“The Government’s inability to bring a simple tax bill to Parliament on time raises questions about its competence”, says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“The Government will be asking Parliament to debate income tax increases this afternoon, but MPs haven’t yet been given a copy of the legislation.

“Labour campaigned for weeks on raising income taxes, and it’s now put Parliament into urgency, but it still doesn’t have a bill ready to go.

“How are MPs supposed to do their jobs? Parliament can’t hold the Government accountable if it doesn’t have a chance to read and scrutinise legislation.

“This is not what you’d call competent government.

“This is the same Government that introduced the wrong piece of legislation back in May, and passed it within hours, accidentally bringing into law a multi-billion dollar loan scheme.

“Then in July it passed a bill that would have allowed prisoners to enrol to vote, but not actually vote.

“The current situation doesn’t engender confidence in the Government’s ability to respond to serious health and economic crises.”