The Ministry of Social Development’s key annual report, ‘Household incomes in New Zealand: Trends in indicators of inequality and hardship 1982 to 2018’, by Bryan Perry, makes for depressing if not surprising reading. Economic inequality remains at the very high level the country was left with in the late 1990s following 15 years of market-based…

One of the current government’s most famous commitments was Clare Curran’s statement that it would be the “most open, most transparent” administration ever. I think this is technically true, in the sense that it hasn’t unwound any previous open-government policies, problems like abuse of the Official Information Act are probably no worse than previously, and…

Transparency International’s Wellington Mayoral candidate forum last week showed contenders promising – and providing – greater transparency and citizen participation, going well beyond what the law requires. The pressure for more openness, created by many years’ work by civil society groups, was evident at the forum, held at Wellington’s Old Government Buildings on Thursday 26,…

I’ve just run the numbers on the latest NBR Rich List, released earlier this month. The graph below shows how the List has grown in the three decades of its life. Very rapidly, is the short answer: from $13 billion to $84 billion (in constant 2015 dollars). It has almost doubled – increased by 95%…

In recent years the idea of love has become increasingly important in political thinking. It’s one of life’s main driving forces, of course. But it’s not a word that has in previous decades been much associated with politics. In the New Zealand context, Max Harris – channelling a range of thinkers including bell hooks –…

Many people feel that, following the prime minister’s decision not to implement a capital gains tax while in power, there is no longer any prospect of taxing wealth in New Zealand. I beg to differ. While a capital gains tax is clearly off the table, the government has not ruled out other forms of wealth…

Many claims have been made recently that a capital gains tax is dead in the water because the public is firmly against it. This is not so, however. While the tax is not wildly popular, there is a strong support base for it. The precise level of support is not easy to gauge, as none…

This week I’ve proposed a Social Income, essentially a more generous though means-tested unemployment benefit set at the poverty line of 50% of average income (currently $19,000 a year approximately) and available for people doing a range of socially useful activities, including caring for sick relatives, raising children and volunteering for a registered charity. For…

The 2019 political year is now well and truly up and running. So what progress might we see on two key areas of interest for me, and I think for most New Zealanders as well – economic equality, and more deeply open and participatory government? In brief, I think the current government has better ambitions…

I’m delighted to announce the publication of my new book, Government for the Public Good: The Surprising Science of Large-Scale Collective Action. It is available from all good bookstores and online. The culmination of several years’ work, it goes right to the heart of one of the dominant ideas of the last few decades –…