“Inequality is the biggest problem facing New Zealand at the present time” says Peter Malcolm National Secretary of Closing the Gap. It underlies many of our social ills, poverty, lack of trust, an economy that could do much better, and a poor uptake of the responsibilities required f
The 2014 Household Incomes Report, released yesterday, has been cherry picked by Government and opposition alike to show that the statistics match the story they have been telling. The Government uses a comparison with 2 years ago and shows things are improving. The opposition uses a
Why is it when New Zealand has a supposed rock star economy that the poor continue to take the rap? For thirty years employers have driven their workers ever harder for the same or similar pay. They have claimed that the productivity increase has been due to technological advances yet
They are wasted in the sense that we have so many people regularly underutilised and not allowed to fulfil their potential. Not in in the sense popularised by the current National Government of being permanently under the influence of substances that preclude them from work. The histo
It is vital that there is balance in the relationships between employers, shareholders and employees; between retailers and wholesalers; between companies and customers; and between lobbyists and the Governments. As soon as one party becomes too strong then the economy as a whole suff