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The New Zealand government was accused Thursday of double standards in its efforts to stamp out international tax avoidance after an opposition party revealed the government's own superannuation fund was using tax havens.
The Green Party said it had gained information through parliamentary questions to ministers that showed the publicly- funded New Zealand Superannuation Fund had 1.6 billion NZ dollars (1.32 billion U.S. dollars) in investment vehicles in tax havens like the Cayman Islands, Isle of Man, British Virgin Islands and Mauritius.
"It's simply unethical and hurts regular tax payers, who have to pay more tax when large multinationals use tax havens to avoid paying their fair share of tax," Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said in a statement.
Norman cited government statements pledging to clamp down on tax evasion and to work with the international community in eliminating tax havens.
"We have a government that is allowing the New Zealand super fund to use tax havens to avoid paying tax while simultaneously working to eliminate international tax avoidance through tax havens," said Norman.
"This is clearly a double standard. We can't both profit from tax havens and try to shut them down," he said.
"That will simply undermine our international reputation -- something the super fund is specifically legislated to avoid."
He called on Finance Minister Bill English to direct the fund to divest the money invested through tax havens.
"We can still make good returns without hurting others."
