Tag: new zealand - Page 5 - Oxfam Aotearoa

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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The richest ten per cent of New Zealanders are wealthier than the rest of the population combined as the gap between rich and poor continues to widen.

Oxfam New Zealand’s Executive Director Rachael Le Mesurier said the numbers are a staggering illustration that the wealth gap in New Zealand is stark and mirrors a global trend that needs to be addressed by governments in New Zealand, and around the world, in order to win the fight against poverty.

“Extreme wealth inequality is deeply worrying. Our nation is becoming more divided, with an elite who are seeing their bank balances go up, whilst hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders struggle to make ends meet,” said Le Mesurier.

Figures for the top one per cent are even more striking. According to the most recent data, taken from the 2013 Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook, 44,000 Kiwis – who could comfortably fit into Eden Park with thousands of empty seats to spare – hold more wealth than three million New Zealanders. Put differently, this lists the share of wealth owned by the top one per cent of Kiwis as 25.1 per cent, meaning they control more than the bottom 70 per cent of the population.

New Zealand’s wealthiest individual, Graeme Hart, is ranked number 200 on the Forbes list of the world’s billionaires, with US$7 billion. That makes his net worth more than the bottom 30 per cent of New Zealanders, or 1.3 million people.

The news comes ahead of the G20 meeting of Deputy Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Melbourne this weekend, which New Zealand will join at the invitation of Australia, the chair for 2014. Last year the G20 countries endorsed a plan to crack down on multinational corporate tax dodging by taking, “the necessary individual and collective action.”

Le Mesurier said, “Our government says it is significant New Zealand has access to these meetings and praised the G20 as a key vehicle for tackling the world’s economic challenges. Have we taken the necessary individual steps to stop corporate tax dodging in our country and are we well-placed to contribute to this urgent collective action in Melbourne? It’s a fair question.”

In January Oxfam released a landmark report showing half of the world’s population – 3.5 billion – own the same wealth as the 85 richest people. By March the number dropped to only 66 people. Oxfam’s report warned that inequality is creating a vicious circle where wealth concentrated in the hands of a few is used to buy political influence and rig the rules in favour of a small elite. This year US President Barack Obama, the World Economic Forum, the OECD, the Pope, and the heads of the IMF, the World Bank and the UN have all called for action to address inequality, recognising it as bad for growth and the driver of serious social ills.

Child poverty is emerging as a major New Zealand election issue. A new book by Jonathan Boston and Simon Chapple, Child Poverty in New Zealand, explores the nature of the problem and the solutions, while all political parties are touting their strategies for reducing it.

“Extreme inequality is a sign of economic failure. New Zealand can and must do better. It’s time for our leaders to move past the rhetoric,” said Le Mesurier.

“By concentrating wealth and power in the hands of the few, inequality robs the poorest people of the support they need to improve their lives, and means that their voices go unheard. If the global community fails to curb widening inequality, we can expect more economic and social problems.”