WP holds first Hammer outreach since COVID, with lead article explaining why GST hike is ‘unnecessary & unhelpful’

On Sunday (Jul 31), the Workers’ Party held its first Hammer outreach, distributing its newsletter for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

The party used to sell the Hammer every Sunday during walkabouts, particularly in areas where it fields candidates for Parliament. 

In March 2020, WP chief Pritam Singh said that the WP’s outreach activities would be scaled back due to Covid infections in order to prioritise public health and safety.

However, after more than two years, the WP is back with the Hammer, and the lead article discusses why the party is in opposition to the upcoming increase in Goods and Services Tax (GST) which will begin implementation by the beginning of next year.

“Team Workers’ Party assembled today for the first Hammer outreach in the post-Covid era! Today’s Hammer outreach was at the Blk 630 Bedok Reservoir Road market, in the Eunos ward of Aljunied GRC, whose MP is Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh; and Eunos Crescent in Marine Parade GRC, where our The Workers’ Party team has been active since GE2020,” the WP wrote in a July 31 Facebook post.  

The WP also posted photos of those who attended the outreach, including Mr Singh, party chair Sylvia Lim, vice-chair Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap, MPs Leon Perera (Aljunied GRC), Gerald Giam (Aljunied GRC), Dennis Tan (Hougang SMC), Louis Chua (Sengkang GRC), Nicole Seah, and others.

Mr Perera shared the WP’s post about the outreach, writing, “And we’re off! Hammer outreached resumed this morning after a break of two years, in Aljunied and Marine Parade GRCs. The lead article in this edition of The Hammer argues why a GST hike is unnecessary and unhelpful.  

It was good to spend the morning with constituents and fellow members of The Workers’ Party as we work towards a healthy, balanced politics in the country we love.”

The party has made its stand against the GST hike clear for some time now, and earlier this year, objected to the National Budget. 

The hike will come as “inflation is on the upswing and prices are high,” argued Mr Singh, the Leader of the Opposition, in Parliament on Feb 28.

The GST is set to rise from 7 per cent to 8 per cent in 2023, and to further increase to 9 per cent in 2024.

The party reiterated its stand in a Facebook post in June, writing, “The government has announced that it will press ahead with the GST hike in 2023. The Workers’ Party has argued in Parliament against such a move at a time of heightened inflation risk and with other options for revenue generation”.

“The Workers’ Party does not support a GST hike,” it added.

“We agree with the government that ‘we must expect global inflation to broaden to other areas and even to pick up further’. Inflation continues to rise and is at a decade high, and Singaporeans are bearing the brunt of it.” /TISG

Residents talk to WP’s Nicole Seah & Kenneth Foo about impending GST hike woes and “pruning” retirement-age workers