By Susan Sandys

Today Labour's red 'Axe the Tax' bus hits Ashburton. It will be an interesting spectacle, MPs with megaphones espousing the evils of National's plans to raise GST by 2.5% to 15%.

Greypower Ashburton says it is shrewd politickiing from the party which last raised the goods and services tax and introduced it in the first place.

Of course it is, but the question for Labour and National will be is the bus an effective way of getting the public on Labour's side?

In other centres, reception has been mixed. In some areas plenty of supporters have turned out and in others there has been just a handful.

Labour MPs, which will include deputy leader Annette King in Ashburton, are certainly guaranteed media coverage at each centre they roll into, and at least the bus has stirred up healthy debate.

Damien O'Connor managed to get headlines when the tour hit Nelson. He said National's "trickle down economics", which was supposed to benefit everyone, was really a case of "the rich peeing on the poor".

In Ashburton, as elsewhere, many are not too fazed at Government's proposal to raise GST, having faith in Prime Minister John Key's pledge that it will be accompanied by across-the-board cuts in personal taxes, increases in Working for Families, superannuation payments and benefits.

But social welfare groups are concerned, and believe raising GST can only put further pressure on those already struggling.

Indeed, while National is unlikely to let the public down when it comes to meeting its promise with regard to compensation, it has to be said that across-the-board personal tax cuts will benefit high wage earners more than low income earners.

This is simple mathematics, and as such can only further increase the gap between rich and poor.

GST is a user-pays tax that people pay when they choose to buy something, but when it comes to feeding ones' family there is little choice, and poor people eat just as much as those on high incomes.

Perhaps in order to make a GST rise fairer, the tax should be cut altogether on fruit and vegetables. This would give families hit by rapidly rising food and fuel prices a break, and help sway budget-conscious shoppers away from cheap food high in fat and sugar.