This member's bill would amend the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985 to exempt all food products and non-alcoholic beverages from GST. The bill was defeated at its first reading.
These are claims MPs made in Parliament’s debate — not verified facts.
This bill removes the 15% Goods and Services Tax (GST) from food, making basic groceries cheaper at the checkout. GST is New Zealand's broad consumption tax, applied to almost all goods and services, and the country is unusual internationally for taxing food with no exemptions. The bill amends the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985 to "zero-rate" food, meaning food would still sit within the GST system but be taxed at 0%, so no GST is charged on it. It sets out a definition of the food covered, aiming to capture everyday items people buy to eat while drawing boundaries around categories such as restaurant or takeaway meals. The intended effect is to lower the cost of eating for households - particularly helping families on tight budgets - by cutting the tax component out of their food bills.
This is a member's bill in the name of Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, drawn from the ballot rather than promoted by the government. Supporters argue food is a necessity, that removing GST offers direct cost-of-living relief, and that the current tax is regressive because lower-income households spend a larger share of their money on food; many other countries already exempt or reduce tax on groceries. Critics, including Treasury and many economists, argue the policy is expensive - costing several billion dollars in lost revenue - and poorly targeted, since wealthier households buy more food and would gain the most in dollar terms. They also warn it creates messy boundary questions about what counts as "food," adds compliance costs for retailers, and that shops may not fully pass the savings on to shoppers; targeted payments, they say, would help struggling families more cheaply.
See the Parliament.nz ↗ site for the full bill.