Agriculture Minister David Carter has come out swinging against the Labour Party’s proposed Capital Gains Tax saying it is simply an instrument to punish farmers which the party hates.

Minister Carter told Country 99 TV this week that a capital gains tax would have no benefits whatsoever for farming.

“I have seen reports in the last day or so where Labour now acknowledge that a third of the revenue that they expect to gain from the Capital Gains Tax would come from the farming industry.   

“This is an industry that the Labour Party seems to hate. They have had it in for the farming people for some time now claiming that they effectively pay no income tax at all, that is clearly wrong.” 

David Carter says the capital gains tax comes on the back of Labour’s plans to bring agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme in 2013, which he claimed would cost the sector $800 million.

He says such moves makes Labour’s position on farming and farmers clear.

“The Labour Party have no respect for the farming sector, the productive sector, of New Zealand’s economy.”   

Further, David Carter says there is no evidence that a capital gains tax would put any downward pressure on the high price of farmland in New Zealand which he acknowledges is a barrier to young farmers starting out in the sector.

But he says this barrier has existed for the last 100 years and, further, other countries which do have Capital Gains Taxes have also had farmland value appreciation.

However, earlier this week Labour Party leader Phil Goff told Country 99TV that introducing a capital gains tax is simply the fair thing to do.