What is Income Equality Aotearoa New Zealand Inc ?
It began when Nick Jennings of Wellington and Peter Malcolm of Tauranga discovered that they were working independently on the same project. Both had read British epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett’s book, The Spirit Level. Nick and Peter after looking at further research, were convinced that Wilkinson and Pickett had the answer to restoring New Zealand to the country we were once proud to be a part of. With the encouragement and support of others they set about joining forces and deciding what to do. The first was the formidable task of setting up this website and Income Equality Aotearoa NewZealand.
New Zealand has a proud history of social innovation, from votes for women through to the Plunket Society, but, over the last 30-40 years, our country has lost its way.
Instead of social innovation, we now have some of the most shameful social statistics in the developed world. Our rates of obesity, imprisonment, infant mortality, drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness and teenage suicide are inexcusably high, and rising. The costs of changing social policies and programmes that accord with the ideologies of successive governments are proving of questionable value in both human and monetary terms.
Evidence is growing that, unless the problem is tackled at its source, our country will not heal
Haere ana Manawa-reka, noho ana Manawa-kawa–sweet heart goes away, bitter heart remains.
The source is income inequality
In one crucial action we can improve the lives of all Kiwis by reducing the gap between the income of the top 20% of the population, and the earnings of the bottom 20%.
The effects of this action are made abundantly clear in The Spirit Level, and we have been excited, provoked and galvanized by its findings. Wilkinson and Picket’s research shows that many of our social ills are a product of the gap between rich and poor: the larger the gap, the more pronounced the social ills. According to The Social Report 2010 by the Ministry of Social Development, the income disparity inNew Zealand has been increasing steadily since 1988. We now have one of the widest gaps of all developed countries.
If you would like to help us reduce the gap:
(a) read the summary of The Spirit Level on the ‘More Info’ link above or, better still, read The Spirit Level.
(b) go to the UK’s Equality Trust (www.equalitytrust.org.uk), an organisation dedicated to promoting The Spirit Level inBritain.
(c) join us on running this website.
Our goal is to reduce the inequalities inNew Zealand incomes thus ensuring better lives for all. In turn, this will reduce the public funding currently needed in areas such as Health, Education, Social Development and Justice.
Our Intention, after consultation with our supporters, is to:
- act democratically by seeking the involvement of all supporters
- be apolitical to seek the greatest chance of success
- be secular to appeal to the entire community
- work collaboratively with like-minded groups
The Income Equality Project will be actioned by:
- gathering and sharing research and evidence on the benefits of reducing inequality with the aim of encouraging informed and sustained public debate on critical issues such as social equity.
- promotion through a variety of approaches: this website, e mails to friends, social media such as facebook and twitter, web blogs, presentations to local groups, media opinion pieces, letters to the editor, and letter box flyers .
- encouraging and empowering individual actions to reduce inequality of income.
- signing up a large number of voting New Zealanders (say half a million) who would commit to vote in any general election only for parties who have adopted as a major policy the aim of significantly reducing the income gap for New Zealanders and who will subject all legislation to that aim.
He ‘kokonga whare e kitea, he kokonga ngakau e kore e kitea–the corners of the house can be seen, but not the corners of the heart
You can become a supporter of the Society by signing up on the SIGN ON page. You will appear on this website on the “public list” of supporters (name and town only). You can opt instead to be part of the list of “private supporters”
You can be removed from these lists at any time by, e mail, or phone call to the secretary. Peter Malcolm at e mail peter@closingthegap.org.nz or phone 07 5524809
Please go to the SIGN ON page and become a supporter
Rules of the Society and Document for Incorporation-click below for these
Income Equality Aotearoa NZ Inc
Current List of “Helpers”—–Steering Committee
Nick Jennings Wellington President
Gary Ware Tauranga Vice President
Peter Malcolm Tauranga Secretary
Ron Cormack Lower Hutt Treasurer
John Patterson Tauranga Setting up Incorporated Society and legal advice
Ron Smith Auckland Advice on advertising/promotion etc
Brett Corlett Auckland Video and Digital support
Brian MacKenzie Tauranga Coordinator/developer/contact of likeminded groups
and research sources
Website
Craig RobertsonAuckland Initial design
Nigel Rice Tauranga Trouble shoot
Ella O’Reilly Queenstown Further development
Gary Ware Tauranga Supporters lists
Roger Shaw Upper Hutt Dealing with Comments
Nick Wright Wellington
Terry Collett Tauranga
Youtube
Brett Corlett Auckland
Writing Group
Chris Lee Tauranga coordinator Mike Batchelor Tauranga
Helen Norrie Taupo Joan Anderson Dunedin
Anita Smith Auckland Brian Gould Ohope
Gary Nicholls Christchurch Ian McLean Tauranga
Tapu Misa Auckland
Te Reo
Merrill Simmons-Hansen Tauranga
Area Coordinators
Auckland Annie Newman, Gina Giordani
Christchurch Gary Nicholls, Evan Begg
Dunedin
Hamilton John Lawson
HawkesBay Stephanie Thomas,
Tauranga GaryWare Peter Malcolm
Whangarei
Wellington Nick Wright Nick Jennings
General
Jocelyn Grantham Auckland Daniel Hancock Tauranga
Seann Paurini Wellington Pauline Tangiora Mahia
Simon Lowe Tauranga
MyraGomez Wellington
Associates
Paul Barber Wellington
Iain Hines Wellington
More equal societies work better for everyone
Income Equality Aotearoa New Zealand Inc
Income Equality Aotearoa New Zealand Inc.