Latest Posts

Wealth thresholds: new data

Opinion by Max Rashbrooke on October 13, 2020

Today we are releasing the second tranche of our wealth inequality data in conjunction with Statistics New Zealand. The data, available at this link, give details of wealth inequality thresholds – that is, the boundaries between wealth deciles (and in some cases percentiles) by both individual and household. Other tabs in the same spreadsheet provides…

SFO charges over NZ First Foundation

Opinion by Max Rashbrooke on September 29, 2020

The Serious Fraud Office has laid charges against two – currently unnamed – individuals in conjunction with its investigation into the New Zealand First Foundation. This is hardly surprising, given the strong evidence that the foundation was being used to circumvent donation laws, channelling donations to the party without declaring them. Whatever the next steps,…

Wealth inequality 2020: first data

Opinion by Max Rashbrooke on August 31, 2020

Today we’re publishing the first data from our investigation of the net worth module attached to the 2017-18 Household Economic Survey. This data looks at wealth broken down by five groups: the Poorest 50% (P1-50), the Next 40% (P51-90), the Next 5% (P91-95), the Next 4% (P96-99) and the Wealthiest 1% (P99-100). The data are…

Talks and debates
worth going to

october, 2020

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Bannockburn

6oct

Bannockburn Arts Festival - Tourism debate

Event Details

Philip Tremewan, Director of Wanaka Festival of Colour, will lead a panel of three experts in a discussion on Tourism – Tipping Point? Featuring Max Rashbrooke. Tickets $20.

Time

(Tuesday) 7:00 pm

Location

Coronation Hall

Bannockburn

Organizer

Bannockburn Arts Festival

Durham Street, Tauranga

13oct

Money Politics and Inequality: Is New Zealand’s Democracy Broken?

Event Details

New Zealanders like to think their democratic system is one of the least corrupt in the world. But the system has a massive blind spot when it comes to political [...]

Event Details

New Zealanders like to think their democratic system is one of the least corrupt in the world. But the system has a massive blind spot when it comes to political finance and inequality. Wealth has become increasingly concentrated in New Zealand since the 1980s – yet there are no meaningful curbs on political donations, allowing major imbalances in access to politicians and influence over decisions. Meanwhile there are growing concerns about foreign interference in New Zealand elections.

In this public lecture hosted and brought to Tauranga by Mackenzie Elvin Law, Auckland University’s Timothy Kuhner and Victoria University’s Max Rashbrooke will discuss their research into economic inequality and its threat to both democracy and the wider functioning of our society. This election-week lecture is set amidst multiple SFO investigations into political financing in New Zealand, affecting both major parties and New Zealand First. Meanwhile the continuing revelations by Professor Anne-Marie Brady of Canterbury University and others have raised concerns about the influence of the Communist Party of China and other foreign actors on our democratic system.

Tim’s work explores the nexus between rising inequality and political corruption. “When it comes to combating the undue influence of concentrated wealth over law and policy,” he says, “New Zealand’s electoral and parliamentary framework does not reflect a love of fairness. It reflects, rather, a love of inequality. And the laws and policies produced within this framework are likely to prioritise the private interest over the public good.” He adds: “I have reason to believe that New Zealand’s reputation for being corruption-free and its sense of wellbeing don’t fully align with reality.”

Max has written extensively about inequality and the need for democratic renewal in New Zealand. His recent Guardian article, ‘New Zealand’s Astounding Wealth Gap Challenges our “Fair Go” Identity’, attracted widespread media attention while showing that the wealthiest 10% of the country has 60% of all assets. “Such findings are challenging to New Zealand’s self-identity,” he writes. “The country’s egalitarian image was once memorably described by the historian Melanie Nolan as ‘a rich amalgam of truth and myth’. These new wealth figures suggest that the latter increasingly predominates.” Max is also the editor of the key work Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis.

Together, Tim and Max will explain the issues and offer ideas for renewing our democracy and making the “good society” that we claim as our “Kiwi way” more reality than myth.

Copies of books by Tim and Max will be available for purchase after the lecture cincluding Tim’s just released book:
Tyranny of Greed: Trump, Corruption and the Revolution to Come
published by Stanford University Press

About the Presenters

Tim Kuhner is associate professor at the University of Auckland Faculty of Law. He is the author of Capitalism v. Democracy: Money in Politics and the Free Market Constitution (Stanford University Press, 2014), a book that received acclaim from the Harvard Law Review and Thomas Piketty. He is the co-editor of Democracy by the People (Cambridge University Press, 2018), an edited volume on campaign finance reform featuring a number of the world’s leading experts on democratic integrity. Tim has spoken about issues of corruption and political finance at major venues across Europe and North America, including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and Transparency International UK.

Max Rashbrooke is a Wellington-based writer with twin interests in economic inequality and democratic renewal, and is currently the 2020 J. D. Stout Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington. He is the author of Government for the Public Good: The Surprising Science of Large-Scale Collective Action, published by Bridget Williams Books (BWB) in September 2018. He is also the author of Wealth and New Zealand, and edited the best-selling work Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis. He is a senior associate of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, his work appears in outlets such as the Guardian and Prospect magazine, and he is a regular commentator in the New Zealand media.

About Mackenzie Elvin Law

The Founding Partner of Mackenzie Elvin, Dr Fiona Mackenzie, completed her PhD in Law in 2016. She and the other partners of the firm have a longstanding commitment to the Academy and its critical role in society. With the opening of the Waikato University Campus at Tauranga, Mackenzie Elvin Law felt it was appropriate to actively support that role in Tauranga Moana. As a firm, Mackenzie Elvin see a need beyond their general obligation as lawyers to ensure that the critical importance of the rule of law to our freedoms and way of life is neither diminished nor lost between generations. They see public lectures such as this as fulfilling both those objectives.

https://www.businessaxis.nz/mackenzieelvinpubliclecture

Time

(Tuesday) 5:15 pm

Location

University of Waikato Wharekauhau Lecture Theatre

Durham Street, Tauranga

Organizer

Mackenzie Elvin Public Lecture

Victoria University of Wellington, Kelburn Campus

28oct

J.D. Stout Annual Lecture 2020 - A Country of Two Halves?

Event Details

In supposedly egalitarian New Zealand, the wealthiest 10% own 60% of all the country's assets. Their lives are also increasingly separated from those of other New Zealanders, characterised by residence [...]

Event Details

In supposedly egalitarian New Zealand, the wealthiest 10% own 60% of all the country’s assets. Their lives are also increasingly separated from those of other New Zealanders, characterised by residence in desirable ‘grammar zones’, a growing ‘ambition flight’ from decile one schools, access to homeownership through parental support, donations to political parties, and other forms of influence. Do these trends herald the regrowth of class divisions in New Zealand and an increasingly segregated society? In this, the 2020 J.D. Stout Annual Lecture, writer and commentator Max Rashbrooke will use previously unreleased data and interviews with both wealthy and poor New Zealanders to illuminate the contours of a changing country.

***

Max Rashbrooke is a Wellington-based writer with twin interests in economic inequality and democratic participation, and is currently the 2020 John David Stout Research Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington. He is the author of Government for the Public Good: The Surprising Science of Large-Scale Collective Action, published by Bridget Williams Books (BWB) in September 2018. He is also the author of Wealth and New Zealand, and edited the best-selling work Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis. He is a senior associate of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, his work appears in outlets such as the Guardian and Prospect magazine, and he is a regular commentator in the New Zealand media.

Time

(Wednesday) 4:10 pm

Location

MacLaurin Lecture Theatre MCLT 102

Victoria University of Wellington, Kelburn Campus

Organizer

Stout Research Centre