The Billionaire Class in NZ is the Oligarchy making us a Plutocracy
New Zealand’s richest now worth $129b as billionaire ranks swell
The combined wealth of New Zealand’s richest people has climbed to $129 billion, according to the latest NBR Rich List, with the number of billionaires rising sharply and technology entrepreneurs driving much of the growth.
The 2026 NBR Rich List, released on Monday, estimates the collective wealth of the country’s 150 richest individuals and families at $129b, up from $102.1b a year ago and more than 23 times the $5.3b recorded when the list was first published in 1986.
The annual ranking found there are now 26 billionaires on the list, up from 18 last year and 16 the year before.
Zuru founders Nick and Mat Mowbray retained the top spot with an estimated net worth of $20b.
NZ Stuff
Bernie Sanders 2025 Edition ofFight Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here makes the point that the Billionaire Class, Big Polluters and Corporations have transformed under Trump into a naked plutocracy:
- The global richest 1 % increased their wealth by $33.9 trillion since 2015
- Around 150 billionaire families spent nearly $2 billion on the 2024 U.S. elections
- Billionaires are a tiny fraction of the population — about 0.0005 % of Americans — yet played a disproportionately large role in political spending in recent elections.
- Billionaire wealth jumped over 16 % in 2025, bringing total billionaire wealth to $18.3 trillion
- 60 % of Americans live paycheck to paycheck
- 85 million uninsured or underinsured
- 800,000 homeless people in the U.S.
Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”, a $1 trillion tax-cut package, was the largest transfer of wealth upward in living memory!
In NZ the Mordor of Oligarchy has infected our Shire as well!
Look at how that money is donated politically in NZ:
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Party donations concentrated at top incomes:
In recent elections, ~60 % of total political donations came from businesses and individuals earning in the top tax brackets, while lower-income donors account for a small share. -
Lobbying prevalence:
Corporate and industry groups (banks, property developers, dairying sector) are among the most active lobbyists in Wellington, shaping tax, housing, and planning policy.
The Big Polluters, the Billionaire Class, the Corporate’s and the speculators own NZ Politically!
Look at how the biggest polluters were able to secretly buy their interests with National.
The Oligarchs are here not to liberate us, but to enslave us!
You should be angry, New Zealand 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!
The richest 1% of NZ households own 18.8% of total net worth while the bottom 50% of households together hold just ~0.3% of total net wealth.
Last election:
- National received over 50% of their donations from the property industry.
- ACT received approximately 32% of the property industry donations.
- NZ First received approximately 12% of the property industry donations.
The elites donate to National, ACT and NZ First to ensure they get preferential treatment for deregulation in the areas where they have interests.
This is what the new Gilded Age looks like in New Zealand
The region now has the highest rate of food insecurity in the country, with a recent report showing 40% of households are struggling to afford enough to eat.
Stuff
…there are 170,000 kids in material hardship, 600,000 Kiwis rely on food banks each month and our public services have been hollowed out to allow neoliberal free market capitalism to dominate all.
Billionaires operate in a society that enables their wealth.
Don’t believe me?
Listen to a billionaire then, Steve Jobs…
“I didn’t invent the language or mathematics I used. I make little of my own food, none of my own clothes. Everything I do depends on other members of our species and the shoulders that we stand on.
…Billionaires stand upon the shoulders of a society and draw their wealth and power from that society with minimal obligations placed upon them. They have benefitted from an educated civil society but want to pay sweet fuck all for its upkeep!
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.
While in 2026, the top 0.001% of households hold three times more wealth than the bottom 50% combined and Elon Musk became the worlds first Trillionaire!
This isn’t democracy, this is a feudal plutocracy on a burning Earth!
If the Mowbrays were as smart as they think they are, they’d have enough brains not to attract attention to their pathetic whining opinions about poor people.
Why on earth does N. Mowbray think anyone is interested in his opinions about school lunches?
You’d think he’d have more immediate concerns. He ought to because with the cost of living as it is, not many are going to be buying his toys.
What do they say about the empty tin making the most noise and being happy to let people think you are stupid instead of opening your mouth and removing all doubt.
nick mowbray is a useless narcissist and should be ignored.
FYI
“Narcissism is a personality trait characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance, a deep need for excessive admiration, and a lack of empathy for others. While it exists on a spectrum, extreme or pathological narcissism is formally diagnosed as Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) and can severely impact relationships.”
So does that mean what you get in life only comes down to hard work? What about being born into an affluent family? Or, something more sinister – only that person knows. It isn’t decent to be so smug, devoid of empathy or compassion and be unable to see how the unfair and uneven changes in the NZ tax structure have made so many wealthier and so many more scratching out a living as best they can. Surely Nick / Infideliter, you have the acumen to see this! It’s pretty hard to make a sandwich if you are living in a car, a doorway, or under a bridge! How about both of you read the stats and start to comprehend just how lucky you are and how unlucky so many others are. Living ‘on the street’ would not be anyone’s choice. Get out of your privileged, self-absorbed dream worlds and take the time to see how those in true need are being forced to live, many of whom once had good jobs, homes, hopes and dreams. This CoC runs on bribes, corruption, non-transparency, greed and deceit. At least, think about it!
Had no idea we had so many rich people. We used to be able name a lot of them, or know who they were, back in the day. This is neoliberislm, this is what it was meant to do. Neoliberal economic policy is sacrosanct in the political world, or certainly the Western world, at the very least. Just shows how rotten the political world is. Big money interests has ruined politics. It has also ruined the force that used to help keep them in check as well, that being us. Things will only change when we unite and fight, actually exercise democracy, on top of just voting alone.
Pick an issue, make a big deal of it, and go from there. Now that I know how many super rich we have, tax the friggin super, duper rich and then explain, exactly what we are going to use that money on, there’s a start point. War is coming, say no to war, there’s another big issue on the horizon. Either way, we need to unite, we need to organize, we need to actually exercise democracy and we need a bloody simple, but good issue, that’ll get the ball rolling.
It seems that its no longer the 1% who control everything, its the 0.1% we should be worried about.
That’s good. We need more billionaires. Makes us look more like Monaco than Zimbabwe. All those whinging and bleating here should do a stint living in Zimbabwe. Billionaires pay a lot more tax than welfare lifestylers and marxists.
Billionaires have a lot more wealth than those you call welfare lifestylers and marxists so of course they should pay more tax. Come up with a comparison of tax paid to income and wealth between the groups and you will see that the whinging and bleating is based on real evidence instead of coming from the hole between your ears.
Funny how the Billionaires and those who support them are the biggest whingers of all because they have to pay a proportionate amount of tax to earnings. As for Monaco I thought it was Swiss bank accounts the Billionaires hid their money and assets?
” Makes us look more like Monaco than Zimbabwe ”
Yeah perception is important Jonzie. Shame it doesn’t house or feed you and the kids eh.
Monaco and Zimbabwe will have Jonzies just like we have here who think that the moaners there should come to New Zealand cause we exploit them so much better here.
How much ya donating to the Nasties for their campaign Jonzie ?
You won’t be happy until we have people dying in the street from malnutrition.
As long as you don’t have to see it though.