THE ECONOMY OF THE ONE PERCENT

Hundreds of people enjoying some of Grant Robertson's 'shared prosperity' at an Auckland food bank over Xmas.

The latest Oxfam report on economic inequality contradicts the Minister of Finance’s claim that we are all enjoying a sense of shared prosperity.

DESPITE PRIME MINISTER Jacinda Ardern declaring that poverty would be a central priority of her government, the newly released Oxfam report on economic inequality highlights that the government is making a poor fist of it and its market-led policies are only deepening the crisis.

The economic chasm is continuing to widen, skewering Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s declaration to the Labour Party conference last November that we are all sharing in a sense of ‘shared prosperity’.

During the first year of the Labour-led government the one percent increased their combined wealth by a staggering 20 percent. They were no doubt delighted that Jacinda Ardern backed away from her election campaign commitment to increase taxation on the wealthy; they now own 28 percent of the country’s total wealth.

In stark contrast, the Oxfam Report tells us that 1.4 million New Zealanders (or 30 percent of the population) own a mere one percent of the country’s total wealth.

These figures alone tell us that the so-called ‘strong economy’ has benefited the few at the expense of the many. Yet the report has rated barely a mention in the media. On Monday both breakfast shows on TV1 and TV3 instead allowed National Party leader Simon Bridges to tubthump about the need for sanctions to get beneficiaries into jobs.

The chattering class – the liberal intelligentsia – have also chosen not to talk about the Oxfam report. While they never hesitated to attack John Key and his government for its abysmal record on tackling poverty and inequality, Jacinda Ardern has largely escaped criticism. The hypocrisy is all too evident.

A few days ago the Minister for Women, Jullie Anne Genter, tweeted to me that we had to be ‘patient’ as the government turned the economy around. But there is no evidence that this is happening and it won’t happen while this government continues to loyally follow a neoliberal path.

In the 1980s Minister of Finance Roger Douglas insisted that there could be no gain without pain and that there would be economic prosperity for all in the ‘medium term’. Three decades later the Labour-led government and the Greens are spinning the same old message. It is no truer now than it was then.