Hi Bob,

Sorry about the slow reply, I missed the email notice.

We would introduce a capital gains tax excluding the family home to drive investment in the productive sector (up to $4+B PA after 5 years), put a small temporary levy on Christchurch over five years (about $5.5B in savings), put a proper price on carbon and introduce a small charge of 10c per 1000 litres of irrigated water (raising $570M per year).Almost all these measures are supported by our own Treasury and the OECD.

We would also cut $3.5B over the next 10 years off the current transport budget and still end up with a more efficient transport system focused on rail, light rail, public transport, walking and cycling. We're open to the idea of raising the age for super annuation.

We would give incentives back to business in the form of a $1B boost to clean tech and green tech R&D and set up a $100M clean technology start up fund. We would also ease the tax process for small business to help drive the economy.

We need to decrease debt by earning a higher living as a country. So on top of adding value to the primary export sector which we strongly support, we want to harness our energy assets to drive a green economy. Our energy companies have huge potential to get a slice of the global green tech market. We're world leaders in geothermal, have a good back ground in wind (with wind resources second to none) and tidal turbine technology is advancing here too. Importantly we have a grid based around renewables so have a lot of expertise all round. So we would capitalise the energy assets with energy bonds that people can invest in (instead of houses), reorient them towards being IP export driven and grab 1% of the global renewable energy market which is forecast to be worth more than $1 trillion within a decade.

The Greens see paying down debt, redeveloping our economy and helping the environment as being parts of the same solution. Happy to talk more if you want to chat, 021 827 922.

Regards,

Aaryn