Two New Zealand rich listers are among the first signatories on a ‘Millionaires for Humanity’ letter urging governments across the world to raise the tax for the wealthy amidst the COVID-19 crisis. The Warehouse Group founder Sir Stephen Tindall and Hire Things founder Peter Torr Smith are two of 174 millionaires to have signed the Read more
Newly-released documents prepared for the Tax Working Group have put concerns over inequality at the centre of the tax debate and suggested a broad-based capital gains tax could be a solution. One of the key questions facing the Tax Working Group was whether it should be aiming to reduce inequality, officials said. A broad-based capital Read more
Equality Network, a group of social agencies, churches and trade unions, has urged New Zealand’s political parties to reduce inequality by restoring the balance between income and wealth. Equality Network says it wants a New Zealand in which everyone has the resources they need to provide for their families and whānau. The network says big Read more
University of Auckland senior lecturer in sociology Ronald Kramer says the list was unhealthy. He said it encouraged people to value wealthy people and wealth – at the expense of social considerations. “It’s ideological. It comes out in publications owned by wealthy people produced for mass consumption but targeted at other relatively wealthy consumers.” Continue Read more
Two billion dollars will go back into the pockets of New Zealand families, with the Government unveiling a combination of tax cuts, a boost to the accommodation supplement and Working for Families. Salvation Army says the budget is a step in the right direction to correct the growing imbalance in New Zealand society between the Read more
Income inequality continues to dominate among New Zealand’s Maori and Pacific populations, new research shows. Waikato University demographer Dr Tahu Kukutai says that New Zealand is still wasting its “demographic dividend” of young Maori and Pacific people reaching working age, as investments in health and education fail to flow through into highly paid jobs. Dr Kukutai’s Read more
According to the recently released Roy Morgan Report, State of the Nation Report 4 – ‘Spotlight on New Zealanders Aged 55+’ – the net wealth of the 55+ has risen 179.5% since 2002, despite New Zealand’s total net wealth only rising 130.2% over the same period. This group now has over 50% of the nation’s net wealth, despite Read more
The Government is rejecting opposition criticism of welfare reforms and says it’s on track to get 46,000 people off benefits over the next four years. Laws are going to be changed, requiring solo parents on a benefit to look for part-time work when their youngest child is five and fulltime work when that child turns Read more
More New Zealand households are under financial pressure than ever. New Zealand families are under growing financial stress as stagnating wages and salaries prove inadequate to cover spiralling costs – and even top-tier earners are feeling the squeeze. According to Statistics New Zealand’s Household Income Survey, 29,200 more families now rate themselves as having incomes Read more