Summarised by Centrist
In his article, “Why the inequality and tax debate is all wrong”, Roger Partridge says there are a lot of “mythical facts” swirling around about income inequality and tax in New Zealand.
Green Party co-leader James Shaw says income inequality in NZ has never been worse. The media seems to be repeating this message. But reports by Statistics NZ and The Treasury show income inequality has stabilised or trended downwards in NZ over the past decade.
The disconnect between these stats and political narrative seems to be evidenced in our housing costs. NZ has a housing affordability problem. Not a growing income inequality problem.
The best way to tackle this problem is: “planning law reform and better tools for funding and incentivising councils to provide the infrastructure for housing”, and lifting our education levels. Education levels are declining in NZ and low education goes hand-in-hand with poverty.
Revenue Minister David Parker has given the message that the wealthy in NZ aren’t paying enough tax and NZ is a low-tax nation. Both of these are false.
Read more over at NZ Initiative
