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New Zealand

Prescription for Poverty

New Oxfam research shows that four pharmaceutical corporations—Abbott, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co. (also known as MSD), and Pfizer—systematically stash their profits in overseas tax havens.

They appear to deprive developing countries of more than NZ$150 million every year—money that is urgently needed to meet the health needs of people in these countries—while vastly overcharging for their products. It is estimated that New Zealand loses NZ$21 million every year.

Read and download the full report below:
PDF iconPrescription for Poverty- A Bitter Pill – Oxfam 2018 – Summary & Methodology.pdf
PDF iconA Bitter Pill (NZ figures) – Oxfam NZ 2018 – Full Report.pdf

Ration Challenge participant shares her experience

“I’ve been to Syria and seen it as a functioning society where there was everything we have here. There were shops, you could get ice cream – all the things we take for granted, they had too. I had a few people say, oh, they won’t know any different. But they do. And even if they didn’t, does that make it better or worse?”

Cara McGrath and her team hold the small amount of food they ate during Ration Challenge week – exactly the same food distributed to Syrian refugees living in camps in Jordan.

Cara McGrath was one of over 5,000 Kiwis who took on the Ration Challenge, experiencing a glimpse of one of the many challenges that refugees face day in, day out, by eating the same rations they do for one week. The funds she and other participants raised will provide food and access to healthcare and education for Syrian families facing an indefinite amount of time in refugee camps in Jordan, as well as contributing to Oxfam’s work around the globe – particularly in the Pacific region.

She felt drawn to the challenge as she thought of her experience in Syria in 2001, remembering a time in the Middle East long before the refugee crisis we’re witnessing today. Seeing the challenge on Facebook was a call to action for Cara, and a chance to stand in solidarity with millions of displaced, traumatised families now seeking refuge in Jordan.

“The challenge was hard, but I still had a nice bed and a nice house, I had my family around me, I wasn’t traumatised or afraid. I hadn’t realised it but food is a big part of what motivated me through my day. It is so much a part of how we interact with each other.”

Cara is part of Team OLS, the Ration Challenge’s front-running fundraising team, sitting on an incredible team total of $10,665.

“We are the teachers, board, school fundraising team and supporters for a tiny little school in Methven in the South Island, called Our Lady of the Snows School. One of the school’s core values is social justice, so it’s great to know that parents are doing something at home and it’s happening in the classroom too. Everyone’s on the same page.”

The food in the ration packs that Cara and over 5,000 other Kiwis ate during Refugee Week is exactly the same food, in almost exactly the same quantities, that is distributed to refugees in the camps – just a small amount of rice, lentils, chick peas, kidney beans, sardines, flour and oil.

“I wasn’t a huge fan of the lentil soup, I have to say. I ate it for two or three days in a row, and when I only had a tiny bit left I put it in with my rice and had fried rice and lentils – and it was really good! I was so disappointed that I’d been eating lentil soup for three days when I could have been eating fried lentils!”

Fortunately for Cara and her team, they fundraised enough to gain rewards to add a little variety to their week – spice, sugar, milk, vegetables and even some extra protein, all achieved by meeting fundraising targets. But for Cara, the biggest motivator was knowing that – for her – the challenge would come to an end.

“We get to finish it. I kept thinking, I’ll have that on Friday when I finish. It would be so much harder not knowing when it’s going to finish, or if it’s going to finish. We’re so remote and isolated here, we’re in our own little bubble, and sometimes it’s hard for people to think outside their bubble.”

One member of Team OLS – Tania Goodwin – even extended the challenge to her junior students, crafting a full day of teaching around the refugee crisis. The children were taught about the realities of refugee life, and watched videos of refugee families. They wrote prayers to Syrian children, a helped their teacher measure out her rations for the week. They even fled from their classroom and into a safe space, where they built shelters and worked from inside them.

A class of children from Our Lady of the Snows School help their teacher, Tania Goodwin, ration out her food for the week.

Cara has a word of advice for those thinking about being part of the challenge in future: “Read the information and get to know the stuff. Oxfam sends out loads of great things, so using those and building an understanding then means it’s more than just an experience where you don’t eat very much for a week – you actually learn something too.”

This awesome Ration Challenge team consists of Deidra O’Shea, Sonia Cullen, Rachel Clark, Kylie Fitzgerald, Connie Quigley, Becky Dirks, Georgia Annear, Tania Goodwin, Pattie Ree, Colm McGrath, and Cara McGrath.

To support them, visit their fundraising page.

Kiwis to eat the same rations as Syrian refugees for a week

This week marks the launch of the Ration Challenge, a fundraising initiative which will see thousands of Kiwis eat a refugee’s rations for one week to raise money and awareness for Syrian refugees living in Jordan.

Ration Challenge asks Kiwis to eat the exact same rations as Syrian refugees receive for one week – just a small amount of rice, beans, lentils, fish, oil and flour.

The challenge aims to give New Zealanders a small taste of what refugees go through, while also raising money to support them.

An estimated 2,000 New Zealanders will take on the Ration Challenge this year which coincides with World Refugee Week (June 17 – June 24, 2017).

The idea for the Ration Challenge first emerged in December 2013, when Ration Challenge co-founders, Karen McGrath and Ben Littlejohn, visited Burmese refugee camps and witnessed first-hand the lack of food available for the refugees.

“I felt sick to the stomach at even the thought of living off such a small amount of food day in, day out, and it got me thinking what it would really be like to live on those rations,” said McGrath.

In 2018 the Ration Challenge has partnered with Oxfam New Zealand. Oxfam’s Executive Director Rachael Le Mesurier is excited to lead the launch of the initiative in New Zealand and give Kiwis a powerful way to show solidarity with refugees.

“The challenge is a practical, empowering and meaningful way Kiwis can raise money for Syrian refugees living in Jordan and in other parts of the world,” she says.

“The funds raised from the challenge will support Syrian refugees in Jordan by providing them with the food, medicine and psychosocial support they urgently need to survive, and will also help improve the lives of people living in poverty around the world.

“The Ration Challenge is more than just fundraising for much needed support for refugees. It’s an opportunity for us as Kiwis to show people living as refugees anywhere in the world that we stand together, and that we want to understand just a little of what they go through.

“It’s an important conversation starter – the challenge makes you want to talk to family and friends about it and take action to contribute to a more compassionate and just world,” said Le Mesurier.

The Ration Challenge has become a movement for change since 100 people first set out to live on the rations and raised $60,000. Internationally, tens of thousands of people have signed up to take part and together they’ve raised nearly $6 million dollars for Syrian refugees living in Jordan and other vulnerable communities around the world. Oxfam is excited to launch the Ration Challenge in New Zealand this year.

Registrants will begin receiving their ration packs containing all their rations over the coming weeks and will fundraise in the lead up to and throughout the official Ration Challenge week. Register for the challenge at www.rationchallenge.org.nz.

Oxfam signs open letter to PM: end oil exploration

Oxfam is proud to have signed an important and powerful letter to our Prime Minister, alongside many other Kiwi businesses, actors, musicians, churches, unions and academics, calling for an end to oil and gas exploration – a vital step in addressing climate change.

Read the full letter below.

Open letter to Jacinda Ardern: End oil exploration in New Zealand.

Dear Prime Minister,

Your commitment to make climate change the nuclear-free moment of your generation has the power to inspire a nation, and indeed the world. We are calling on you to turn this passion into action, by taking bold and decisive measures to protect our future and our children’s future.

Together, we pledge support for the New Zealand Government to end oil and gas exploration now, as a vital step in addressing climate change.

We must apply our ambition, ingenuity, and courage to hasten the transition to a stable and resilient society, powered by clean energy.

The climate science is clear. If we are to avoid catastrophic impacts, the world cannot afford to burn even existing reserves of fossil fuels, let alone seek out and burn new reserves.

Climate change is an existential threat, posing grave danger to our health, homes, communities, food security, culture and livelihoods, as well as the wildlife and wild places with which we share this Earth.

Climate change is an injustice that disproportionately affects our neighbours and kin in the Pacific, developing nations, indigenous people, people of colour, women and poorer working people. These are also the people who are least responsible for causing this crisis.

But the steps we take to address this threat also provide us with opportunities to move towards a more just and equal society, to boost innovation and employment, create more resilient communities, improve our health, and live in better balance with nature.

Now is the time to back the booming clean energy industries, and invite the transformational economic opportunities that shifting to a low-carbon society can bring. This must be a just transition – one that fairly distributes the costs and benefits across the economy and provides opportunities for those affected to actively engage in determining the future wellbeing of themselves and their families.

More than ever, the world needs bold leadership. We wholeheartedly support your ambition for New Zealand to be at the forefront of this planetary challenge. Not only can we live without fossil fuels, but we must. If our small nation can again inspire the world, as we did in our stand against nuclear weapons, then we would earn our place on the right side of history. Ending the development of new oil, gas and coal now, is vital to that success.

Yours Sincerely,

Sir Alan Mark, FRSNZ, KNZM, Chair, Wise Response Society NZ
Jeanette Fitzsimons, CNZM, Former Co-Leader, Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand
Dr J. Morgan Williams, Former Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment
Rt Hon Sir Edmund Thomas LLB(NZ) LLD(VUW) KNZM QC
Dave Cull, Mayor of Dunedin

Prof Margaret Mutu FRSNZ, Chairperson, Te Rūnanga-ā-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu
Toro Waaka, Ngāti Pāhauwera Development Trust
Rikirangi Gage – Te Whānau a Apanui
Toa Faneva – Te Rūnanga o Whaingaroa

Kerri Nuku, Kaiwhakahaere & Grant Brookes, President, New Zealand Nurses Organisation (Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa)
Glenn Barclay, National Secretary, Public Service Association (Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi)
Gary Cranston, climate justice spokesperson and fast food lead organiser Auckland, Northland, Unite Union
Sandra Grey, President, Tertiary Education Union (Te Hautū Kahurangi o Aotearoa)

Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh, Assoc. Prof, Poet Laureate
Lucy Lawless, ONZM, Actor
Tiki Taane, Musical Activist
Robyn Malcolm, NZ Actress
Peter Lange, MNZM, Potter

Prof Grant Guilford, Vice-Chancellor, Victoria University of Wellington
Prof James Renwick, Victoria University of Wellington climate scientist
Prof Ralph Sims, Massey University and the Global Environment Facility
Dr Jim Salinger, Climate change scientist
Dr Terrence Loomis, Coordinator, Fossil Fuels Aotearoa Research Network (FFARN)
Dr Bob Lloyd, Associate Professor (ret), Climate Consultant Pacific Region
Prof Jonathan Boston, Professor of Public Policy, Victoria University of Wellington

Dr Kate Baddock, Chair, New Zealand Medical Association
Dr Felicity Dumble, President, New Zealand College of Public Health Medicine
Warren Lindberg, MNZM, Chief Executive Officer, Public Health Association of New Zealand
Dr Rhys Jones & Dr Alex Macmillan, Co-convenors, OraTaiao: The New Zealand Climate and Health Council
Dr Rye Senjen, Scientific Advisor Environmental and Human Health Aotearoa

Rt Rev Justin Duckworth, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Wellington
Rev Dr Peter Matheson, Emeritus Professor, Knox Church, Dunedin

Phillip Mills, Managing Director of Les Mills International
Michael Mayell, Founder, Cookie Time
Chris Morrison, Co-Founder, Karma Cola and All Good
Brendan Winitana, Chair, Sustainable Electricity Association of New Zealand
Malcolm Rands, Founder, Ecostore

Livia Esterhazy, Chief Executive Officer, WWF-New Zealand
Kevin Hague, Chief Executive, Forest and Bird
Niamh O’Flynn, Executive Director, 350 Aotearoa
Rachael Le Mesurier, Executive Director, Oxfam New Zealand
Dr Russel Norman, Executive Director, Greenpeace New Zealand
Rosemary Penwarden, Coordinator, Oil Free Otago
Cindy Baxter, Coordinator, Coal Action Network
Emily Bailey, Climate Justice Taranaki
Robyn Harris-Iles, Coordinator, Frack Free Aotearoa New Zealand
Denys Trussell, Friends of the Earth
Guy Salmon, Ecologic
Gary Taylor, Environmental Defence Society

Richest 1% of Kiwis bagged 28% of all wealth created last year

A staggering 28 per cent of all wealth created in New Zealand in 2017 went to the richest 1 per cent of Kiwis.

While the 1.4 million people who make up the poorest 30 per cent of the population got barely 1 per cent, according to new research released by Oxfam today.

The research also reveals that 90 per cent of New Zealand owns less than half the nations wealth.

The research forms part of a global report released to coincide with this week’s annual meeting of political and business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. New Zealand Trade Minister David Parker is scheduled to attend the gathering, which focuses on global politics, economics and social issues.

The full report, called Reward Work, Not Wealth and released at 1pm this afternoon [Monday], will reveal how the global economy enables a wealthy elite to continue to accumulate vast wealth while hundreds of millions of people struggle to survive on poverty pay. It will reveal how globally big business and the extremely wealthy are fuelling the inequality crisis by avoiding taxes, driving down wages for their workers and the prices paid to producers, and investing less in their business, say Oxfam.

Last year, Oxfam’s research revealed two New Zealand men owned more wealth than the poorest 30 per cent of the adult population; this startling statistic remains the same. Graeme Hart, New Zealand’s richest man, has increased his fortune by US$3.1 billion in 2017 to US$9.5 billion (up from $US6.4 in 2016).

Rachael Le Mesurier, Executive Director at Oxfam New Zealand says: “Trickle-down economics isn’t working. The extreme gap between the very rich and the very poor in our country is shocking. As new wealth is created it continues to be concentrated in the hands of the already extremely wealthy.

“2017 was a global billionaire bonanza. This is not a sign of success but of economic failure. Experts are clear, high levels of inequality are bad for economic growth – for everyone except the small number of super-rich, who on a global scale are often able to translate their disproportionate control of resources into disproportionate influence over political and economic decision making. This can lead to policies that are geared towards their interests, often at the expense of the majority.

“To end the global inequality crisis, we must build an economy for ordinary working people, not the very few rich and powerful.
“Kiwis love fairness, not inequality. Governments can tackle extreme inequality here and globally by ensuring the wealthy and multi-nationals pay their fair share of tax by cracking down on tax avoidance – then using that money to make our country and the global economy a fairer place.”

“Let’s have a national conversation about tax. Labour’s Tax Working Group and the opportunity it provides New Zealand to examine the structure, fairness and balance of the New Zealand tax system, is a huge opportunity to ensure our economy reflects the fairness that is innately Kiwi. It also offers an opportunity for New Zealand to provide an example to many developing countries in using a fairer tax system to reduce the extreme gap between the very rich and the very poor. Oxfam’s report includes a strong list of recommendations, backed up by experts, for both governments and multi-nationals that can help us achieve this.”

The two richest New Zealanders are Graeme Hart and Richard Chandler. They own wealth of US$9.5billion and US$1.9billion respectively.

Oxfam’s 2018 report is the most recent in a series of reports that has analysed economic inequality and its drivers. Each of these reports was published to coincide with the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Each year the report has included an analysis of wealth inequality which draws on data from the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook and the Forbes list of billionaires. This Credit Suisse Databook is produced annually and is widely recognised as providing the best available data on global wealth.

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Copyright © 2024 Oxfam Aotearoa.

Oxfam is a worldwide development organisation that mobilises the power of people against injustice. Oxfam Aotearoa is a registered charity with the New Zealand Charities Register (registration CC24641). Donations are tax refundable.

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