NBR Rich List reignites wealth tax debate as Act’s Karen Chhour squares off against Chlöe Swarbrick
The wealth tax debate has been reignited the same week the National Business Review released its annual Rich List, a celebration of New Zealand’s wealthiest.
Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick and Act Minister Karen Chhour were on Herald NOW this morning to discuss taxing the rich.
Swarbrick said it was a matter of creating “systematic fairness”.
To address persistent rates of child poverty and the “half a million New Zealanders” who need access to food banks every week, we needed to make “sensible decisions to invest to end those issues”.
“That requires a fair tax system. This is about understanding that poverty and homelessness doesn’t come from nowhere – it is directly created by tolerance of mass inequality,” Swarbrick said.
The National Business Review annual rich list has found NZs wealthiest are collectively worth more than $100 billion – up from $95 billion last year – despite a tough 12 months financially for everyone else.
In a nation built upon egalitarianism it should offend our collective mana that 500 000 kiwis need food banks every month while the richest collectively made another $5billion for shits giggles.
What has happened to the egalitarian NZ that stood for the 40 hour working week, Universal Suffrage and Nuclear Free?
This kind of wealth gouging is an obscenity!
In 2010, the 388 richest individuals owned more wealth than half of the entire human population on Earth
By 2015, this number was reduced to only 62 individuals
In 2018, it was 42
In 2019, it was down to only 26 individuals who own more wealth than 3.8 billion people.
In 2021, 20 people own more than 50% of the entire planet.
and In 2025 – the top 15 Billionaires were worth more than the bottom 1,500 billionaires combined.
This isn’t democracy, this is a feudal plutocracy on a burning planet.
No rational human being could look at those Rich List numbers and not immediately demand a wealth tax, yet we still hear nothing from Labour?
The Green Party and the Māori Party need to work together to make a wealth tax a bottom line for any future left wing government led by the Labour Party.
Does it surprise anyone that 20 of these RichListers also donated millions to National, ACT and NZF?
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“Does it surprise anyone that 20 of these RichListers also donated millions to National, ACT and NZF?”
Well no, duh. However they all make the economy so much better Trevor says and their wealth will trickle down to those 500,000 and by the end of the year we will have no need for food banks as the tax break given to farmers will mean more food, more jobs and more wealth to every single New Zealander, right Trevor?
No doubt the Trickle Down economy is working just its working at the same time as the Gush Up economy which needs to be said every time the term trickle down is used. Covid was a huge gushing well for the gush up economy.
your kidding right
Where is the to list of the 500 poorist people in NZ .tHE FIGURE USED WOULD NEED TO START AT MINUS A MILLION OR 2 .
One question is: how do these rich-listers get so rich?
By supporting the productive economy? well … no, if the stats about New Zealand’s procductivity are anywhere near correct. If they did there would be some kind of argument for trickle down.
By using the low-wage settings in New Zealand to cream profits? That might be part of the answer. But what kind of labour are they exploiting? Supermarket workers?. A large chunk of New Zealand is overseas owned so presumably the profits flow offshore anyway.
The enablers then on juicy salarys? The PMC? Those at the top of Fonterra, Air NZ, the big trucking companies, the big five banks must be on healthy packages.
Some rich listers may well be more ‘deserving’ than others, playing the system rather than exploring workers. Surgeons with a private practice. Surgeons who collectively own private hospitals.
Then there are the well-healed heros of the sporting world. Where do we stop pointing the finger? The likes of our PM and a good many other politicians who have been in the game for a long time? Lawyers? Engineers? IT specialists? Probably only talking 10s of millions here, if that, so they don’t count.
Bugger the stats on employment – they say very little about what is needed for a living wage. For a good many its not an issue – enough discretionary income to keep the dream alive, raise a family, or simply have a bit of fun when you not slaving away at a job you may or may not like. But for many in New Zealand most there’s a real disjunct. If more full-time work was available. If wages were a little higher. If rent was less expensive. If houses were more affordable. If the social net was caste more widely. So much to wish for. Perhaps then we could live with those rich folk more easily.
But after all this rant, yes, I agree, tax reform is badly needed. A bold step. Punitive won’t work. It never does. Something fairer to all.
Making even more money while half a million plus in NZ eat from food banks each month is a disgrace. How do the “greedies” justify this? To those who are sharing and doing their best to contribute, a huge thank you. To those, who never think or care about how the other half live, shame on you. Way over time for a fairer taxation system and the raising of the minimum wage – the gap widens by day! And to those receiving Superannuation who don’t need it, please consider donating part or all to a charity or similar. Donations to political parties also need to be capped. But do remember, money won’t buy you happiness or safety.
There is absolutely no justification for the huge degrees of inequality.
What is the main objection to taxation of wealth?
It seems to be that if wealth is taxed it will reduce production of goods and services and we will all be poorer.
Does history show this as true?
Actually not. From the end of the second world war until the 1980s New Zealanders paid a top rate over 76 percent in the 1940s, most working class people paid little or no income tax.
Did the economy collapse as a result of this taxation on wealth?
The economy boomed during the 1940s and 1950s, through the 1960s, slackened somewhat in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1982 the top tax rate, under a National Government, was 66percent.
The austerity policies of the 1980s and 1990s halted growth and increased inequality of wealth.
Was there widespread resistance to taxation on wealth?
Actually no. If the Milton Friedman school is correct wealthy New Zealanders should have fled to more business friendly climes. They did not. They stayed. They prospered.
Taxation paid for decent education and healthcare, for rich and poor. My town’s main employer lived in the same suburb as his employees whose children went to school with his children. This is not just nostalgia, they are facts.
We do not need a revolution. We only need to return to the blueprint of a society we used to have and improve on it.
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