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ASA gets this one right
By Steven | September 28, 2026
I think National’s election campaign this year is a particularly deceptive one, and this is another complaint. This time it’s about a mail-out, which parties ought to take particular care with. National claimed that “Labour’s capital gains tax would hit the family
bach, rentals, small businesses and KiwiSaver.”
See if you can work out the justification for including KiwiSaver in that list. (Hint: CGT does not apply to KiwiSaver).
Here it is: KiwiSaver funds could be invested in businesses which own commercial buildings, and the capital gains tax would apply to those buildings when sold and therefore impact KiwiSaver. (Yes, it’s that much of a stretch.)
The Advertising Standards Authority reached the obvious conclusion that this wasn’t what the ad was saying, and that it was making a factual claim that people’s personal KiwiSaver funds would be subject to the capital gains tax. (A minority somehow disagreed, saying that readers would understand that “capital gains tax will impact small businesses and KiwiSaver businesses at some level.” Applying this logic it would be okay for National to assert that the CGT would impact every single aspect of the economy.)
To its credit, the ASA set out how it understood what an opinion is: “The Complaints Board noted that a fact is something that is objectively true and can be verified as such whereas an opinion is a personal belief. Others may agree or disagree with an opinion, but they cannot prove or disprove it. Sometimes statements are a combination of fact and opinion.” It has also cited the precedents it relies on.
I’ve criticised the ASA in the past for not doing both, so kudos is due here.
The other part of this decision is whether it’s a breach to claim that CSG will hit small businesses. The answer is that if the small business is selling to buy bigger premises, then it won’t, but if it’s selling for any other reason, it will. I think you really need more information about how often small businesses are sold for each purpose. But if the number sold for other reasons isn’t insubstantial, then the claim (and the ASA’s conclusion) seems fair enough to me.
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