The Labour Party is not going to bring back a heavy taxation policy because of a backbench revolt, according to its leader, Chris Hipkins.
He says suggestions to the contrary are wrong.
Hipkins cancelled work on a wealth tax in July, which led to the resignation of his Revenue Minister, David Parker.
Parker had been working on this idea for months.
But several reports suggest the idea is rumbling away in the Labour caucus, which is biding its time.
The reports say the Taieri MP and chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee Ingrid Leary has spoken in favour of a wealth tax or a capital gains tax.
They say she accepted that it might not be Labour policy now, but that it would be so in the future.
These reports were seized upon by the National Party which says they show what the rank and file of Labour really think, and Hipkins is the only thing standing in the way of new, punitive taxes imposed on the public.
Hipkins says he thinks this comment is "a bit hilarious" and does not represent Labour reality.
"Ingrid Leary made it very clear that what she wants to see is tax fairness which I also want to see and the Labour Party wants to see.
"'She also made it clear that the Labour Party is not going to be introducing a wealth tax and I am not going to be introducing a wealth tax."
"We have made it clear that big changes like that have to be put before the electorate. We have not put it before the electorate, so we are not going to be doing it."
In the wake of this argument, Ingrid Leary told RNZ that imposts like a wealth tax or a capital gains tax were not Labour policy this term, but they could be in the future.
"The Labour tax policy is clear - we are not proposing a wealth tax or capital gains tax if re-elected. Caucus has agreed that position. What I conveyed was that it could be something for the future, but it is not a policy for our next term."
However, the National Party campaign manager Chris Bishop says it is not that simple.
He says Leary's approval of a capital gains tax or wealth tax has won support from elsewhere, most recently, the back bencher Ibrahim Omer.
"The Labour Party caucus is desperate for this," Bishop says.
"They want a wealth tax, they have got the Green Party next to them, who are absolutely gagging for a wealth tax and/or capital gains tax, so much so that they have made it a bottom line of their coalition talks.
"No-one thinks the Labour Party can govern with any other party other than the Greens, and almost certainly Te Pati Maori as well, who also want a wealth tax."
Bishop's argument is that Hipkins' opposition to a wealth tax is not shared by his own party members or his own potential coalition partners and so is unlikely to survive any post election negotiations.
Hipkins says this is rubbish and is pure mischief making by National, which can't even get its own policies right.
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