Chlöe Swarbrick on Green Party’s economic plans: Is it finally time to tax the rich?
“If we were advocating or fighting for free compulsory education or free hospitals these days, we’d be called ‘wasteful spending’. We’d be called Marxists and all the rest …
“The reality is that we’ve done really big things in the past. In the 1930s and 40s, after world wars, the Great Depression, we came together as a country and decided to build a nation, which looked at the foundations of public healthcare, public education and public housing.
“Right now, we’re in a situation where the top 1% in this country hold 23% of all of the country’s wealth, and IRD research from 2023 told us that the top 311 households pay an effective tax rate less than half that of the average New Zealander. It’s not fair.”
Nobel Prize-winning economists have recently called for a global tax on the ultra-rich, arguing that even a modest 2% wealth tax on billionaires could raise substantial revenue internationally.
Le Monde reported that, relative to their pay, billionaires from Bernard Arnault to Elon Musk have lower tax rates than the average taxpayer. Meanwhile, an OECD report has argued that wealth taxes could disincentivise entrepreneurship, harming innovation and long-term growth.
The Green Party proposes a wealth tax that would affect the top 3% in this country. Anyone with an individual net worth of more than $2 million (or $4m for a couple), minus mortgages or debt, would pay a 2.5% tax above that $2m net worth.
“Look, I’m not gonna pretend that it is easy to change the tax system,” Swarbrick said. “Of course it’s not. But ease should not be the reason that we do something.
“Fairness, equity, and the fundamental principles and values that we have as New Zealanders. That is that we care about each other and the planet that we live on should be the driving force behind why we do things.
“Some of the hardest-working New Zealanders that I have met are single mothers working multiple jobs, paying double the effective tax rate of the multi, multi-millionaires and billionaires in this country. Any politician who wants to claim to be fighting for hard-working New Zealanders should be fighting for those who make their income from work, not from wealth accumulation.”
Chloe is 100% right – tax the mega wealthy!
Billionaires’ wealth surged $6.5tn over past decade, Oxfam reports
The wealth of the world’s 3,000 billionaires has surged by $6.5tn (£4.8tn) in real terms over the past decade, according to Oxfam, equivalent to 14.6% of global output.
In total the richest 1% of the global population has gained at least $33.9tn in real terms, which the charity said was “enough to end annual global poverty 22 times over”.
The figures come as various governments face growing calls to introduce a wealth taxon the international elite.
Let’s have a new deal on the Billionaire Class….
….or this too…
Who is brave enough to back Brazil’s global tax on billionaires? The answer will define our future
The response to the pandemic was one test of that proposition. Now the world’s governments face another. Last week, Brazilian climate minister Ana Toni explained a proposal put forward by her government (and now supported by South Africa, Germany and Spain), for a 2% global tax on the wealth of the world’s billionaires. Though it would affect just 3,000 of the super-rich, it would raise around $250bn(£195bn): a significant contribution either to global climate funds or to poverty alleviation.
Radical? Not at all. According to calculations by Oxfam, the wealth of billionaires has been growing so fast in recent years that maintaining it at a constant level would have required an annual tax of 12.8%. Trillions, in other words: enough to address global problems long written off as intractable.
You would need to perform Olympian mental gymnastics to oppose Brazil’s very modest proposal. It addresses, albeit to a tiny extent, one of the great democratic deficits of our time: that capital operates globally, while voting power stops at the national border. Without global measures, in the contest between people and plutocrats, the plutocrats will inevitably win. They can extract vast wealth from the nations in which they operate, often with the help of government subsidies and state contracts, and shift it through opaque networks of shell companies and secrecy regimes, placing it beyond the reach of any tax authority. This is what some of the global “investors” in the UK’s water companies have done. The money they extracted is now gone, and we are left with both the debts they accumulated and the ruins of the system they ransacked. Get tough with capital, or capital will get tough with you.
The Brazilian proposal, which will be put before the G20 summit in Rio in November, has already been dismissed by the US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, who suggested there was no need for it. On whose behalf does she make this claim? Not ours. Wherever people have been surveyed, including in the US, there is strong support for raising taxes on the rich.
In the two years following the start of the pandemic, the world’s richest 1% captured 63% of economic growth. The collective fortune of billionaires rose by $2.7bn a day, while some of the world’s poorest became poorer still. Between 2020 and 2023, the five richest men on Earth doubled their wealth.
Billionaire wealth impoverishes us all: astonishingly, each of them produces, on average, a million times more carbon dioxide than the average global citizen in the bottom 90%. Billionaires are a blight on the planet.
Yet, because they are the true citizens of nowhere, shifting their wealth and residence between jurisdictions, they pay far lower levels of tax than the most downtrodden of their workers. Oxfam has calculated, using records unearthed by the investigative journalists ProPublica in 2021, that Elon Musk pays a “true tax rate” of 3.27%, and Jeff Bezos less than 1%. Falling tax rates and the clever workarounds designed by the lawyers and accountants serving the ultra-rich help to explain the growth of their fortunes.
Wealth that could otherwise support public services and public wellbeing is siphoned out of nation states. As the global rich accumulate ever greater economic power, and find ever more inventive ways to evade democratic restraint, they become more potent than many governments. There’s a word for this: oligarchy. Some of them use this power to demolish democratic safeguards. To give one example, they have lobbied successfully to pull down the rules and caps on campaign finance, until, in some nations, they appear to wield more influence over elections than the electorate.
…if we want to build the social and physical infrastructure we need to radically adapt to the realities of catastrophic climate change, we need to tax the rich!
I’m not looking for socialism here folks, just basic garden variety regulated capitalism!
There are 14 Billionaires in NZ + 3118 ultra-high net worth individuals, let’s start with them, then move onto the Banks, then the Property Speculators, the Climate Change polluters and big industry.
You should be angry, NZ Capitalism is a rigged trick for the rich and powerful. The real demarcation line of power in a western democracy is the 1% + their 9% enablers vs the 90% rest of us!
Do not allow their smears of ‘Envy’ dilute the righteous rage you should all be feeling!
There’s no point making workers pay more to rebuild our resilience, tax the rich!
-Sugar Tax
-Inheritance Tax
-Wealth Tax
-Financial Transactions Tax
-New top tax rate on people earning over $300 000 per year.
-Capital Gains Tax
-Windfall profit taxes
-First $10 000 tax free
Neoliberalism is a failure for the people and a win for the mega wealthy.
Lift the tax yoke from the workers and the people and place it on the mega wealthy and have them pay their fair share for once!
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 now in 2025, the real-terms gains of $33.9tn for the world’s richest 1% is ‘enough to end annual global poverty 22 times over.
This isn’t democracy, this is a feudal plutocracy on a burning Earth
The Big Tech Tzars have manipulated our collective fear, ego, anger and insecurities through social media in a way that has led to the largest psychological civil war ever launched against one another.
We are but meat bags secreting hormones addicted to dopamine rewards for fat, sugar, salt and sex in a cultural landscape of individualism uber allas where we sing sweet secret lies to ourselves to make sense of a world around us that is frightening and in constant entropy.
Meanwhile, the planet burns and every aspect of our existence is monetarised for big data to sell us more stuff we can’t afford. We are alienated and anesthetized by a consumer culture that keeps us neurotic and disconnected. Our work, our existence, every move we make are all built to suck money to a minority class that sits above us while under neoliberalism, globalization, financialization, and automation, our existence as individuals has only become more disposable.
There is a point when you will rise against this because a burning planet will force you to stand.
We need to be kinder to individuals and far crueller to corporations.
Chloe is 100% right – tax the mega wealthy!
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Chloe expounds a sensible idea backed up by experts in finance and taxation.
Now we wait for the snappy one liners from Bob the First, im right, Trumpet and various others that say this is a really bad idea because ……………..well they do not really know why but Chloe is a woman, young, intelligent and a danger to their misogyny.
Trumpet – I expect you to aspire to even greater levels of obscenity. Remember you have a reputation to maintain.
We have taxed wealth in the past and everyone survived. Some people still had enough pocket money for crayfish breakfasts and holiday homes.
hear, hear
How many of the mega wealthy would stay in NZ to be wealth taxed?
I am assuming you mean the 3,000 families who are the most wealthy, basically 0.1% of the population, who would have a minimum net worth of $30 million. However, the most wealthy of this group will have multiple places where they can live, and the bulk of their wealth is portable or is not located here anyway. A serious wealth tax will have them leaving. That is not just a loss of wealth to NZ, it is also a loss of innovative talent.
It is far more sensible for the NZ tax system to be broadly within the OECD mainstream. So that would mean a Capital Gains Tax, not a wealth tax.
Capital flight? Bring it on I say because Wayne’s “innovators” by and large don’t want to share anyway-and decades of proof are there for all to see.
They wont leave because as MAX RUSHBROOKE points out in his paper they will pay more tax where ever they go because currently they pay the lowest rate in the OECD.
There’s no reason that they should be allowed to transfer their capital overseas. That’s optional.
Max Rushbrook has a very good paper out on how the tax system is used by the wealthy to pay tax at a lower rate than the average wage earner on a huge income .
Wealth taxes don’t work.
If the wealthy are legally paying a lower rate of tax than the average wage earner why don’t we change the law to increase the tax rate.
Tax the mega wealthy? Force them to contribute to the public good in a more equitable way. I’d support that. Who wouldn’t- except the mega wealthy themselves who’d surely feel aggrieved. And all the enablers. And a good percentage of the PMC who feel threatened.
And arguably aggrieved with good reason. The mega wealthy- and those who come close – are working within the law (presumably) with the help of lawyers and accountants who are only too pleased to offer their services for a very lucrative fee. A moral obligation to pay their ‘fair share’ of tax from the profit they accrue is simply not relevant in the eyes of the law.
Change the laws through legislation? Easier said than done. ‘One size fits all’ is the go to in NZ but that doesn’t work. But if it’s the case some other countries have a more equitable tax system, surely NZ can make a move in this direction. Under MMP I cant see that happening any time soon.
Every tax seems unfair to somebody so what we need is a lot of smallish unfair taxes that catch a little of everything. Add to the list above a Georgist land tax on land with a zero rate for only land whole owned by NZers. Include a small sales tax on the sales of shares to reduce speculation.
As soon as you tie your economic policies to taxation you lose. Taxation does not fund government spending, it is an inflation tool used to withdraw excess money from the economy. Exactly the same as government bonds.
There are additional tools that could be used to lift the burden of inflation fighting from taxation alone – compulsory savings is one. Using government deficit spending to improve productivity is another, importing deflationary Chinese products is another.
We do not have to raise taxes to fund the basic welfare state services that we choose. If we have people and resources available to do things, if we have young people who want decent jobs – we can do all of it without worrying about radical taxation changes.
“If we can do it, we can afford” John Maynard Keynes.
People forget – we didn’t raise taxes to get out of the Great Depression, we didn’t raise taxes to fund WW2, we didn’t raise taxes to get out of the GFC and we didn’t raise taxes to pay for COVID.
The taxation issue is used as a roadblock to progressive economic policy and the Green Party is carefully construction that road block themselves block by block – probably to ensure they never have to implement any actual policy.
You don’t have to raise taxes, per se, as much as we need to reorient whom is paying the bulk of the taxes. Once upon a time it was the wealthy who paid the bulk of the taxes, now it is us. Somehow, we need to reverse back the trend, or get back to pre-neoliberal times where the system benefited the many rather than the few.
Or in other words, Chloe and co are pissing in the wind because this is a ‘global issue’ . Neoliberalism has not being touched by any politician since its inception in the early 1980’s and its off shoot – a rigged tax base that benefits the wealthy at the expense of everyone else – this is off limits to our politicians also. Only the US or UK can change this system and as we can see, they are as bent as Benny Netsinyahoo, so this is all a big, fat waste of time.
top tax rate was 60% in those times according to Paul Goldsmith in papers he wrote when working in the treasury.And the lower 30% did not pay tax .Later the rich pricks got that flipped so the low earners paid more tax and they paid less .Since then that trend has continued .
If taxing billionaires 12.8% pa means they are standing still, then we need to be taxing them say 20% until their wealth falls to a level they cannot consume such an enormous percentage of the world’s resources.
They need to learn to live within their means, as measured on a sustainability basis and not just what their wealth can consume and destroy.
We need to be human and save them from themselves.
The only other alternative is to shoot them.
No tax on the first $30,000. How the hell anyone lives on that sort of dosh is beyond me, perhaps they never ever have an icecream! Australia is $18,200.
Perhaps you’re right, but only the trillionaires.
Wealthy folk are the same as you — giving as they see fit, censoring for fear, hoping for good health, concerned for their children and aging loved ones …
Chloe is mostly wrong and she won’t talk to me either. Imagine if a billionaire would.
A wealth tax is just government sanctioned theft. There is no logical or reasonable argument to support it.
Agreed but we do want them to pay their “fair” share Sleepy H and it’s clear they don’t, given the Panama Papers and off shore accounts.
It will prevent the spread of highly contagious diseases, especially for those peasants on the right who are susceptible to Boot Licker Syndrome, Lord Baron Imposter Virus and The Peasant Alliance for Feudal Overlord Condition.
Look up The Laffer Curve.
This is why this tax wont happen.
Interesting read the Laffer Curve given it’s just theory.
Well said Martyn.
There’s plenty of money in western nations to provide its citizens free healthcare, education, adequate public housing, infrastructure and social welfare.
The obstacle to those goals is simply that the wealth and money is hoarded by the super-rich and at an ever-increasing rate.
This is deliberate. Bidding up prices amongst themselves to leave the peons on the outside. Once you have a monopoly and own everything, you get to set the level of sadism.
They wont leave because as MAX RUSHBROOKE points out in his paper they will pay more tax where ever they go because currently they pay the lowest rate in the OECD.
GREEN AND BROWN next election.
I’m afraid the notion that wealthy individuals do not pay much tax is somewhat misleading. Most wealthy people have a company. After business deductions, they pay around 28% tax. The owner, will pay tax on personal drawings. Regardless, it will be minor compared to what the company pays, especially if it is making a good profit. Money is like water, it will take the easiest path. Excessive tax is resistance, and it will find an alternative route. Like offshore, or any path where a reduced tax rate can be sought. The tax rate to offer incentive for business, as well as revenue for government, is between 20-28%. Increase above, short term gain, long term stagnation. Set the rate to low, and there just is not enough tax revenue to sustain government. Take Elon Musk. Regardless of his politics, he as an individual is investing in cutting edge technology, investing billions in space exploration, and creating thousands of jobs. Imagine taxing him hard, and the opportunities that may not eventuate because of a disincentive to invest when the tax rates are so high. Or he goes elsewhere, to a country more favourable to his tax expectations. Every country needs its millionaires. They take risk, they are driven, and they create wealth and jobs. Exactly what a country needs. So instead of taxing the wealthy, maybe introduce incentives and education to create more opportunities to create wealth and gain more millionaires. Because more millionaires equals more jobs, wealth and prosperity. But then again, I have heard people offer similar opinions too tax the so called rich, and I have at times come to the conclusion that jealous envoy stimulates their thoughts. But not all.
So simplistic in your opinion. You make it all sound so easy to become millionaires. If it was that simple we would be. Jealousy of the wealthy to remain wealthy. Now there’s a topic to discuss.
Two million bucks to get into the top 3%? Man, this is an easy country to be rich in!
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