New Zealand finally has a government again. It’s been 40 days since Labour was defeated in the country’s election, but the centre-right National party, which won the vote, has struggled to form a coalition. At last, it has thrashed out a deal with the libertarian ACT party, and centrist populist New Zealand First.
The coalition is good news, at least, for foreigners seeking to live in New Zealand. Earlier this year, the National Party announced a plan to whack foreign buyers with a 15 per cent tax on houses worth over $2 million (£1.6 million). Now that idea has been ditched – a casualty of the coalition agreement. But New Zealand’s prime minister Christopher Luxon is cagey on how his government is going to make up for the shortfall.
The coalition has vowed to review the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document
Asked how he intends to pay for tax cuts without the foreign buyers tax, Luxon said: ‘I want to be really clear, we are going to deliver tax relief as we promised and in the amounts we promised to working and lower to middle income earners in New Zealand.
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