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What does the 2020 election mean for greater equality and democracy?

Opinion by Max Rashbrooke on November 9, 2020

The Labour-Greens cooperation agreement having been signed, and ministerial portfolios allocated, what progress can we expect in the next three years towards greater economic equality and deeper democracy in New Zealand? Verdict: Small steps towards dealing with one half of the problem Labour has a free hand to implement the promises in its manifesto, many…

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…