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English queried by young professionals on lack of tax reform ambition

English queried by young professionals on lack of tax reform ambition

Finance Minister Bill English was asked by a couple of questioners at a Massey University Finance conference in Auckland today about his advice to young professionals thinking of leaving New Zealand because of relatively low wages and a lack of opportunities. One queried whether the government was being ambitious enough with its tax reforms. One asked what his advice would be to a young New Zealander who wanted to work overseas. English replied: "Just Fly Air New Zealand. Go off and do it. Any Kiwi kid is a globally attractive human resource." But English said the government's role was to reform the economy enough to make it attractive enough for those New Zealanders to come home when it was time to have a family. Asked what he told his own children at the breakfast table, he said: "I tell them I'm going off to work so that when they're 30 they can be back here to raise their kids." English said the aim was to make New Zealand attractive for those wanting to run and start small businesses, rather than for those working in very global big businesses. "If you want to run a big oil refinery or be an M&A banker then off you go," he said, adding that those who wanted a more entrepreneurial and innovative place to live and work should be able to return home. He said there were no magic bullets for reforming the economy. "We've got to boil that down to actual policy choices. Not just wish lists. One of the policy choices we've made is to tilt the playing field in favour of investment, rather than debt funded consumption," he said. "We're taking a reasonable number of political risks in a system that works against taking big political risks." English agreed with a questioner who suggested that the current choices made it easy for young educated New Zealanders to leave, but that the government aimed over the next 4-5 years to make New Zealand more attractive. "The proposition right now isn't strong enough and doesn't do us justice and doesn't do you justice."

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