Ryan Bridge: A warning for Chris Hipkins

There’s a warning for Hipkins as he plots higher taxes for Kiwi businesses, investors, and savers - it comes from across the ditch.

Albanese’s been having problems getting his super tax plan across the line, despite having a majority in Parliament.

The Opposition to it has come not just from the usual suspects, but also former PM and Labor stalwart Paul Keating - even the Unions cried boohoo.

So he’s had to U-turn on unrealised gains, which have always been a stupid thing to try and tax.

How can you pay tax on money you haven’t earned? 

The Greens want to do this. David Parker wanted to it. Te Pati Māori wants it.

And Debbie said at the weekend that she and Chippy are on the same page when it comes to a wealth tax. 

He denies this, but does anyone believe a guy who won’t tell you what he’s really thinking or what he really stands for? 

Until he rules something in or out, he looks like a guy plotting in secret. He and Barbara are squirrelled away with an abacus and a calculator quietly conjuring up a new and inventive revenue streams.

We’re left wondering whose business, whose property is ripe for the picking.

The warning from Australia is pretty night and day, if you’re going to tax something, and that’s a big "if" here at home, but if you’re going to do it, you’d better make sure it’s a realised gain and not a tax on imaginary, on-paper earnings.

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