. That was designed to protect the working man's fish and chips apparently. So you now get a cheaper Big Mac by walking outside and eating it on the footpath. Not that anybody checks of course.
One of the few things Labour did was our GST. Best in the world for simplicity, and hard to abuse without being caught. Should increase it, and have a tax free income tax threshold
Yes it's time for GST to removed off food, rates (a tax on a tax), insurance, petrol tax, it's a lame system, penalising those on a low income. It's had it's day.
Anonymous 10.50's inane comments are typical of someone who has no idea how the tax system works. S/he clearly is not interested in where the lost revenue will come from. How about increasing the GST rate to 20% on everything else? How about hiking income tax on everyone? Our GST is worldleading and operates on the KISS principle - Keep it Simple Stupid. Any move to change that is just - well - Stupid.
World leading.
GST, is that a quote from Richard Prebble?
Is it to late for this comment?
GST on private health insurance, that makes absolutely no sense.
A tax on your health.
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