Is Labour really going to deliver a UBI?
In news stories this week, senior Labour politicians have suggested they are open to a “debate” on the idea of a universal basic income, a no-strings-attached annual salary paid to everyone in the...
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Revealed: how the govt ‘defused’ inequality
New data shows how the government’s Budget last year took a huge amount of heat out of inequality as a political issue – though it may not have changed the long-term pressure very much. A previously...
View ArticleRevealed: No change in the rich’s income share under National
New data from the IRD shows that the share of taxable income going to the richest New Zealanders has not changed under National. However, that share is still very large, indicating significant income...
View ArticleThe Bare Minimum Budget
The best label for this year’s announcement by Bill English might be the ‘Bare Minimum Budget’. It does the bare minimum to defuse potential political damage in a range of areas – homelessness and...
View ArticleThe day I played cricket with Nigel Farage
The news last night that Nigel Farage had resigned as leader of UKIP, having helped lead Britain out of the European Union, made me cast my mind back to the time we were briefly united through that...
View ArticleNew pre-tax income stats out
Data on pre-tax incomes for New Zealand in 2013 have just been uploaded to the World Wealth and Income Database. So what do they show? In 2013, the richest 10% got about 30% of pre-tax income, and...
View ArticleThe sad end to my near five-year OIA battle with Corrections
I am not a New Zealand record holder in many areas of life, but I now believe I hold one title, at least as far as the public record goes: the instigator of the longest, most drawn-out complaint to the...
View ArticleThe current welfare system: a failure of employment, a failure of wellbeing
I’ve just been reading a Master’s thesis based around surveying and interviewing people who’ve recently come off benefits, and its conclusions are pretty bleak. It shows that, even on its own merits,...
View ArticleSome thoughts on the NZ Initiative’s debate on graduates marrying each other
Last night the New Zealand initiative hosted a debate about whether the government should ban university graduates from marrying each other, as a way to reduce inequality. I’m not sure it was the...
View ArticleThe New Zealand Initiative’s new report on inequality
The New Zealand Initiative has just released a report on inequality, following one on poverty earlier this year. I’ve already commented briefly on the report in the media; below are some more detailed...
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