Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
License needed for work use Register

Gordon Campbell | Parliament TV | Parliament Today | News Video | Crime | Employers | Housing | Immigration | Legal | Local Govt. | Maori | Welfare | Unions | Youth | Search

 

All government policy must be assessed by income

Public Health Association media release

2 September 2011

All government policy must be assessed by ‘income inequality framework’

The Public Health Association Conference has heard a call for the government to establish an income inequality framework through which to measure all proposed policy.

“New Zealanders have a basic sense of fairness and many might be shocked to realise just how unequal incomes have become in this country,” PHA Executive Council member Eileen Brown told delegates at Lincoln University in Canterbury.

“About 750,000 New Zealanders earn less than $15 an hour. That is about one in three workers. At the other end of the pay scale, we have many CEOs with an annual salary in the millions. Such a gap has been shown in many countries to produce a plethora of social and health problems.

“Those problems affect every New Zealander, regardless of how much they earn. Without the government being proactive, they will get only worse.”

She told delegates the 2009 New Zealand Values Survey indicated that while most New Zealanders believed people should be rewarded for their skills and hard work, they also believed that high earners were getting too much, and the lowest, too little.

Eileen Brown said an income inequalities filter through which to pass all proposed policy would allow the government and the public to know what effect that policy was likely to have on the income gap.

“High incidence of obesity, mental health problems and teen pregnancies, high rates of incarceration, infectious diseases and childhood deprivation – none of these will go away or improve, if there is no action on New Zealanders’ very unequal incomes.”

ends

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

Are you getting our free newsletter?

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.

© Scoop Media

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
 
 
 
Parliament Headlines | Politics Headlines | Regional Headlines

Gordon Campbell: On The Government's Assault On Maori

This isn’t news, but the National-led coalition is mounting a sustained assault on Treaty rights and obligations. Audrey Young in the NZ Herald has compiled a useful list of the many ways Christopher Luxon plans to roll back the progress made in race relations over the past forty years. He has described yesterday’s nationwide protests by Maori as “pretty unfair.” Poor thing. More


 
 
Public Housing Futures: Christmas Comes Early For Landlords

New CTU analysis of the National & ACT coalition agreement has shown the cost of returning interest deductibility to landlords is an extra $900M on top of National’s original proposal. This is because it is going to be implemented earlier and faster, including retrospective rebates from April 2023. More


Green Party: Petition To Save Oil & Gas Ban

“The new Government’s plan to expand oil and gas exploration is as dangerous as it is unscientific. Whatever you think about the new government, there is simply no mandate to trash the climate. We need to come together to stop them,” says James Shaw. More

PSA: MFAT Must Reverse Decision To Remove Te Reo

MFAT's decision to remove te reo from correspondence before new Ministers are sworn in risks undermining the important progress the public sector has made in honouring te Tiriti. "We are very disappointed in what is a backward decision - it simply seems to be a Ministry bowing to the racist rhetoric we heard on the election campaign trail," says Marcia Puru. More

 
 
 
 
 
 

LATEST HEADLINES

  • PARLIAMENT
  • POLITICS
  • REGIONAL
 
 

InfoPages News Channels


 
 
 
 

Join Our Free Newsletter

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.