Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Greens have made another mistake with their new tax policy

The Greens’ tax policy is only a day old and there is already a big maths problem with it. They counted $100 million a year as income when it was really an expense. It was money they had set aside to run the new tax system.

So, instead of $100 million over four years coming in, it is now going out, creating an $800 million hole in their budget.

They didn’t see it. Brad Olsen, who checked their numbers, didn’t see it either. The media were the ones who spotted it and the Greens only realised the mistake after receiving a few phone calls.

Now, it’s a problem - but I don’t want to blow it out of proportion. It’s not the end of the world for the Greens. It’s a mistake they can explain, even though it’s hard to understand how something this significant was missed.

However, no one really takes the Greens seriously when it comes to money so this kind of error won’t help them. What it will do is open up every calculation in that package to further scrutiny. They’ll have to defend it with more than just, “Brad checked it, it’s fine,” because clearly, it wasn’t fine.

On the politics of this - which is a separate issue from the mathematics - I reckon they’ve made another mistake by being too greedy. They’ve proposed a 45 percent tax rate for anyone earning more than $160,000. But $160,000 a year isn’t rich - it’s middle-income. Raising a family on that amount isn’t easy.

I think this risks losing the Greens support among people in well-off suburbs who want to save the planet and reduce child poverty - but not if it means paying 45 percent instead of the current 33 percent on income over $160,000. That’s a huge jump.

I’m surprised the Greens have made a mistake like this because they’ve already been told not to be so ambitious. It’s why they lifted their wealth tax threshold to net assets over $10 million.

Cast your mind back to the last election- it was $2 million. They moved it from $2 million to $10 million because they said people told them it was too low.

My guess is they’re about to learn the same lesson again with their proposed 45 percent income tax rate starting at $160,000. It’s too low.

Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and radio broadcaster who hosts Newstalk ZB's weekday Drive-Time Show – where this article was sourced.