‘True, but useless’

On Wednesday the New Zealand Council for Christian Social Services (NZCCSS) hosted an event on inequality and the Budget with ministers Bill English and Paula Bennett. Perhaps the most telling phrase came from English, when he said that, in his view, a lot of the debate around inequality was “true, but useless”. This implied that,…

Keeping up the pressure on child poverty

Catriona Maclennan (barrister, journalist and social activist) has started a series on Face TV about child poverty in New Zealand. This is a huge part of the inequality story – 285,000 children in poverty (as defined as living in families with less than 60% of the average household income) – and a national embarrassment, frankly….

Early Warrant of Fitness results promising

The results of the first-ever trial of a Warrant of Fitness for New Zealand houses are in, and they look good. The trial was run by several local councils, and involved 144 houses around the country being checked for things like having insulation, proper electrical wiring, smoke alarms, no leaks or major mould, proper heating,…

The return of the 1%

The World Top Incomes Database has just updated its figures for New Zealand’s richest inhabitants. While the update only takes us up to 2011, the figures are still revealing. In 1986, the average person in the top 1% got around $159,000 (adjusted for inflation); in 2011, they got $337,000 – more than double. During that…

Incomes for women and Maori: the post-80s plateau

When I raise the point that New Zealand has become much more unequal since the 1980s – faster than almost any other country – one of the common responses is: yes, but we’ve made so much social progress since then. Outcomes for traditionally disadvantaged groups have improved as we’ve become a more tolerant and modern…

Christchurch rents to hit Auckland levels

Disasters often reinforce inequality: those with higher income recover faster than those who had few resources to tide them through the crisis. So when one cares about inequality, as I do, what goes on in somewhere like Christchurch matters deeply. One way that inequality manifests there is in housing. The worst affected are those reliant…

The fallacy that most wealth is earned

Today’s Morning Report interviewed Oliver Williams from something called Wealth Insight, a consultancy, arguing that the world’s first trillionaire would be created within 50 years. Predictably, Williams tried to claim that to get that rich “you would have to invent something or create something”. But as Thomas Piketty’s new book Capital in the Twenty-First Century…

OECD takes aim at “disproportionate” 1%

The OECD’s latest research – which warns about concentrating power and privilege at the top, and advocates new tax measures – is yet another sign that even major international institutions have woken up to the danger of inequality. The Focus on Top Incomes shows New Zealand isn’t immune from the 1%er phenomenon. Over the last…

Inequality – the short video

When I was on Waiheke Island last year, local filmmaker Scott Ewing did an interview with me. The result, this concentrated 6min take on inequality in New Zealand, has just come out. It’s a pretty good summary of the whole issue, especially for new comers. Thanks to Scott for putting it together.