Morning Report: Nicola Willis and Carmel Sepuloni talk tax on RNZ's political panel

Labour's deputy leader says parties need to be careful about optics as they head closer to the election, admitting the continued presence of a member's bill calling for a streaming levy was an oversight.On Monday, Labour leader Chris Hipkins ruled out a levy on streaming services, only for National to point out Labour had a member's bill in the ballot which would do just that.The bill was then withdrawn. Labour has blamed an "administrative oversight" for the mixed messaging over the tax, and has confirmed it will not campaign on one.Labour's deputy Carmel Sepuloni told Morning Report that member's bills were not necessarily part of an election campaign offering."As you get closer to the election you do need to be careful about the optics of what you're promoting. Clearly, that bill was still in there and it was an oversight, and it's been taken out now, because we don't want the confusion to be that this is part of Labour's policy offering," she said.The government had been looking at a streaming levy as well, but decided not to pursue it.Appearing alongside Sepuloni, National's deputy leader and finance minister Nicola Willis said National ruled it out because "the last thing New Zealanders need is higher charges for their weekly costs."Sepuloni said National was trying to divert attention from its own "internal ructions."Willis has frequently been attempting to tie tax proposals from the Greens and Opportunity to Labour, saying Labour has a "hidden bill" it cannot fund."Because they have all of these unfunded promises, they're going to be scrambling around looking for cash. And Chlöe Swarbrick has already designed a host of options for them: an inheritance tax, an asset tax, a gift tax, an increase to the corporate tax, an increase to the top personal tax rate."None of these are Labour policies, with Sepuloni maintaining Labour's only tax will be a capital gains tax (CGT), which Labour says will only affect one in 10 people."Labour has one simple tax policy, and the disinformation that is coming from Nicola Willis and National only serves as a deflection for them, so that they don't have to talk about their own track record."Willis said it was "ludicrous" for Labour to think a CGT would not be worn by more people, with landlords likely to pass costs onto tenants.National is also trying to move on from the Chris Penk saga, with Willis saying the "plain and simple" version was Penk mounted an unsuccessful leadership challenge and resigned from Parliament.